1 In gardening/ good eats/ let's go outside/ organic food/ real food/ recipes/ tips and tools

a simple real food recipe :: cherry vanilla sherbet :: dairy free option

We absolutely LOVE cherry season here in Michigan!

We are known as one of the largest cherry producers nationwide – we have just the perfect weather conditions and season from what I have been told!

We did not get to go cherry picking this year – 9 months pregnant, tall ladders, keeping up with a very curious 2 year old, and a very independent 4 year old just didn’t add up to a very smart idea this year. But we have some wonderful local cherry farmers that offer already picked cherries for just as good of a price as the U Picks, and we picked up a good 10 pounds for our freezer stash last week.

This is one of my favorite ways to eat cherries besides fresh – SO creamy, refreshing, and flavorful! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

a simple real food recipe :: cherry vanilla sherbet :: dairy free option

Author: Renee - www.theSIMPLEmoms.com

Ingredients

4 cups fresh pitted cherries (could use frozen – just thaw and drain)
¼ - ½ cup sucanat, organic pure cane sugar, or honey
1 ½ cups whole milk (Raw preferable, or at least non homogenized and low pasturiezed. If you are dairy free use coconut milk or make your own coconut milk!)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 TB organic vodka (This helps the sherbet not to freeze rock hard – you could use a cherry flavored alcohol if you have it!)

Instructions

Put the cherries and sugar in a medium sauce pan and bring to a simmer. Use a potato masher or something similar to squish the cherries some and let the juices simmer about 10 minutes.
Puree the cherry/sugar mixture.
Pour the cherry puree in a medium mixing bowl along with the rest of the ingredients and blend with handheld mixer.
Put the sherbet mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
Give the mixture a quick blend again before pouring into your ice cream maker and process in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. Mine takes about 30 minutes.
Pour the sherbet into a container for the freezer and freeze a good 6-12 hours (if you can wait that long!). I use my big empty coconut oil jugs for storing ice cream 😉

Kitchen Tips:

Use whatever fruit is in season where you are right now! Seriously! Raspberries, blackberries, peaches! YUM!
Sweeten the mixture to your taste – our cherries were SO sweet they really just needed a ¼ cup but I have used up to a ½ cup with other fruit if they aren’t as sweet.
If you are dairy free, HERE is a safe coconut milk in a BPA free container, or you can make your own!
HERE is the ice cream maker I use!
If you have a high powered blender you could just do all the mixing right in there – I have a food processor and it purees beautifully but doesn’t fit all the liquid of the sherbet, so that is why I transfer it to a bowl to mix.
Try using almond extract vs the vanilla – cherry amamretto sherbet!

YOUR TURN!
Please tell me you are going to try this! Let me know what fruit you use and how it turns out!

This post was shared at Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday, and Holistic Squid’s Party Wave Wednesday!

July 17, 2013 By Renee

About Renee

the real food hippie :: renee is married to her superman and mama to her 3 busy bees. she loves soaking up the sun, real butter, and julia child. her passion is helping people take baby steps to raise a real food generation in this world of highly processed food – one with healed guts, functioning minds, and solid health. she also blogs at Raising Generation Nourished. Find more of Renee on twitter pinterest and Google+.