Triple Melon Sorbet

Triple Melon Sorbet ~ Feather light and deliciously cool these sorbets will help melt away the heat.

I am the first to admit I’m a weenie when it comes to the weather; anything above the 90’s and lasting for more than two days constitutes a heat wave.

To cope with it and to soothe everyone’s heat induced crankiness in my house I’ve traded in the next few oven baked recipes for some ice cream, sorbet, and Popsicle making.

Cantaloupe, watermelon and honeydew are some of my favorite summer fruit flavors. When they are on sale for a relatively inexpensive price, I have a hard time passing on it so I end up buying in bulk.

Fifteen pounds of melon later, I have popsicles, sorbets and smoothies to share. First up were the cute Melon Pops I made a week ago and now for some watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew sorbet.

When I served my little guy some of this sorbet and he pushed it aside and asked for “real ice cream”.

After many failed attempts to convince him the goodness of it all, I decided to change it up. In other words change his expectation. I realized it wasn’t the sorbet itself; it was his expectation that anything resembling ice cream should be ice cream. With that, I skipped the ice cream scoop for some demitasse cups.

It all worked out and he loves his sorbet and I love the way they look serve like this.

A few notes:
•    The recipe provided can be made with or without an ice cream. See instructions for details.
•    There is one recipe for all three melons, so change the melon portion accordingly.
•    If you are storing your sorbet in a container place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the sorbet to prevent icicles from forming on the surface.

Triple Melon Sorbet
Makes 1 ½ quarts

Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
2-1/2 pounds melon cubes
2/3 cup tangerine or orange juice
1 tablespoon corn syrup
Instructions for ice cream maker:
1. Place sugar and water in a 1-1/2 quart saucepan. Boil over medium high heat, reduce heat to medium and cook until the sugar is completely dissolved to make simple syrup. Transfer to a bowl and cool for two hours.
2. Place the melon cubes in a food processor bowl fitted with the metal blade. Pulse until pureed, about 3-4minutes.
3. Stir in the tangerine juice, corn syrup and cooled simple syrup. Cover and chill for 2 hours or longer.
4. Turn the machine on; pour the mixture into freezer bowl, and let mix until thickened, about 20 to 25 minutes. The sorbet will be soft and slushy in texture.  For a firmer consistency, transfer the sorbet to an airtight container and place in freezer for about 2 hours. Remove from freezer about 15 minutes before serving.
Instructions for manual process:
1. Follow step s 1-3 from above. Pour mixture into an 11x7x2-inch glass dish. Let freeze until almost firm, stirring occasionally, at least 4 hours or overnight. For the first four hours stir every ½ hour.
2. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Using electric mixer beat until fluffy. Return to freezer and freeze until firm (do not stir), another 3 hours or overnight.
3. Cover and keep frozen.

Adapted from Cuisinart