Alternate title: I might be obsessed.
So The Perfect Scoop arrived earlier in the week and I shoved it aside because I also got Fearless Fair Isle Knitting and I couldn’t put that down.
But Thursday afternoon I managed to crack open The Perfect Scoop and skim a bit. It’s a lovely book and I look forward to reading in-depth this weekend. I was shocked to see how simple the sorbet recipes were. Equally energizing was that I had the ingredients on-hand for one of his recipes. Okay, I changed the proportions, but I used his ideas.
Back in May and June I participated in a local organic co-op. They brought bananas–great mountains of bananas–every week and eventually I got behind in the eating. And there’s only so much banana bread one can take. So some of them ended up dark brown on the counter. Someone somewhere suggested chopping them up and freezing for use in smoothies. Not wanting to waste food, I decided to try it. And thank goodness! The frozen bananas were perfect for this. From the same co-op deliveries, I’d frozen organic blueberries.
For one quart of Blueberry Banana Sorbet:
In a blender puree 3 medium sized frozen bananas, 1 cup of frozen blueberries, 1/2 cup sugar, 3/4 cup water, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and 1 tbsp vodka. (The vodka is optional. It is only used to impede hard freezing and ice crystallization.) Then run this puree through a cycle of your ice cream maker using manufacturer’s instructions.
The consistency is soft but firm and it’s perfectly edible right out of the machine. I then froze overnight to get the frozen ball shot this morning.
Ah! A delicious breakfast!
Because the bananas were so ripe, they were quite sweet and I could have cut back on the sugar a little. But, otherwise, this made a creamy decadent healthy fat-free dessert in less than 30 minutes. Nom! You could do this with non-frozen (ripe!) bananas, but chill the puree in the fridge for a couple of hours before putting it through the ice cream maker.
This weekend I plan to try to make some frozen yogurt flavored with espresso…
looks really good!
ggotta get me an icecream maker…
That is so interesting about the vodka. Makes sense, but I never knew!
Now that’s MY kind of breakfast! Yummy, yum, yum.
I think I might have been the “freeze your bananas” person! I do that for smoothies.
I ordered an ice cream maker and it arrived yesterday, hooray! I immediately put the bowls (got an extra one, on the advice of many people) in the freezer. The plan is to make yummy sorbet on Sunday. So excited!
Yum yum yum!! I felt the same burst of inspiration when I first opened up the book. Also, I love your handwriting on the lid. Enjoy breakfast!
I’m drooling……..
SUPER gorgeous color, too!
Oooh, I always end up with bananas that get ripe too fast – freezing them and turning them into sorbet sounds like a brilliant idea!
I just ordered the perfect scoop for my son. You are killing me with these photos. I see you got your scoop!
Oh, it looks sooooo good.
The bananas ripen fast in the summer so we have been freezing a few too. We like to just take the frozen banana out of the freezer and blender it up with the blender stick. It’s pretty good by itself or with some frozen blueberries thrown in.
Oh, I have all of these things frozen in my freezer too! I am going to make this, but probably not with the vodka, because that’s the last things my kids need. Thanks, C!
I fear my jamming obsession might be replaced with a frozen confection obsession!
I have frozen bananas! I have fresh blueberries! I have an underutilized icecream maker!
i’m guilty of letting bananas go too ripe… this is a genius solution for those times (because i can only take so much of banana bread too). btw, you’re killing me with these posts on ice cream/sorbet :)
hmmm,,, that looks delicious! :)
Your sorbet looks delicious. I’m going to purchase both of these books.
I would have never thought about freezing bananas. I’m definitely going to do this the next time I have too many going south.
Both of the books look absolutely AWESOME!!! I’m putting them on my wishlist now. :)
Mmm! Those look great!
yummmmy! and yes, if you don’t plan to eat the sorbet quickly, do use the vodka. Otherwise things “dry up” and “ice up” and the whole texture of the sorbet changes. Once you have made your own sorbet, let it sit for a while and find it is a “rock”, you then realize what kind of chemicals that companies must put in their products to keep their sorbets “soft”. Makes you think :)
In a pinch, you can also use vodka for wiping a bad scrape on your leg or as windshield wiper fluid mixed w/water in the winter. Russian friends could probably give you 50 more “good” things about vodka ROFL. Enjoy! We need to get a large freezer in our mountain place and after that the next purchase will be an ice cream maker. We have one where we are here, and sorbets are such a delight to the palette!