Blackberry Sorbet & Ice Cream

Frozen desserts come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There's everything from the icy granita to fruity sorbet to the Americanized sherbet to creamy gelato to the waffle-cone-crowned king of them all, ice cream. I had a tough decision to make when trying to choose which of these frigid treats to make, and in the end I simply refused to decide.


Blackberry season is upon us. I found these monstrous fruits at my local farmer's market. One taste of these violet clusters will make your mind start spinning with possibilities. After much thought, I decided to make both a blackberry sorbet and a blackberry ice cream. It is summer, after all, and you cannot have too many treats to keep you cool.

Blackberry Sorbet
Source: The Ultimate Ice Cream Book. Makes 3 cups.

Ingredients
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3 cups blackberries
1 tbsp lime juice

Directions
Combine the water, corn syrup and sugar in a small saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Raise the heat and boil without stirring for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature.


Place the syrup, blackberries and lime juice in a food processor and puree until smooth. I strained the mixture after this because the seeds in blackberries love to get stuck in my teeth. Cover and refrigerate until cold. If you are using an ice cream maker that generates its own cold (i.e. not with a frozen bowl), then you can skip the refrigeration.

Stir the sorbet base and pour into ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. When finished, you can eat the sorbet right away or freeze it until it's more firm.

Blackberry Ice Cream
Adapted from Not So Humble Pie. Makes about 1 quart.

Ingredients
1.5 cups blackberries
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1.75 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cream cheese
1 large egg (if you're worried about the raw egg, you can leave it out)
1 dash of lemon juice

Directions
Using a food processor, blend together the blackberries and brown sugar. Strain the mixture as in the previous recipe, if desired. Add the remaining ingredients to the food processor and blend until everything looks homogeneous.


Chill the mixture in the refrigerator. Pour the ice cream base into the ice cream maker according to your manufacturer's instructions. Enjoy right away or freeze for a firmer final product.


The first aspect of making these two desserts back-to-back was that the sorbet turned out a very dark, black-purple color while the ice cream was a lovely lavender (perhaps good for Easter-time?). The sorbet has a very intense blackberry flavor. Depending on the tartness level of the berries you choose, it could easily be anywhere from very sweet to quite bitter, so I would recommend only making this when you have moderately sweet blackberries on hand. The ice cream was very creamy and had a more subtle flavor. I was surprised by the addition of cream cheese (mascarpone in the original recipe), and you can taste it in the background. In the end, I'm glad I made both desserts because they go very well together.