Kriek lambic sorbet

SERVES 6–8

Lambic, a style of beer that originated in an area southwest of Brussels known as Pajottenland, is unique because the brewer allows the unfermented beer, known as wort, to be infected by wild yeast, and this can only be done from October to May when the weather conditions are right. The beer is then aged for one to three years before being blended with young lambic, bottled and sold as gueuze lambic. Gueuze can be described as being very tart, cidery, sweet, sour and dry all at the same time. Lambic is also used to make a fruit beer by adding fruit or fruit syrup to it and allowing a secondary fermentation. This is then bottled and sold according to the fruit used. Kriek lambic is made by using morello cherries in the fermenting process, thus giving the beer a sweet–sour cherry character. Other flavours include raspberry (framboise lambic) and blackcurrant (cassis lambic), among others.

165 g (5¾ oz/¾ cup) caster (superfine) sugar

500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) kriek lambic

Place the sugar and 125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) water in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly without boiling until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat, bring the syrup to the boil, then boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in the kriek lambic, then tip the mixture into a glass bowl or container with a lid and place in the freezer overnight.

The next day, use a fork to scrape the surface of the sorbet, breaking it up – it will not have frozen solid because of the sugar and alcohol content. Put the sorbet scrapings and chunks into a food processor and blitz until the sorbet is all broken up and the texture becomes silky, about 5 minutes or so.

Pour the mixture into a running ice-cream machine and churn for 20–30 minutes. Spoon into a container with a lid and freeze until you are ready to serve.

Alternatively, pour the mixture out of the food processor into a shallow tray and place in the freezer. Beat it vigorously once it has started to freeze, as this will break up the ice crystals. Repeat this three or four more times, until the sorbet is set, with no big ice crystals visible. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and freeze until required.