Sorbets, Granitas, Shaved Ice, Slushies and Spooms

We might not have had quite enough sunshine this month to really make us yearn for light, bright and refreshing sorbets, granitas, shaved ice desserts, slushies and spooms but that hasn’t stopped us from getting creative in the kitchen.

PebbleSoup

Solange from Pebble Soup was very fast off the mark, posting her entry only two days after the challenge was announced! Solange has combined rhubarb, currently in season in the UK, with ginger in her rhubarb and ginger sorbet, a marriage made in heaven. But fiery ginger can easily overwhelm and she advises that less is more for this recipe. I love the pretty pink colour she has achieved in her finished sorbet; it looks so pretty!

SONY DSC

Soma is the author of the vibrant eCurry blog, home of Indian recipes and more. Her blood orange granita with ginger and orange mint is suitably colourful and really brought to life by Soma’s beautiful photography. And I was intrigued by her mention of her new orange mint plant. I’ve grown peppermint, spearmint and even chocolate mint, but had not come across this one before. Of course, I want to grow it myself now!

hotandchilli

Rosana, author of Hot & Chilli blog, is a party girl – whenever I see her she has a huge smile for the world and a glass of something tasty in her hand. So the fact that she’s turned to the national cocktail of her birth country, Brazil, for inspiration, is no surprise and her caipirinha sorbet with caramelised lime peel is rather appealing. The key components are cachaça, a liquor made from fermented sugargane juice, as well as sugar and lime.

LemonSpoom-0833

Given that the very name makes me giggle, I knew from the start that I had to make spoom! I decided on lemon spoom based on a classic lemon sorbet, mainly because I had some frozen lemon juice lurking in my freezer. To my delight, the addition of raw meringue to the sorbet really made a difference to the texture, making it smoother and lighter. I’ll definitely spoomify future sorbets, now I know!

kitchenprincessdiaries

Millie from Kitchen Princess Diaries made a gin and tonic sorbet. Not enough gin, she said, but otherwise very refreshing. She used a BBC GoodFood recipe which she followed exactly and you’ll find the link to it within her post.

comfortbites

As I said, we’ve had a lot of rain this month, but the sun has been shining now and then. I think Jo’s lemon and lime sorbet is just the ticket for a sunny day, light and refreshing. Jo, who writes the Comfort Bites blog, only recently bought herself an ice cream machine, and has busily been churning out ice creams such as blueberry, vanilla and chocolate, so I’m hoping she keeps up the momentum and enters upcoming challenges too.

ZebedeeSlushy-0190

Unsurprisingly, given that his blog is called Pete Drinks, and he’s rather a fan of beer, my husband Pete decided on something beery. A Zebedee beer slushy, in fact. With no real idea on how to make it, he decided to pour a bottle of his homemade Zebedee Spring Ale into a plastic container and shove it into the freezer for a couple of days. Fortunately, with the help of a fork it flaked very well. As it froze, it separated a little, and the more concentrated beer defrosted to create a beery syrup that collected at the bottom of the glass.

belleaukitchen

Dom from Belleau Kitchen is my blog brother, that is to say our blogs share the same birthday, though he’s at pains to point out, in the blogging world at least, I’m the older, creakier one! His apple and rhubarb sorbet is the very essence of Britain, so it’s rather appropriate that he posted it on St George’s day. He adds cinnamon to complement the fruit and just enough sugar to retain the balance between sweet and sharp.

beatinglimitations

I had never heard of a Vitamix blender until I read Donna’s post on her blog Beating Limitations. But Donna is a huge fan and uses it to create everything from smoothies to curry paste to milling her own flour! For this month’s challenge, she used the blender to make a simple and refreshing orange sorbet, using honey in place of sugar to sweeten the mix. I bet the pear and honey sorbet she’s envisioning will be great too!

Donna has also been inspired by previous challenges, but missed the deadlines for the roundups, so I’d like to draw your attention to her cookie dough ice cream and her coconut pineapple ice cream posts, both of which look delicious.

allotment2kitchen

So many of us growing herbs really don’t make the best use of them, but that’s not something Shaheen, author of Allotment2Kitchen could be accused of. She’s put her rosemary to good use in popcorn, hot drinks, puddings and scones. I really like her idea to make lemon and rosemary sorbet, combining the sharp citrus flavour with the savoury, woody herb. Shaheen’s method is also a reminder that you don’t need an ice cream machine to take part in BSFIC as she puts her freezer and food processor to good use.

piglingbland

Tales of Pigling Bland is a great name for a blog, no? Taken from the Beatrix Potter book first published about 100 years ago, it’s written by Gill, who also goes by the nickname of Pigling Bland. Having wussed out of making ice cream last month, Gill created a chocolate cherry granita using up a store cupboard jar of cherries in brandy, as well as cocoa, sugar and water. She also added some cocoa nibs over the top of the finished granita “to make it even more grown up”.

sidewalkshoes

Pam, author of Sidewalk Shoes, loves all things frozen so just had to enter BSFIC when she found out about it. She turned to ice cream guru David Lebovitz’ book The Perfect Scoop, looking for a recipe she could make from ingredients already in the house. The chocolate coconut sorbet she made looks lovely and I particularly love her beautiful photography. Fans of cold deliciousness should read the next post too, in which Pam makes lemon frozen yoghurt.

sushijunki

There’s Proper Food In There Somewhere is the home of Jacqui aka Sushi Junki.  Jacqui’s entry makes me very happy because it completes the challenge options of sorbets, granitas, shaved ice desserts, slushies and spooms by putting forward a shaved ice dessert, something Jacqui fell in love with whilst living and working in Australia. Jacqui used her food processor to blitz ice cubes into ‘snow’ and then drenched the shaved ice with green tea syrup and condensed milk. She added sweetened adzuki beans, halved lychees and fresh ripe mango.

allthethingsieat

Finally, Jennie from All the things I eat made a blackcurrant and cherry brandy spoom. She made a proper Italian meringue for her spoom, boiling up sugar syrup and adding it to the whipped egg whites and whipping some more. The sorbet was made using frozen fruit mixed with cherry brandy and lemon juice and blended into mush before being frozen briefly to make it a little more solid. Combining the two together resulted in a light, “frozen mousse” dessert.

howtocookgoodfood

I’m usually rather strict about the deadline – call it the school marm in me – but when Laura from How to cook good food dedicated her very first creation using the ice cream machine she was given for her birthday just a few days ago to the BSFIC challenge, how could I say no? So I’m adding Laura’s lemon and ginger sorbet to the round up a few hours late. Happy belated birthday, Laura!

 

And there we have April’s Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

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9 Comments to "Sorbets, Granitas, Shaved Ice, Slushies and Spooms"

  1. Dominic

    OMG Kavey, you should be soooo chuffed with these excellent entries!… everyone has gone to such amazing lengths to create the most beautiful and eclectic selection of sorbets… can’t wait for some bloody sunshine so I can come back and read these and decide which to make first!… well done you!… can’t wait for the next one!

    Reply
  2. Laura@howtocookgoodfood

    Thanks so much Kavey, I am delighted you let me join in! Naturally I shall be joining in again and making as much use as possible of my latest birthday pressie. I already love it dearly :)))

    Reply
  3. Gill Bland

    Thanks Kavey – I am looking forward to finding out what the next challenge is, and maybe one day I’ll stop giggling enough to actually make spoom

    Reply
  4. kaveyeats

    Thanks to all who entered and thanks for reading, so glad everyone is enjoying. x

    Reply

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