As we’re starting to feel the warmth of the sun here on the East Coast our minds turn to frozen desserts. Boozy sorbets to be exact. We like to liven up our desserts with a little “something something” to keep the party going 💃🏻, if you get our drift. So we’re toasting the arrival of warmer weather with a Cosmopolitan Sorbet, fresh, tangy and vodka-y. It’s a great light dessert, palate cleanser or 5 o’clock somewhere treat 😉.
This is a simple dessert to make but it requires some planning ahead for ‘chilling time’ 😎. The mixture should chill before going into the ice cream maker, and should return to the freezer at least a couple of hours before serving.
An ice cream maker is a big help when making frozen desserts, but for a sorbet you can also use a fork and scrape through the frozen mixture every couple of hours. The consistency won’t be as smooth, it will be more of a granita but it will taste just as good!
2 cups (385 g) sugar
2 cups (16 fl. oz. / 475 ml)water
5 cups (18 oz. / 500 g) fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 cup (2 fl.oz. / 60 ml) vodka
2 tablespoons (1 fl.oz. / 30 ml) fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons (1 fl.oz. / 30 ml) Cointreau or other orange liqueur
Zest of one orange
First make the simple syrup by bringing the sugar and water to a boil in heavy saucepan. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cranberries and simmer until they collapse, for 8 to 10 minutes. Pour this mixture through a large sieve into a bowl, and gently press on the solids to extract the liquid. You can throw away the solids.
Cool the syrup to room temperature, then stir in the vodka, lime juice, Cointreau and orange zest. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight if possible.
If you have an ice cream machine you can transfer it to the machine after it has chilled and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer it to a freezer proof dish and freeze until ready to serve.
If you don’t have an ice cream machine, simply pour the mixture into a shallow dish and scrape through it with a fork every couple of hours until ready to serve.
This will keep beautifully for weeks in the freezer, for cocktail hour, happy hour or just indulgence hour!