Homemade Rainbow Sherbet

It’s summer time. I don’t know what that means for your neck of the woods, but for us it means triple digit temperatures, and no air conditioning. One way that I try to beat the heat is with homemade ice cream. I started making my own ice cream a couple years ago, when I quickly found out that the store bought ice creams didn’t fit into my whole food, organic lifestyle. As it turns out, making your own ice cream is really easy, as long as you have a good ice cream maker. (There are “no-churn” recipes out there, but since I have an ice cream maker I haven’t ventured into that realm of frozen treats yet.)

Sherbet is mostly frozen fruit juice with a little milk and some sweetener. I used organic cane sugar so that the flavors from my usual sweeteners (honey and maple syrup) wouldn’t compete with the flavors of the fruit. The amount of sugar can be reduced if your fruit is in season and extra sweet. Just remember that the freezer dulls the sweetness, so the mixture going into the ice cream maker will taste sweeter than after it’s frozen. Rainbow sherbet is just multiple sherbets that are put in the same container and served as a mixture of colors and flavors. I used the fruits I had on hand, so I’m sure you could change things up by substituting in whatever fruits you like. And, as always, I use organic ingredients, but if all you have in conventionally grown produce and juice, just use what you have. It will still be 100 times better for you than the store bought sherbet! Bottom line: it’s easy, adaptable, and delicious.

After the ice-cream is frozen, I like to keep them in cardboard containers (like the professionals do). I use these containers but anything freezer safe will work. (I think the cardboard helps the ice-cream to not freeze so hard, like when I store it in glass.)

If you want the recipe for the Mint-n-Chip, with no food dyes, shown above click here.

Here’s the recipe:

Pineapple Sherbet

2 1/2 cups pure organic pineapple juice
1 cup whole organic milk
1 cup organic cane sugar 

Stir the juice, milk, and sugar together. Refrigerate for as long as possible before churning. (The colder your mix is before it goes into the ice cream maker, the smoother your ice cream will be at the end.) Stir the mix well, to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Following the directions for your ice cream maker, pour the mix into your machine and churn until set. Scoop out and put into a freezer safe container and keep in the freezer until your ready to mix your “rainbow” together.

Orange Sherbet

2 1/2 cups pure organic orange juice
1 cup whole organic milk
1 cup organic cane sugar 

Stir the juice, milk, and sugar together. Refrigerate for as long as possible before churning. (The colder your mix is before it goes into the ice cream maker, the smoother your ice cream will be at the end.) Stir the mix well, to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Following the directions for your ice cream maker, pour the mix into your machine and churn until set. Scoop out and put into a freezer safe container and keep in the freezer until your ready to mix your “rainbow” together.

Raspberry Sherbet

4 cups organic raspberries
1/4 cup water (or a little more if needed to blend)
2 cups whole organic milk
2 cups organic cane sugar 

Blend the raspberries, sugar and water together, and strain “juice” from the seeds using a fine mesh strainer over a large bowl. Stir the milk into the juice. Refrigerate for as long as possible before churning. (The colder your mix is before it goes into the ice cream maker, the smoother your ice cream will be at the end.) Following the directions for your ice cream maker, pour the mix into your machine and churn until set. Scoop out and put into a freezer safe container and keep in the freezer until your ready to mix your “rainbow” together.

It’s easiest to mix the flavors if they are not frozen solid, so the sooner you can mix them the better. I made the first two flavors, and set them aside in the freezer until the third flavor was ready. Instead of putting the third flavor into a container to be frozen, I just put it into a bowl to mix with the other sherbets. 

When you’re ready to make your rainbow, dump all the sherbet out of their containers into a large bowl. Gently mix with a rubber spatula. You don’t want it too mixed, as you still want solid blocks of color. Scoop the rainbow sherbet back into the containers that you used earlier. Keep in freezer until ready to eat.  Let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before serving to soften enough to scoop.






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