A Guide to Citrus Sorbets: Recipes

It has been quite the whirlwind of fruit sorbets these past few months. I used to anticipate winters with a bit of dread - fruit choices at the supermarket are usually limited to pears, apples and citrus fruits, and I much prefer the fruits of summer like plums, grapes and cherries. But ever since I started experimenting with batches of these fruit sorbets, I've developed a newfound appreciation of all things citrus. 

This post is less of a recipe post than my usual posts: rather than posting a recipe for a specific citrus fruit, this is more of a guide on churning up any and all citrus sorbets. The method works for all sweet citrus and is pretty foolproof. Heat sugar with a bit of fruit juice until it dissolves, then stir in the rest of the fruit juice and churn. Full Stop.

My initial batch was made of blood orange, and the second batch, regular navel oranges. Both developed different end-products: the blood orange one was a bright crimson, the orange, a sunny orange. The blood orange was also a little more icy and brittle, the navel orange was much softer when thawed. The striking contrast in color was worth the price of the blood oranges by itself. At the risk of being accused by J of sounding pretentious, I highly recommend using blood oranges at least once - for the visuals and experience if nothing else. Navel oranges work great too, and Cara-cara oranges yield a darker orange, slightly sweeter sorbet. Grapefruits are the easiest to juice (Someone left a bag of grapefruits in Maroondah's Hospital's common room alongside a note to help ourselves, and I unabashedly took 3 and turned them into a sorbet.) So the name of the game is certainly to use whatever that's available to you, and don't be put-off if the varieties of citrus I use is not available in your area.  

If you don't have a juicer, you can do it the caveman method (as I did), which uses a fork to scrap pulp and juice out of the orange halves. Standard rules apply for juicing citrus fruits: they yield the most juice at room temperature, and smooshing the whole fruit against the tabletop before cutting into the fruit helps release juice from the pulps. Pulp can be strained and discarded if you prefer, but you can choose to keep the pulp in the mixture - David says that's what he does, and you should too. As the sorbet melts in the mouth, the pulp adds a next textural contrast. 

David suggested adding chardonnay can make the sorbet softer. Based on my limited experience (total attempt = 1, and was comparing two different species of oranges), chardonnay made the sorbet noticeably icier. Alcohol doesn't freeze (hence, some ice cream recipes may call for a splash or rum or vodka), but I suspect the alcohol content of white wines are pretty tame, and wines do freeze in the freezer... Although Blood Orange Chardonnay Sorbet have a fancy ring to it, and at the risk of being called out by J for being even more pretentiousness, you can add a splash of chardonnay for the extra fanciness that comes with it. 

Pictures by R

Citrus Sorbets Recipe

Original recipe by David Lebovitz

The basic proportion is 100g sugar for every 500ml of pulp + juice. The quantity of oranges listed here is a rough guide, and you may wish to err on the side of having more oranges to juice rather than buying exactly 10 oranges. 

The flesh of my blood oranges were generally orange, with a touch of red along the periphery. That's perfectly normal, and the juice would still be reddish. I lucked out with a couple of blood oranges that were red all the way through, which turned the sorbet colour into a rich red hue. 

Ingredients 
500ml of pulp + juice (about the juice of 10 oranges)
100g granulated sugar

Steps
1) Juicing the oranges: the oranges should be at room temperature to release the most juice. Roll the oranges firmly against a countertop before cutting to release juice from the sacs. Cut the oranges in half and using a fork, scrap out as much juice as possible. (I blended the pulp and the juice afterwards to smoothen the texture, although it's entirely optional.)

2) Pour the sugar into a small saucepan, and add just enough juice to saturate the sugar. Heat over a medium fire until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and pour the rest of the fruit juice into the mixture and stir well. 

3) Allow the mixture to chill thoroughly before churning it in the ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. 

Notes
Honey can be substituted for sugar. As David mentioned, as honey is sweeter than sugar, use 3/4 of the amount of sugar the recipe calls for. 

Lemons are much more sour than oranges and require more sugar per batch. My adaptation of a lemon sorbet recipe can be found here.