Honey Pear Spiced Citrus Sorbet

We participate in this local fruit share through Azure B. LLC, through which we get organic & free trade fruit year-round, every other week. This is particularly awesome in the summer, but sometimes, in the winter, I find we don't consume as much fruit on a regular or consistent basis. We still love having fresh fruit for lunches & breakfasts, but sometimes, the surplus just... sits. So I have made applesauce & used fruit in stews & roasts (which sounds a little odd, but works rather well, if you mix your flavors wisely). A surplus of lemons can be used to make cleaning products; & citrus peel is a great disposal cleaner (like Plink, but you already have it on hand!). I try my best not to let anything waste & rot, & wrack my brain to find uses for what we have in abundance.

Recently, it occurred to me that I could make a simple syrup & then, in our KitchenAid ice cream attachment, transform it into a sorbet.

So I did. And it was delicious.



I fiddled around with the ingredients, so this "recipe" is like an old fashioned one... I give you some ingredients & loose instructions, but you kinda have to figure out the rest for yourself.

Honey Pear Spiced Citrus Sorbet

* 6 clementines/satsumas/mandarins/tangerines, juiced (or 1.5 cups orange juice or whatever sweet citrus you have- we used a variety of 6 small citrus we had in our citrus bowl; 1-2 juiced oranges may produce enough juice, too)

* 2 pears (we used some Bosc pears), pureed (remove seeds & stems)

* honey (to taste, I used about 1/2 cup)

* coconut water (I used about 8 oz)- you can use water in place of this, or another juice if you want to get creative

* cinnamon (to taste- I used maybe a tsp; can sub allspice instead)

* ginger (to taste, I used four slivers of a root, which is maybe a tsp or less powdered. Start small & add more if you want to... it can overpower)

* molases sugar (brown sugar- I used a TBSP just to add a different kind of smoky sweetness. We make our molasses sugar with molasses & sugar stirred together, but store bought would be fine. Or, you could just use some molasses alone, or forgo this ingredient altogether in favor of more honey or a different additional sweetener)

* turmeric (for coloring, if desired)

Mix your citrus juice, pear puree, honey, coconut water, & sugar in a sauce pan & bring to a boil. Stir in spices as the mixture simmers. I added the turmeric at this point as well, until the liquid turned a beautiful goldenrod color. Taste as you go to ensure the balance of your flavors. It may taste VERY sweet right now, but you want the liquid a bit on the sweet side so that sweetness is evident in the final frozen state. For some reason, once frozen, some of that sweet factor is lost.

Keep the whole thing on the heat until the mixture thickens a little. I cooked mine for 15-20 minutes on high to medium heat, stirring constantly so as not to let it boil over. Adjust your heat as you see fit, & cook as long as you feel it needs. When it reaches a consistency you are happy with, you are done! Don't worry about making it really syrupy... it needs to be fairly liquid for the freezing & churning process.

Let cool to room temperature.

At this point, I removed the four slivers of ginger root, so we didn't accidentally get a mouth full of spice in our finished sorbet. Obviously, this won't matter if you use powdered ginger.

Once cooled, transfer to container (I used 2 standard mason jars) & put in fridge overnight. If you are using an ice cream maker, be sure to put it in the deepest part of your freezer overnight, too, or prep however your model needs to be prepped. If you do NOT have an ice cream maker, find another method online. There are lots of ways to make delicious frosty treats that are easily available on the internet, many without fancy equipment.



After the syrup has been refrigerated & the attachment is ready to churn, simply follow the instructions to use your machine (or follow whatever alternative method you choose). I added my two jars of syrup (it was still quite watery, more than the word "syrup" implies to my mind, but again... that is good!) to the frozen bowl while the churner was stirring & let the machine work for about 20-30 minutes, until the sorbet looked decidedly frozen.

Transfer your treat to a container to keep in the freezer, or dish it up to enjoy!

That's it! It has a very unique complex flavor that we all enjoyed. Ted is more of an ice cream bloke, & Rue really just fancies vanilla yogurt at the moment, but they both ate this & enjoyed it. This treat is exactly my kind of dessert, & I adored how it turned out!



This is my first ever time attempting something like this. It was pretty easy, but know that I am not an expert! If you have made something similar & have pointers for me (or anyone else looking to try this for themselves), please share in the comments.

What flavor combinations do you enjoy? What would you want to try? I would love to have more ideas to play with!