I’m a little obsessed with blueberries. I’m also a little obsessed with sorbet. And I’m definitely obsessed with frozen blueberries in any form; I could eat them by the sugar-concentrated handful or blended with a simple syrup and processed in this wonder of a loaned machine. It’s my first homemade sorbet of the summer, though I’ve been taking advantage of the Montreal sorbet offerings (Kem Coba, Bilboquet, my favourite all-fruit, no sugar added sorbets from the Fruiterie Atwater in the outside freezer chest by the orange press, and the Maple cafe place in the Old Port that sweetens with only pure maple syrup, to name a few).
But there’s nothing like whipping up a batch of your own. And there’s nothing as simple. It takes me at least 10 minutes by bike to get to Atwater (the closest sorbet fix, unless the cute “La Coccinelle in Point Ste-Charles happens to have its so-so sorbet that day. (Its soft serve is incredible, though. They change the flavours every week. It’s the Kem Coba of Pt Ste-Charles – cheap, quaint, delicious and 0% hipster.)
So, all settled into my new home, I finally set up the ice cream maker and put together a winner of a sorbet. The trick is to get it creamy without adding dairy or diluting with watery almond milk. So instead, I just used a heck of a lot of berries. Were they better because I picked them myself? Maybe. Were they cheaper? Yes! Check out Ferme L’Anse aux Sable in Ile Perrot for the best (they even have some low bush I think? The wild, more flavourful ones) or their next door neighbour, Quinn Farms, which has rows and rows of high bush, fat, juicy, fairly sweet ones.
The nice thing about making it mostly berries and mostly fresh, sweet berries is you don’t need to add a lot of sugar. Just a little lemon juice. The other trick is make sure all the ingredients are chilled, so you have to plan this a day in advance so you can chill all the ingredients overnight. You could just add whole berries to a cool sugar syrup instead of gently cooking them to break them down, but you wouldn’t get as nice a consistency or as strong a flavour. Try my way, then take short cuts next time.
Blueberry Sorbet
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
4 cups blueberries
Juice of 1/2 – 1 lemon (to taste)
In a medium pot or large skillet combine the sugar and water over medium heat. When sugar dissolves and syrup comes barely to a boil, add the blueberries (don’t wash the berries or you’ll end up with a watery sorbet. Or wash them if you have to – aka you think they were sprayed or are very dirty – and leave them to dry in advance in a colander). Bring back to a gentle simmer and cook for about 4 minutes, or until the berries have started to break down just a little. You really need to cook them very gently or you’ll end up with less flavourful blueberry mush. Stir in the lemon juice. TASTE IT! Add more lemon if necessary. Add more sugar if necessary. Let cool and leave in fridge overnight (transfer to another container if the saucepan is an inconvenient thing to stick in the fridge).
The next day (or after at least 4 hours), process in ice cream maker according to instructions. For me that meant pre-cooling (the opposite of preheating) for 5 minutes and then processing for 10.
Boy, was this good. I’m saving the last little bit in my freezer for a special occasion. there’s honestly about 1/4 cup left, which is nothing. the most fun part of making this is that you have to eat the bits that stick in the machine because if you don’t scrape them out into a bowl they either get stuck or melt, and either way are wasted. Too bad, right?
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