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SORBET, FROZEN YOGURT, AND GRANITA

GIANDUJA ICE CREAM; MANGO SORBET; LAVENDER AND HONEY ICE CREAM; RASPBERRY SORBET

As much as we love ice cream, sometimes, especially after a hearty meal, we find ourselves a bit too full for a rich dessert—that’s where sorbet comes in. Sorbet, with its clean flavor and light texture, can be a great palate cleanser.

The best sorbets, unsurprisingly, are made with ripe fruit at the peak of its season. We prefer fruit from the greenmarket—it is always higher in quality than anything we find at the grocery store. The stuff sold in the frozen aisle of your supermarket will pale in comparison to in-season market fruit and, subsequently, what will emerge out of your ice cream maker.

Keep in mind that your sorbet results will vary from batch to batch. First, fruit itself varies in sweetness and moisture content. Additional factors that affect moisture level include where the fruit was grown, the climate during the growth season as well as right before harvesting, and time of year of the harvest itself. Supermarket strawberries will be very different from heirloom farmers’ market varieties, and those at the farmers’ market will vary from farmer to farmer depending on strains, climate, and so on. Likewise, strawberries picked in June will be different from those that become ripe in August.

Because we think of sorbets as a celebration of fruit, we like to keep our sorbets simple: fruit, sugar, maybe a little acid to brighten things up—and that’s pretty much it. We tend to favor tart flavors, so we’ve stuck with our favorites, but sorbet can be made with just about any fruit you like.

While you can definitely play around with sugar amounts, don’t scale sugar up or down too much if you want the sorbet to remain scoopable. It’s always a good idea to let sorbets sit on your counter for about five minutes before scooping. Since they’re mostly sugar and fruit (and fruit contains a lot of water), sorbets can freeze harder than ice creams and some, like Lemon, might even feel icy right out of the freezer.

We also love a good frozen yogurt, but perhaps we’re a bit boring in that we like the most basic, simplest kind. If you want to spruce yours up, you can always include a chocolate swirl, rhubarb compote, or any add-ins you might like.

Finally, because we love granitas, we share our two favorites, Watermelon and Espresso—they’re our go-to frozen desserts when we’re on vacation and away from our beloved ice cream machines. Unsurprisingly, rental home kitchens don’t come equipped with an ice cream machine (or much in the way of kitchen equipment), and it’s wonderful to have a low-tech option that’s delicious and easy to throw together.