Watermelon Sorbet

I couldn't resist a huge, decently cheap watermelon last week at the farmer's market. After we took fruit salad to a friend's house Friday night, ate tons of watermelon all day Saturday and Sunday, and still had about 3/4 of it left, reality set it. So what to do with all this watermelon? Well, make watermelon sorbet, of course!

I found the recipe online( http://www.bakingandbooks.com/2007/08/02/watermelon-strawberry-sorbet/) but ended up modifying it quite a bit based on what we had in the kitchen. (If you can't tell, it was sort of a spur of the moment decision to make this - possibly had something to do with procrastinating for a test the next day!) First, I put 5.5 cups of chopped up watermelon in the blender, along with some lemon and lime juice, and blended it.

Then I heated up some honey and water in the microwave, and stirred it until the honey was no longer gooey but instead it ran pretty thin. I blended that in with the watermelon. Then I poured the mixture into my amazing ice cream maker!

I let the ice cream maker run for about 25 minutes until it got to sorbet-like consistency. I put it into 2 bowls for Dan and I, and then the rest in a Tupperware container in the freezer. Here's Dan enjoying his sorbet:

And the verdict: Yummy!

We both really liked it. We had it again after dinner, but after it's in the freezer for a while we had to let it sit out for a while (say, 20 minutes or so) before it was soft enough to spoon and eat. I really want to try this same recipe again with other fruits, like strawberries, rasberries, or blueberries. It was so easy and delicious! So here's the recipe - I'll give you the original with my edits to the side, and you can decide how you want to do it:

Watermelon Sorbet (adapted from: http://www.bakingandbooks.com/)

Ingredients:
4 cups seeded and chopped watermelon
1.5 cups chopped strawberries with hulls removed (I didn't have these so I just used more watermelon instead)
3/4 cup sugar (I didn't have any sugar so I used honey instead. The honey brought a very distinct flavor to it, and I happen to really like honey, and plus it's healthier. But this may not be the best for those who don't like the taste that much. And by the way when you sub honey for sugar you really only need about half of it, thus here about 3/8 of a cup. However, to me that really didn't taste sweet enough and I knew it definitely wouldn't after it was frozen so I went ahead and used the full 3/4 cup of honey.)
1/4 cup water
Lemon zest (yeah, definitely did not have this, so I used about 1 t lemon juice instead)
1-2 T Lime

Instructions:In a saucepan over medium-high heat combine sugar and water. Stirring constantly with a whisk, bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, without stirring, until the liquid becomes transparent, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a large blender combine watermelon chunks, strawberries and lemon zest. Puree until combined. Add the sugar syrup and 1-2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice, according to taste. (I used 2 tablespoons.) Puree, then taste. If the mixture is not sweet enough add 1 teaspoon of sugar then blend and taste again. Continue until you are happy with how sweet the mixture is, adding up to 3 teaspoons of sugar. If the mixture is too sweet, add extra lime juice, following the same procedure as with the additional sugar, up to 2 teaspoons.

Pour the mixture into a large bowl or Tupperware, cover, and chill for at least 2 hours. Then freeze in an ice-cream maker, churning according to the manufacturers instructions, up to 25 minutes. When the sorbet has finished churning, transfer to a freezer-safe container, smooth with the back of a spoon, and freeze for 3 to 4 hours, or until firm.

This sorbet will keep for about 4 days in the freezer. If it becomes hard let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes, then use the edge of an ice cream scoop to break it into chunks. Warm a metal spoon under hot water and use the back of the spoon to smooth the sorbet back into its original shape. Freeze for 10 minutes. The sorbet will have regained a soft, smooth texture.

Having a Kitchenaid Ice cream maker is pretty useful during Texas summers. It hit 104 degrees here yesterday - yikes! And thanks everyone for the Sam's Club comments. Based on them, I think we'll hold off, although I'm still not totally convinced - I might end up doing it just to see.