A couple of weekends ago we celebrated my dear friend Eileen’s birthday with a special dinner featuring some old favourites and new requests. One of the things on the menu was this lemon sorbet. It was incredibly refreshing and had just the right balance of icy cold and tart lemon, followed by a hint of sweetness. It’s made of water, sugar and lemon juice, with grated lemon zest added to intensify the flavour.

Be sure to use only freshly squeezed lemon juice for this recipe; concentrates would be too bitter and also contain additives and preservatives. The easiest way to make this is to prepare the water and sugar mixture one day and refrigerate it overnight. Then add the lemon juice and zest and freeze it with an ice cream maker.

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (from 5-6 lemons)

1 tbsp grated lemon zest

Preparation:

Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until sugar dissolves, about 3-4 minutes. Cool completely (either cover and refrigerate overnight or chill over an ice bath for 30 minutes f you want to make the sorbet right away). When cool, add lemon juice and zest; stir to combine. Pour into freezer bowl of ice cream maker, turn machine on and mix until mixture thickens, 25-30 minutes (or follow the instructions for your ice cream maker). Tranfer sorbet to airtight container and freeze until firm, about 2 hours.

From the Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker recipe booklet