Dark Chocolate Sorbet with Sour Cherries | Cuisinart Sorbet Recipe

Recipe: Dark Chocolate Sorbet with Sour Cherries Recipe »

Sorbet is just about the most delicious way to cool off during Summer and when I received an ice cream maker to try I flicked through their recipe booklet and my eyes zeroed in on the Dark Chocolate Sorbet. It's an item I've had in many a high end restaurant which of course is precisely why I liked this gadget in the first place. The recipe is incredibly easy to do, the only thing you would need to watch is that your freezer is at least -18c and that you freeze the bowl for at least 12 hours at this temperature which is pretty much the only vital part of it.

You don't always need an ice cream maker to make sorbet. I've made a delicious lemon sorbet and mango sorbet without one.

I bought some Valrhona cocoa powder in Tokyo during my last holiday and it was itching to be used. I also used some deliciously dark chocolate (once I wrenched it out of my husband's hands) and a bit of whisking and a bit of refrigeration and I was ready.

I could have partnered these with tuiles but given my last stressful experience with them, I paired it with sour cherries, those gorgeous cherries that remind me of strudel.

I'm not one for gadgetry. I couldn't really care less what kind of phone that I use (although admittedly I expressed a brief interest in the Prada LG phone until I realised that it was not 3G-imagine that with the price tag!). But that was more due to the brand lust than any sort of interest in the gadget itself (yes call me a Fashion Victim). My husband and many of his gender are gadget mad, marveling at the latest and newest of anything (Playstation, Nintendo, video games, Wii) whilst I go the other way, searching for antiques and vintage items.

One exception to this are certain kitchen products. I don't mean the clutter that you may amass of useless gadgets but rather items that allow you to reproduce store-bought or restaurant quality items at home. The ice cream maker is a case in point. I was given a Cuisinart ice cream maker to road test. I was a bit hesitant when I was told that it was one of those bowls that you froze, I didn't have a lot of success with another one that we got for our wedding a couple of years ago. Indeed I was so scarred that I also have a gift with purchase  Kitchenaid ice cream bowl that remains untouched, not even removed from the box and it currently sits in the cupboard way up high where I can't reach it.

But of course when the weather quickly turns to Summer, I was convinced.

Dark Chocolate Sorbet with Sour Cherries

• 2 1/2 cups water

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar

• 40g good quality cocoa

• 85 grams best quality chocolate (finely chopped or blitzed in a food processor)

• 1 tablespoon vanilla

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Step 1 - In a small or medium saucepan, whisk water and sugar on medium heat until sugar dissolves.

Step 2 - Whisk in cocoa until smooth and simmer for 3 minutes.

Step 3 - Remove from heat and whisk in finely chopped chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon.

Step 4 - Cool and refrigerate for 8 hours.

Step 5 - Place in ice cream maker and churn for 20 minutes. It won't get to the desired sorbet consistency, it will stop as a soft serve consistency so once churned place in a container in the freezer to firm up for several more hours or overnight.