Last updated on April 28, 2023
Italian gelato made without dairy products is not actually called ice cream, but sorbet. It's made with just fruit, sugar and water, and it's amazing. We are Italian and we share our original recipes
On All Italian we have written many pages on how to make Italian ice cream at home: the milk ice cream basic recipe without eggs, Italian gelato alla crema with eggs, pistachio ice cream and stracciatella ice cream.
The healthiest and lightest gelato of all is also the easiest to prepare, with or without an ice cream maker. On this page we explain how to make your own Italian sorbet, experimenting with different flavours.
On this page
The Italian words of this page:
| 🔊 Gelato Italiano | Italian ice cream |
| 🔊 Sorbetto | Sorbet |
| 🔊 Sorbetto di frutta | Fruit sorbet |
We Italians call sorbet a type of fruit gelato, made with water and without milk.
This means that in Italy you can find sorbet in ice cream shops, together with all the other gelato flavours; and like regular ice cream, you eat it on the cone or in the cup.
But even we in Italy get confused about the name 🔊 sorbetto.
In fact, many call sorbetto also a fresh drink that mixes a scoop of lemon sorbet ice cream with a glass of Prosecco wine. The proper name of this is not sorbet (which, once again, is a sort of gelato) but sgroppino.
Sgroppino is a typical aperitif from Northern Italy (from the Veneto region, the homeland of Prosecco) and you drink it at events such as weddings between courses.
The original sorbet ice cream recipe contains only three ingredients: water, sugar and fresh fruit.
Sorbet ice cream is a very popular dessert: in Italy, all ice cream parlors, especially in the south of the country, offer a variety of fruit sorbets. The most popular flavors are lemon, raspberry, mango and strawberry.
But you can also make sorbet ice cream without fruit, for example with coffee or the vegan chocolate ice cream.
Homemade Italian ice cream is made with whipping cream and milk; sometimes it also contains eggs, depending on the recipe.
Sorbet does not contain dairy products. Some recipes do use egg whites to make the sorbet softer, but this is optional.
For this reason, sorbet gelato is also considered a type of vegan ice cream.
Sorbet is a little less creamy than ice cream, and a little more icy.
The presence of milk in traditional ice cream softens the taste of the fruit. Conversely, sorbet made without milk usually has a more pronounced fruit flavour.
Moreover, fruit ice cream is not sweeter than fruit sorbet: because both contain sugars.
Because ice cream is made with milk, it also provides proteins, fats and calcium. It is therefore a much more nutrient food than sorbet.
In sorbet ice cream, fats and proteins are absent or present in minimal amounts.
Sorbet has a higher concentration of sugars and does not contain many nutrients other than fruit vitamins.
That is why sorbet ice cream is more digestible than ice cream and contains fewer calories: on average, 3.5 oz (100 grams) of ice cream supplies 200 kcal, compared to 120-150 kcal of a fruit sorbet ice cream.
Many first try to make Italian gelato without an ice cream maker. There are methods to do this, although the result is not exactly the same as a soft ice cream.
The ice cream maker mixes the mixture that you pour into a cold container; in Italian we say 🔊 mantecazione, and it is the process that makes our gelato soft and creamy.
Ice cream with milk and whipping cream is difficult to make without an ice cream maker; but making sorbet is a bit easier. We know at least two methods for making delicious sorbet gelato at home.
The easiest and most intuitive method: use frozen fruit and mix it in the blender with the other sorbet ingredients.
Use frozen fruit such as strawberries, raspberries, mangoes and cherries;
Use the same amounts of ingredients (water, sugar) as for the ice cream maker recipe;
Put everything in the blender: you will get an ice cream that is not as soft as the ice cream you make with the ice cream maker, but it is close. And it will certainly be very good and tasty.
👉 To make Italian sorbet without an ice cream maker, you can use the same ingredients of the gelato recipes that we publish: with or without an ice cream maker the ingredients are always the same. What changes is the way the ice cream is processed.
Alternatively, you can use the sorbet mixture to make light and tasty popsicles.
