What can be more summery than dripping sticky sweet juice down your hands?
Make it happen with this sweet treat from Summer Berries and Autumn Fruits, 120 Sensational Sweet & Savory Recipes (Kyle Books USA, May 2016) by Annie Rigg…
Roasted Plum Sorbet
My sister and I meet for a “light” supper in Soho about once a month and the evening generally follows the same pattern each time. We aim to eat somewhere vaguely healthy—as we’re more often than not pretending to be watching what we eat—and then we amble through the streets of Central London to our favorite gelato bar and undo all the good we did earlier. This recipe is inspired by a sorbet that I had on one such evening in late summer, the scoops piled high into a waffle cone and dripping sticky-sweet plum juices down my hands—the perfect end to an evening.
SERVES 6 TO 8
1 QUANTITY OF ROASTED PLUMS (SEE PAGE 128)
3/4 CUP GRANULATED SUGAR
Equipment
FINE-MESH NYLON SIEVE (OPTIONAL)
ICE-CREAM MAKER
Once the plums have roasted, let them cool, then scoop all the fruit and juice into a bowl, picking out and discarding the pits, vanilla bean pieces, and cinnamon stick as you do so. Blend the plums until smooth—I find this easiest using an immersion blender, but otherwise transfer to a food processor—and then pass through a fine-mesh nylon sieve if you want a silky smooth sorbet. I don’t mind the odd speckle of plum skin in the sorbet but it’s down to personal preference.
Pour 3/4 cup cold water into a saucepan and add the granulated sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat and add the roasted plum purée. Let cool, then cover and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours before churning in the ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
An ice-cream maker will make a lighter sorbet, but if you don’t have one, simply freeze the mixture in a plastic freezer-safe container, whisking it every couple of hours to break up the ice crystals. Once the sorbet has frozen, break it into manageable chunks, transfer into a food processor, and blend until smooth and light. Return to the freezer container and freeze until firm.
( * Recipe reproduced with permission from ‘Summer Berries and Autumn Fruits, 120 Sensational Sweet & Savory Recipes’ –Kyle Books USA, May 2016 -by Annie Rigg, Photography by Tara Fisher)