Fail: Meyer Lemon Sorbet Elise at Simply Recipes dot com

I am an avid reader of David Lebovitz for those of you who do not know him, check him out.  He has a fun blog and a great writing style, not to mention he is a great pastry chef.  He recently wrote about Meyer Lemons and although I had heard part of the story I must admit I did not know all of it.  I was told that they were a hybrid between an orange and a lemon, but not all the rest.  For the rest of the story and a wonderful recipe for Lemon Curd click here, Link to DL Curd 


We have three dwarf Meyer Lemon trees at the house in California and neighbors with lots more.  So I am always either picking them from our trees or having them left on more door in hopes of returned treats.  I have made other things but I LOVE MEYER LEMON SORBET!  So I make it when I can.  

Basically you make lemonade and then freeze it.  I have a KitchenAid mixer with the ice cream attachment, which could not make ice cream and sorbet marking easier.  

You pick the lemons, then lots of zesting and then lots of juicing, which I do by hand first with a zester then with a reamer and a strainer.  

It is a messy job so I would suggest doing this over a sink with lots of towels nearby for spilling.  Wear gloves if you are making a lot, as the lemon juice will burn after a while.  I have enough here to make about 6 pint sized containers of sorbet, about 2 liters of juice.
So after about an hour and probably close to about 40 small to midsized lemons I had a mess, some juice (about 2 liters) and some zest.  

But the house smelled great and they do make pretty pictures.


Now I had more than I needed but with a vision.  I first made the recipe as written knowing that it would be too sweet for my taste.  The nice thing about making this recipe is you actually can taste it before the freezing, so you know what you are gonna get.  Most of the recipes I have seen for this call for 1 to 1 ratio of Simple Syrup to Lemon Juice.  I think that is WAY TO SWEET!  I like my lemon sorbet with a bit of lemon tartness.  So the first batch I made 1 to 1 and gave it to neighbors, who loved it.  The second batch I made 1 liter of lemon juice to 3/4 liter of Simple Syrup.  In both cases I added the accurate called for amount of lemon zest, which I think adds a nice punch to it.  

So really this recipe as written could be a success for some, if you like your lemonade sweet.  If you are like me and enjoy bitter things (let the comments fly) then I would say this recipe is a kind of fail with a slight correction for taste.  

Using 2 liters of juice and 1.5 liters of simple syrup will create 6 pints of sorbet.  The mixer's freezing bowl needs to freeze between batches so you make enough for 3 pints (1 liter juice to 3/4 liter syrup and zest) and then make the second later after the bowl freezes again.  After the mixer is done (the exterior condensation ice line will melt to the top of where the sorbet begins) you will need to put the pints of sorbet in your freezer to finish it off as they will be slushy not frozen all the way. I put a layer of plastic wrap touching the sorbet in each pint before I put the lid on it and place it in the freezer.  

Meyer Lemon Sorbet Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 cup freshly squeezed juice from meyer lemons (about 3-4 lemons)

2 teaspoons fine lemon zest

METHOD

1 In a small saucepan on medium high heat, make a simple syrup by heating sugar and water until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Mix in the lemon juice and zest. Chill, either in the refrigerator, or by placing in a metal bowl over an ice bath.

2 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.

Place sorbet in an airtight container and freeze until ready to serve.

3 Scoop out preferably with a melon-baller. Garnish with mint. Makes 2 1/2 cups.

FAILURE!