Peach Honey Mint Sorbet

I’m sorry for jumping on the band wagon, but I need to whine about the heat because obviously if you whine it makes it all better.  It’s not just  hot it’s stinking hot. Like buckets of sweat hot when walking form the door to the car.  Needless to say, this heat makes me resistant to turning on the oven or standing in front of a hot stove, but it’s perfect for a cool sorbet.  Is it stupid to say “cool sorbet”?  I mean obviously it’s cool, or it wouldn’t be sorbet it would be juice, really sweet juice.

I have a love hate relationship with summer. I love all the fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season during the summer, but I hate the scorching heat, tank tops, shorts, flip-flops and the fact that I sweat through my head and look like a wet chicken after 5 minutes outside. If it where up to me it would be Fall year round, but that world does not exist.    I am a true believer in A/C, ice cream, snow cones and especially sorbets.  On a hot summer day, I will take a sorbet over ice cream any day.  After picking all those peaches at Livesay Orchard, I knew that a sorbet had to be in my future.

Any fruit can be made into a sorbet, today I am using peaches.  Well not today, because I made this sorbet over a week ago, but you know what I mean.

First you need your choice of fruit, such as peaches.  You could use plums, mango, nectarine, cherries, watermelon, whatever you happen to have on hand.  You will need 4 cups of chopped, ripe peaches. Always use very ripe fruit, they are at the peak of their sweetness and puree the smoothest.

Add the zest from one large orange.

Add 1/2 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice.

Drizzle 1/2 cup of mild honey like clover over the peaches.  You don’t want to use a honey that is ubber sweet and competes with the sweetness of the peaches.

Finally, add 2 tsp of fresh mint.  I added a little more the 2 tsp because I LOVE mint, so it up to you how “minty” you want the sorbet.  Don’t forget to give it a pinch of salt, it pumps up the flavor of sweetness without making it sweeter.

Does that even make sense?

Add 1/2 a cup of water.  If you have an immersion blender it works perfectly for this, if not you can use a blender or food processor to puree the peach mixture.

Blitz until smooth.

I love the speckles that you get with the peach skin and the mint.  Soooo purty!

Pour the peach mixture into your ice cream maker and churn according to the manufactures instructions.  If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can pour the mixture into a shallow container and freeze for 3 to 4 hours. As the mixture freezes, stir it every 20 minutes or so, so it takes on a granular, flaky texture.

After churning the sorbet serve immediately or transfer to an airtight container and freeze 1 hour for a firmer texture.  It is best when served the same day.  It won’t last past 1 day anyway.

I cannot tell a lie OB and I sat down with the sorbet and pretty much cleaned it out.  It was so delicious and refreshing, with the sweetness of peach and honey and the brisk mint.  It is the perfect end to a light summer dinner.

Tagged as: Dessert, Honey, mint, peach, sorbet