Once again, this weird and out-of-place Ice-Cream-in-Cold-Weather craving came knocking at my door today. Well actually, at least this time, it wasn’t all that out-of-place, come to think of it… You see, I don’t live far away from the largest and most beautiful park in town, so whenever I need a whiff of fresh air, some peace or simply a bit of nature to power up my batteries, I go for a walk through that park.

Right around this time of the year, at around 3-4 p.m each day, the entire area is ablaze with the most stunning, picture-perfect postcard-shot definition of “Autumn”, even if the sun is doing her November-best, hiding behind a stereotype-thick layer of grey goo. Today, while hubby and I were enjoying one of these walks together, on an impromptu afternoon-off, the sun was doing a magnificent job turning the winding paths between the huge trees of the park into a living caleidoscope of bright colors, putting the park’s famously well-groomed spring- and summertime flower arrangements to naked shame. One group of trees in particular, reminded me so much of a bowl of tangerines and blood oranges, what with the swirls of deep red, bright orange and a couple of green dots shining through from the evergreens in the background, that I couldn’t help but stop in my track and look at the scene for a few moments. Just long enough to feel the sun warming up my face, which, in combination with the winter-citrus-fruity visual, made me crave something along the lines of a wintery… citrusy… ice cream or sorbet! Luckily, I had just the recipe to act on that impulse as soon as we arrived back home! Oh by the way, I had a sorbet like this as a palate-cleansing course between the fish and the meat course at a white-tablecloth shindig on Madeira last year, so if you find the idea of a sorbet’y dessert in Winter a bit strange, simply scratch the “dessert”, think of a mid-meal refreshment and picture the most beautiful sunset at your favorite beach while you’re eating it~! How’s that for a November-ick and -Blues repellant? Here’s what you need:

The Tangerine Sorbet
400g Tangerines, carefully peeled and separated into segments, possibly even skinned if you’re lucky enough to have tangerines with loose inner skins on hand. Don’t bother otherwise – you can use tinned tangerines or mandarin oranges – make sure they’re preserved in their own, unsugared juice and spare a smile for the retro vibe tinned mandarines always give off~
1 unwaxed Lemon for 1 Tsp of Zest and Juice of the whole – if you can get your hands on unwaxed, organic tangerines, use a bit of zest of one of those instead of the lemon
150ml Water
100g Fine Caster Sugar
2 Tbsp Liquid Glucose

1) Pop the fruit, the zest and the juice into the jug of your blender and whizz the lot into a smooth purée.
2) Transfer the fruity mix to a sealable container and place it in the fridge for now.
3) Place a small pot on medium-high heat add the water and stir in the sugar.
4) As the liquid is warming up, keep stirring the mixture until the sugar has dissolved completely, then give it a rest and allow it to work up a gentle boil.
5) Once the syrup has been merrily bubbling for 4-5 mins, take the pot off the heat and stir in the glucose.
6) Set the pot aside and leave the syrup to cool off entirely.
7) Once both halves of the whole yumtastic deal are ready, whisk them into eachother and either tip them into your ice cream maker or mentally prepare for a bit of a workout.With an ice cream doohickey at your disposal, your work is done apart from a bit of a wait.
8) Whenever your little helper tells you it’s completed the task at hand, transfer the result into a more convenient freezer-proof container and move it into the freezer for now.
9) If you don’t have a convenient ice cream gizmo to do the work for you, transfer your mixture into a wide/shallow freezer-proof container and pop it into the freezer for a first round of about 2 hrs. During that time, a first layer of tell-tale crystals should have formed – if it’s still just a very cold liquid, give it another hour before moving on to the next phase.
10) Thoroughly whisk the mixture – to break up the forming water crystals into smaller and smaller bits to turn the sorbet into a smoother and almost creamy experience later on – every 30 mins for the next 3-4 hrs until your sorbet reaches a stage where that little break is just long enough for it to set to a point where whisking it by hand becomes really really hard.
11) Once you’re there, simply seal the container and leave the sorbet to its own devices until you’re ready to have at it with a spoon~

Enjoy~!

♥