Raspberry sorbet recipe

My husband gave me an ice cream machine for Christmas. In  fact he was very generous and gave me the ‘all singing all dancing’ Sage by Heston Blumenthal, which even plays you a little tune when the ice cream is ready. Although his motives were maybe not entirely selfless as he usually eats so much ice cream that he probably  regarded it as  sound investment. That said I have definitely enjoyed experimenting with various sorbets and ice creams and in turn his ‘investment’ has undoubtably paid off!

 
However do not be put off by this machine (brilliant though it is; it is expensive and quite noisy). You can buy ice cream machines from about £30  (Kenwood )-£50(Magimix). These machines require you to ‘chill’ the bowl in the freezer for 12-24 hours first. So as long as you have space in your freezer they  will still make good ice cream.
Sorbets are incredibly easy to make. I tend to usually follow the rule of using a third to half sugar: volume of fruit puree (the sweeter the fruit the less sugar you need). I usually use castor sugar with sorbets but you can use fructose instead,  but remember it is sweeter so use less.  (1/4 to 1/5: sugar : puree ).
Raspberry sorbet
Difficulty: easy             Serving : 1 litre
600g raspberries
200g castor sugar (approx).
75ml cold water.
Blitz the raspberries, water  sugar in a blender then pass through a fine sieve. Taste for sweetness adding a little more sugar if necessary. Place in the ice cream machine and churn till frozen. Remove from the machine and store in a tupperware container. Keeps for up to a week in the freezer.
For a more grown up dessert you can replace the water with 50ml vodka.