homemade cantaloupe sorbet, originally uploaded by c(h)ristine.
I’m going to talk about two things that don’t seem to go together: personal trainers and desserts. This is because I challenged myself to make my personal trainer a dessert dish. Something healthy but delicious–what could I make?
My personal trainer, predictably, chides me for eating butter and ice cream. He is just so very opposed to dairy products, but I think it has to do with his own lactose intolerance. However, he is a fan of sorbet. I would make–sorbet!
But what flavor of sorbet? I wanted to make something that Haagen Dazs wouldn’t produce, so that nixed strawberry, mango, peach, and raspberry. I thought about cherimoya, but couldn’t find any. So I began to think about fruit that was very in season–landing on cantaloupe. Doug, my trainer, LOVES cantaloupe–he’s weaned me OFF watermelon by suggesting I eat more cantalouope in its place (“it’s the WORST of the fruits, do you know how much sugar is in watermelon?” he exclaims, much to my watermelon-loving dismay. “Try cantaloupe,” he proposed).
This makes a fantastic sorbet. Unlike many sorbet recipes, this does NOT require an ice cream maker, just a blender or a food processor. In many ways, it resembles granita. Recipe follows…
Recipe (adapted from epicurious’ recipe
CANTALOUPE SORBET
(Sorbetto al Melone)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3 cups 1-inch pieces peeled seeded cantaloupe (about 1/2
cantaloupe)
Splash of lime juice
Combine sugar and water in medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil. Transfer to 11x7x2-inch glass dish and chill until cold, about 2 hours.
Puree cantaloupe in blender until smooth. Add to sugar syrup in dish and stir until well blended. Freeze until almost firm, stirring occasionally, at least 3 hours or overnight (if you freeze it overnight, it will become a SOLID frozen block and will need to set it out on the counter to soften again).
Transfer cantaloupe mixture to large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until fluffy. Return to freezer and freeze until firm (do not stir), at least 3 hours or overnight. (Sorbet can be prepared 3 days ahead. Cover and keep frozen.
Serves 6.
Muffin Top 
What IS the difference between sorbet and granita?
If I were to do this, I would use honeydew. I am one of those rare anti-canteloupe people.
as I understand it–the differences are in the method of making each.
granita: you use a food processor to make a sort of “slushie”
and sorbet: you use an ice cream maker.
i think honeydew is a WONDERFUL idea! i love honeydew even more than cantaloupe!
Granita is an Italian chopped ice. The old school way to prepare it is to pour the liquid (sweetened espresso is a classic) into a wide shallow pan and freeze it, breaking up the surface every hour or so, folding and integrating it into the unfrozen parts with some kind of metallic spade-like tool. The resulting ice crystals are larger, flakier and granier, and with more variance in size than those produced in sorbet, which is typically churned. Steingarten wrote an article some time ago which detailed the physics behind the entire process.
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