Lemon sorbet 🍨🍋 Italian recipe with the ice cream maker

Lemon sorbet, sorbetto al limone

On All Italian we shared our recipes for making many types of ice cream at home: the Italian gelato without eggs, gelato alla crema with eggs, yogurt ice cream, and many more.

In Italian lemon sorbet is called 🔊 sorbetto al lime. It's made with lemon juice, sugar, and water; as opposed to regular ice cream, it does not contain milk or whipping cream.

Lemon sorbet, however, is the creamiest sorbet of all, because we traditionally make it with egg whites: and that makes our sorbet creamy and tasty.

Very popular is also the sgroppino, which you may have tasted when you attend a wedding in Italy. Sgroppino a typical Northern Italian alcoholic drink made with a scoop of lemon sorbet dipped in a glass of sparkling Prosecco. In Italy it is often served in restaurants between courses.

With the ice cream maker, you get a perfect homemade lemon sorbet, probably better than the one from the ice cream shop; but you can also try making it without an ice cream maker.

Lemon sorbet with egg whites

Homemade sorbet and ice cream don't always contain eggs. On All Italian we often write that you can make almost all ice cream flavors at home, both with and without eggs. And especially that eggs don't fit in fruit flavours.

Eggs make the ice cream creamier, but also change the taste. That is why to make very creamy flavours like gelato alla crema we use egg yolks.

While egg whites make sorbet soft and foamy. It is needed in lemon sorbet because lemon juice is just liquid, unlike the pulp of the other fruits we use in sorbets.

👉 Do I need to pasteurize eggs to make sorbet ice cream?

When we make ice cream with egg yolks, we heat the mixture of the ingredients to remove the bacteria: in Italian we say 🔊 pastorizzare, and it's a necessary step accordint to the American CDC.

And for sorbet?

The easiest way is to use ready pasteurized egg whites (in certain countries called liquid egg whites), which are commonly found in supermarkets. A safe choice that speeds up the preparation of sorbet ice cream.

Lemon sorbet with or without ice cream maker

When you make ice cream at home, the ingredients are the same with or without the ice cream maker. There are no specific recipes for the ice cream maker.

To become ice cream, the mix of ingredients needs a specific percentage of fat and sugar; which we calculate when we write the recipe.

If the ingredients are in the right amount, the mixture will become ice cream after half an hour in the ice cream maker.

What the ice machine does in brief

The ice cream maker constantly mixes our mixture in a cold bowl, usually for less than an hour. In Italian we call this process is called 🔊 mantecazione.

During this process, the mixture grows in volume and become soft.

Thanks to the low temperature, the fats, sugars and air bubbles are kept in balance and form a soft ice cream.

How to make sorbet ice cream without an ice cream maker

Without the ice cream maker it is therefore difficult to obtain ice cream with the same airy and soft structure.

After preparing the ingredients with our recipe, you can try two ways.

1. With a powerful mixer

   Pour the mixture into ice cube molds and let them set in the freezer. When they are well frozen and firm, put them in the blender and grind them into a smooth and frozen cream.

   In theory, the compound collects some air; but the result is not comparable to that of the ice cream maker.

   If you mix too long, the mixture will naturally start to melt.

2. In ice cream molds

   The easiest way to enjoy homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker.
   With our ingredients, it will be less frozen than a water ice cream, such as a creamy popsicle.

Lemon sorbet 🍨🍋 Italian recipe with the ice cream maker

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• 👩‍🍳 Easy
• ⏰ 50 min preparation
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Making lemon sorbet ice cream is a bit different from all other fruit sorbets. Instead of mixing all the ingredients in a blender, we first prepare a sugar syrup, we cook it on low heat, and we let it cool down after.

The preparation is therefore slightly longer than your regular sorbet. We also add the egg white, not included in other fruit sorbets.

Ingredients

Quantities

 

3

 

people

• 

  Sugar 1 cup
• 

  Water 0.85 cups
• 

  Lemon juice 0.85 cups
• 

  Egg white 0.25 cups

Ingredients and quantities

👉 0.25 cups corresponds to about 1 egg white.

With the amount of ingredients we have indicated you can make approximately 32 ounces (600 grams) of ice cream: good for 3 people.

You can make such quantity of ice cream it with all ice cream makers in the market.

Do you have a larger ice cream maker and want to make more ice cream? Just multiply all ingredients by 1.5 or by 2.

👉 Especially if you're just starting out, don't fill the ice cream maker completely: making ice cream in small quantities is easier.

🍋 Make sure you use organic lemons with edible peel.

Whether the peel is treated or not is usually specified on the label.

Instructions

1. Mix water and sugar

   Pour the water and sugar into a saucepan; stir over low heat.
   Add the grated peel of half a lemon and cook for a few minutes until it boils.

   Then remove the pan from the heat and let it cool for half an hour at room temperature.

2. Prepare the lemon juice

   Squeeze the lemons; for our recipe we use 0.85 cups of lemon juice, which is about 4 lemons.

3. Turn on the ice cream maker

   The ice cream maker needs to be cold and ready before pouring the mixture.

   Our compressor ice cream maker takes just under 10 minutes, and we pour the ice when it marks a temperatura of almost -22 °F (-30 °C).

   If you use an ice cream maker with a freezer bowl, make sure the bowl is already well frozen.

   

   
   

4. Mix the ingredients

   When the sugar syrup is cold: add the lemon juice, the egg white and mix everything with an immersion blender.

   

   
   

5. Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker

   Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker already cold through the opening on the lid of the machine.

   👉 This is an important step to always get an excellent ice cream.

6. Stir for 30 minutes

   The sorbet is usually ready in a shorter time than a regular ice cream. After 20 minutes, the mixture will increase in volume and soften. After about 30-40 minutes, our lemon sorbet ice cream is ready.

Your Italian lemon sorbet is ready, light and tasty. It is very good eaten as an ice cream, in a cup or cone; or mixed with Prosecco in the sgroppino, a typical Italian aperitif perfect for spring. 🔊 buon appetito 🍨🍋