Now that I have completed my big move to New Orleans, I can finally get back to blogging. Before leaving Ohio, I made several trips to the local farmers’ market. Among the wonderful selection of local produce I found a sweet and delicious treat — Reliance grapes from The Thomas Orchard in Philo, OH. These grapes are seriously some of the best grapes I have ever tasted. So as I always do with my favorite flavors, I decided to turn the grapes into a frozen concoction…this time it was sorbet.
I decided to use a grape sorbet recipe from The Perfect Scoop. The author recommended using a robust grape, such as a wine grape, to make the sorbet. At the time I had no idea what type of grape I was using and I did not really care because I wanted to make sorbet using the yummy grapes I had just purchased. Turns out that Reliance grapes are a red table grape and after making the sorbet I would tend to agree with the author; the flavor would have been bolder had I used a wine grape instead of a table grape. Nonetheless, the sorbet turned out great and I loved the flavor because I love Reliance grapes. Experiment with your favorite grape and let me know what you think. You could also make this recipe with really good grape juice. Enjoy!
Grape Sorbet
David Lebovitz, The Perfect Scoop, Ten Speed Press 2007
Makes 1 quart
3 1/2 pounds grapes (yields about 4 cups of juice)
3 Tbsp water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 Tbsp vodka
Remove the grapes from the stems and cut them in half if they are large or have thick skins. Place them in a large, nonreactive pot, add the water, and cover. Cook the grapes over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the skins have burst and the grapes are soft and cooked through.
Remove from the heat and pass the warm grapes through a food mill fitted with a fine disk, or press through a strainer with a flexible spatula if you wish to remove the grape solids (I do not own a food mill so I used a strainer…it was a lot of work so use a food mill if you have one). Stir the corn syrup and vodka into the grape juice.
Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Meg says
Your ice creams look so delicious, I really want to try and make them, but
is the cornsyrup necessary? I really do not like to use it in recipes?
Lindsay says
Meg – Good question. I use corn syrup in many of my recipes to improve texture (corn syrup has more viscosity than sugar so it freezes different). I use it in very small amounts, but if you are still concerned you could increase the sugar content in the recipes by about 25% too to increase viscosity. I have also substituted brown rice syrup several times with good results.
Pamela says
Could I use something other than vodka? Or is that just for the flavor?
Lindsay says
Pamela – The vodka is used to improve texture. If you leave it out the sorbet will just be harder to scoop. Check out the about me section for FAQs and more info about using alcohol.