fruit sherbets

Jamie Olivers, Jamie's Italy cook book has appealing, simple earthy recipes. There are two pudding I've been meaning to cook for the past year, bolognese polenta and apple cake one Florentine rice tart. The tart appeals so much as I want it to taste just like a rice tart I use to love in a patisserie near Mum and Dads apartment in Antwerp and I'll never know unless I try it...
One recipe I have tried from Jamie's Italy is the extremely simple and zingy lemon sherbet. What makes it a sherbet and not a sorbet is the addition of mascapone which enriches it slightly. So far I've used the base recipe to make raspberry, mango and lime and as picture above, blackberry and apple. I've noticed that the blackberry's in the countryside aren't ripe until the end of the month but for some reason, the city bramble bushes over the road, along the river are ripe at the beginning of August. I experimented a bit with the apple sherbet, adding half a cucumber and a few mint leaves - I think  it works well but I'm not sure if others will.

Blackberry Sorbet

• 7fl oz water


• 7 oz sugar


• 250g blackberries, gently simmered, pureed and sieved


• half tub mascapone

1. Heat the sugar and water and boil for 5 minutes or until it is clear then leave to cool in a bowl.


2. Add the fruit puree and mascapone, beating until it's all blended.


3. Pour into a tub or pre frozen metal dish and freeze.

*If making pure lemon sherbet, use 7 fl oz of lemon juice and rind of  2 lemons. Taste and make sure it's sharp enough, then freeze.

Apple Sherbet

• 4 granny smith apples


• half cucumber


• 4 mint leaves


• glug of apple or pear liqueur


• 7fl oz water


• 7 oz sugar


• half tub mascapone

1. Make sugar syrup as above


2. Wash and core apples then chop and add to blender


3. Wash cucumber, chop and also add the blender


4. Add liqueur and a dash of water and sprig of mint


5. Whizz until completely pureed adding the mint leaves at the last second


6. Pass puree through large mesh sieve and add to sugar syrup


7. Add mascapone and whisk well, pour into tub and freeze

Cheeky cockney geezer recommends breaking sorbet up with fork every few hours but I forgot and it seemes fine.