Strawberry sorbet

I’ve splashed out and bought myself an ice cream machine – I’ve wanted one for so long, but our previous freezer was too small to fit the bowl in! Expect frozen treats aplenty this summer on the blog. Ice creams are few and far between for us, only a few varieties are dairy-free (the never failing, delicious Swedish Glacé is our family favourite) and out of them a lot rely on nuts,or more prevalent by the day: coconut. I’m not sure I was a coconut to background to all my ice creams – if it’s coconut ice-cream then fine. Sorbets are more successful but often carry a nut warning, and dare I even mention ice cream vans? On any sunny day everyone, everywhere seems to be eating ice creams; the girls’ friends always seem to have them on days out, and there comes our problem. I’d say well over 50% of the time there is nothing suitable we can buy, even the ice lollies have milk in, or contain a ‘may contain’ warning which we can’t really risk on a day out far from home. So we’re left with, at best, a cold drink while everyone else consumes ice creams and other delights. It’s a sad state of affairs for the dairy-free child. So my mission is to recreate delicious ice creams and sorbets which we can at least eat at home, then no-one is missing out all the time. The ice cream is going to take some serious development (no bad thing ;-)) as the results I’ve achieved so far haven’t been quite right, either texture-wise or not setting as desired, but so far I’ve have had one huge success – this stunning strawberry sorbet. I’d say that I actually prefer sorbet to ice cream, its less cloying and probably the dessert I always opt for in a restaurant – and this one is certainly of restaurant quality. Wonderfully smooth in texture and packed full of fresh strawberry flavour. We ate ours with egg-free meringues and chopped strawberries – delicious! If you don’t have an ice cream machine, make the mix and then initially freeze it for a couple of hours until the ice crystals are starting to freeze, pour into a blender and fully blitz the mixture and then re freeze – the texture may not be as smooth, but it will still taste terrific. Strawberry Sorbet (dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soya-free, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan)

Makes about 1 lt

• 4 cups/500g strawberries, washed, hulled and halved
• 2/3 rds cup water
• 2/3rds cup sugar (white)
• 2 tbsps lemon juice

– Dissolve the sugar into the water, bring to the boil and then immediately leave to cool – Blend the strawberries to a fine purée, push through a sieve if you like a super smooth sorbet, or leave in the seeds if you prefer – Pour the sugar syrup and lemon juice into the strawberry purée – Start the ice cream machine and pour in the purée mix(follow the manufacturers instructions)but continue churning in the machine until a smooth sorbet has been made(or follow instruction above for no ice cream machine) – Spoon into a freezable container and keep frozen until ready to use.