Easy Limoncello Sorbet Recipe Which You’ll Love

Limoncello sorbet recipe is a perfect dessert that also serves as a palate cleanser. This lemon sorbet will make you desire for more. The inclusion of limoncello in the recipe, a lemon beverage from southern Italy, transforms an ordinary recipe into something fancy.

This sorbet is light and lemony and simply lovely! The limoncello sorbet is easy to prepare and becomes a refreshing after-meal refreshment. Ideal for fish dinners and summer lunches. It’s really perfect in spring and summer too when you crave a refreshing, cold drink.

What is a Sorbet?

The sorbet is a fruit ice-cream that contains only water, sugar and fruit purée, possibly enriched with alcoholic beverages that in addition to giving your taste to the sorbet, lower the freezing point of the mixture making it softer and creamier.

The sorbet is often served in the middle of a fish meal, as a palate cleanser.

Origin of the sorbet

The inventors of the sorbet are almost certainly the Arabs, who invented a drink called sherbet. It is a lightly frozen drink based on water, fruit, and sweeteners.

There are, however, sources that trace the sorbet back to the Chinese, brought to Europe by Marco Polo, and other sources that make it go back to the Romans.

The sorbet spread in Europe during the Renaissance. Some sources speak of his exportation to France by Caterina de Medici when, in 1533, he left Italy to marry the Duke of Orleans.

In this period a fisherman of Aci Trezza, in Sicily, invented the first prototype of ice cream maker. His nephew, Francesco Procopio Coltelli, exported this primitive ice cream maker to Paris.

This gave rise to the first café in Europe, Le Procope, and later to the ice cream industry.

limoncello sorbet recipe in lemon cups

Sorbet vs. Ice Cream

Sorbet is a frozen delight that contains just fruit and sugar—no dairy. It’s often mixed up in an ice cream maker, which is not creamy but can be scooped. Sorbets are served palate cleanser after meals because its strong fruit flavor is invigorating.

While ice cream, on the other hand, has to contain at least 10% of milk fat, has to be churned and has to be sweet.

The sorbet is therefore devoid of cream or milk, eggs, and other fats and this makes it a very different product compared to ice cream based cream or cream, both as a taste and consistency.

Variation

Sorbet has various recipes, but it is traditionally made from lemons. Among the various ingredients mainly used are water, prosecco, yogurt, cream, vodka, coffee, milk, mint, licorice and various types of fruits.

The most classic sorbet recipes are: lemon sorbet, grapefruit, orange, and sour cherries, watermelon, kiwi, raspberry, and mixed fruit. The coffee is an unpleasant attempt to combine the freshness of the sorbet with the taste of the drink.

There is also an alcoholic variant of the lemon sorbet and is called the sgroppino. It is a Venetian recipe based on lemon ice cream, limoncello, prosecco and vodka and is perfect for a refreshing aperitif.

Our recipe is a twist to the traditional lemon sorbet. Deliciously lemony but slightly alcoholic.

Limoncello Sorbet

A good palate cleanser, Limoncello Sorbet is spot on, like eating frozen limoncello. This is easy to prepare, you don't need an ice cream maker to do this.

Recipe Type Dessert
Course Italian
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4 people
Author Ventura Limoncello

Ingredients

  • 4 lemons big
  • 3/4 cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
  • 1 3/4 cups water
  • 3/4 cup sugar granulated
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/2 cup limoncello

Instructions

  1. Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Cook on medium heat. 

  2. Let the mixture boil and then simmer for 3 minutes before turning off the heat. Set aside to cool.

  3. Add the lemon juice to the mixture when it has cooled down. Mix well.

  4. Whisk the egg until stiff using an electric hand mixer.

  5. Add the egg white and limoncello to the cooled lemon syrup.

  6. Transfer the mixture into a container and freeze for 2 hours. After 2 hours mix the sorbet, continually mixing with a fork every half-hour.

  7. Serve the sorbet in lemon cups.

Tips

The recipe of the lemon sorbet can also be used to prepare other types of sorbet (orange, strawberries, melon). Remember to put it in the blender to soften it before serving it, as it becomes solid.

Use the best fruit you can find. The juiciest, sweetest, ripest and most fragrant fruits make a flavorful sorbet.

The type of fruit you use to make sorbet also matters. Fruits that are high in pectin or fiber are rich and has a high viscosity which makes an especially creamy sorbet.

Pay attention to how much sugar the fruit contains. If the fruit is too ripe then it must be too sweet. You can add less sugar to the purée. For the lemon juice, more sugar has to be added to balance the tartness.

Keep the sorbet as cold as possible in order to keep it fresh.

Use an airtight container in order to prevent the sorbet from getting freezer odors.

Enjoy and relish your sorbet within a week for the best results. Because seriously, why would you even keep a frozen treat for so long?

Other limoncello dessert recipes:

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