Choose-A-Fruit Ice

This recipe is the vanilla ice cream of fruit sorbets, in the sense that you plug in whatever berry or citrus looks best and roll with it. The formula never changes: 1½ cups of fruit blended with a simple syrup and a splash of lemon juice. Freeze, whip, freeze again, and you have a rustic sorbet that leans closer to Italian granita than French sorbet, with a pleasantly granular texture.

The beat-when-half-frozen step is what keeps the ice from setting into a solid hockey puck. Pulling the mixture when it’s almost firm and whipping it on medium speed for two minutes breaks down the big ice crystals and pumps in air. Back into the freezer it goes, setting up scoopable instead of chisel-worthy.

This ice also skews light, with only a third of a cup of sugar carrying the sweetness for the whole batch. A rare dessert you can finish without guilt on a hot afternoon.

Kitchen Tips

• Use the ripest fruit you can find. Sugar won’t rescue under-ripe strawberries or pale oranges.
• Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve after blending if using raspberries. The seeds can feel gritty in the finished ice.
• Warm water dissolves sugar faster than cold. Stir for a full minute to make sure no crystals linger.
• Let the ice temper for 20 minutes at room temperature before scooping. Too cold and it scrapes instead of scooping.

Variations

• Try mango, peach, or watermelon when those are at their peak.
• Add a tablespoon of vodka or an orange liqueur before freezing for a softer scoop.
• Swirl in fresh mint or basil for an herbal finish.