Earlier this year, I got an ice cream maker attachment for our stand mixer and I’ve been having fun making different frozen desserts with it. I find that it is more fun to experiment with sorbet rather than ice cream as the results are more reliably edible, due to the simplicity of sorbet chemistry: adding together sugar, fruit and water creates a freezable mixture with a velvety smooth texture.

I based the recipe for this batch on this Lemon Sorbet and then adjusted to fit the proportions for the size of my ice cream maker. I just happened to have a frozen bag of mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries to be exact) on hand, which allowed me to skip the extra steps that have to happen when making sorbet directly from fresh berries.

Lemon Berry Sorbet

Makes approximately 8 servings

• 1 12-oz bag of frozen mixed berries, thawed
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• Zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup of extra water if you’d like a stiffer sorbet

1. Make the simple syrup: Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil at medium-high heat, about 10 minutes. Stir to ensure that all sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and pour into a metal bowl over an ice bath while stirring to cool down the mixture, or let sit in the refrigerator while preparing the next step, but ice bath is recommended to avoid recrystallization of sugar.
2. In a food processor/blender, add thawed frozen berries, zest and juice of lemon. Blend until smooth. If you don’t want seeds in the final product, run mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove. I like the seeds, so I didn’t strain. Add mixture to chilled simple syrup, and optional extra water, and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.
3. Once the mixture has thoroughly chilled, freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can pour the mixture into a shallow pan and freeze in your freezer until semi-solid. Then take a fork and fluff it up, returning it the the freezer to freeze firm. Then put in a food-processor or blender to process until smooth.
4. Place sorbet in an airtight container and freeze until ready to serve.

Serve with whipped cream or a fresh peppermint sprig.