Mix the ingredients of the fruit sorbet recipe and pour the mixture into the popsicle molds instead of the ice cream maker or blender. You get very good sorbets in a short time, with the convenience of ice cream on a stick.
With an ice cream maker it is easy to make a soft gelato sorbet like the one from the ice cream shop. Making sorbet is even easier than normal ice cream, because in general the machine takes less time to produce it.
The ice cream maker has the function of mixing the ice cream mixture for about 30-40 minutes in a cold container. The constant mixing ensures that the mixture stores air, and becomes a good ice cream. In Italian we call this process 🔊 mantecazione
This is also thanks to the presence of fats and, in the case of sorbet, above all sugars: these must be present in a specific percentage, otherwise the ice cream will not result.
You can make sorbet gelato with all kinds of fruit. Here we make mango sorbet as an example.
Mango is one of the most popular tropical fruits and is used to make one of the most delicious sorbets: mango sorbet, 🔊 sorbetto al mango in Italian. 👉 In Italian ice cream parlors you will also find mango ice cream, made with milk and whipped cream (but without eggs, which do not go well with homemade fruit ice cream).
For each ingredient we indicate both the volume in cups and the weight in ounces and grams. 👉 To be more accurate we prefer to weigh all the ingredients: both solids and liquids before pouring them into the ice cream mixture.
For this recipe we use a popular model compressor ice cream maker. The preparation steps are the same for most ice cream makers on the market, including the models with freezer bowl. 👉 Read also our guide on how to use the ice cream maker. The first step is to turn on the ice cream maker, if you have a compressor ice cream maker. While you wait 10 minutes for the ice cream maker to cool down, you can prepare the ingredients. If you use an ice cream maker with a freezer bowl, it is important that this is very cold beforehand and ready to make the ice cream. Wash and peel the mango, and cut it into small pieces. Then put it with the water and sugar in a bowl and mix everything with an immersion blender until you get a smooth and homogeneous mixture. There's a trick that isn't usually detailed in the ice cream maker manual. When you pour the ice cream, the ice cream maker should already be cold and the mixing paddle should be rotating.
By doing this, you lower the chances that the mixing paddle gets stuck before the ice cream is ready. Ice cream made with milk and whipping cream usually takes 40 minutes for the ice cream maker to prepare. A shorter time is sufficient for the sorbet, which is usually ready in just 20-30 minutes. The transparent lid allows you to check the status of the ice cream to understand when it is ready.
Your Italian sorbet gelato is ready. Buon appetito! 🍨 For all connoisseurs who, like us, can't wait until summer to enjoy a delicious homemade ice cream Many ask us for more information about making ice cream. We've collected it all in our ice cream recipe book, available in e-book or paperback format. Everything you want to know to make a perfect gelato at home with the ice cream maker, and our Italian recipes to learn how to make all kinds of ice cream recipes. We regularly update these pages on Italian gelato with recipes we make at home with the ice cream maker.
Italian sorbet ice cream 🍨 Authentic gelato recipe
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You can use the same recipe with other fruits too: cherries, raspberries, strawberries, kiwis.
Of course, the proportions between the ingredients change a little, depending on the type of fruit: some fruits are more sugary, others contain more water.
The difference between ice cream and sorbet is that ice cream is creamier, but the mango flavor is much stronger in the sorbet ice cream.
Ingredients
Ingredient image
Ingredient name
Cups
Grams
Ounces
Mango (peeled)
10.6 oz
300 g
Water
0.85 cup
7 oz
200 g
Sugar
0.5 cup
3.5 oz
100 g
⚖️ How do I measure the ingredients?
For this you need a kitchen scale, preferably a digital one, which usually expresses the weight in ounces (oz) and/or grams (g).
The ice cream maker
Instructions
Turn on the ice cream maker
Mix the ingredients
Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker
How do you do that? With the ice cream maker on, pour the mixture through the opening on the lid of the machine.
Let it mix for 30-40 minutes
If it seems solid to you, just pause the ice cream maker and taste the ice cream.
Original gelato recipes
with ice cream maker
Follow our recipes
