Mirabelle Plum Sorbet
In our Italian garden we have two plum trees laden with fruit. And there is no better way of eating it than turning it into ice cream like this Mirabelle plum sorbet.
Once you get the knack of making sorbet or ice cream, you don’t need a recipe. You know the ingredients, the measures and the preparation by rote. Still, I was encouraged to write this down by our neighbour. One day when we invited him over for a cup of coffee, he said he’d rather have a taste of my ‘sorbetto di prugnelle’. So instead of coffee, he had a glass of Mirabelle plum sorbet, and the next day his mother came by to ask for the recipe in writing. So this recipe is for Mimina.
It is important for this recipe that you have a food mill of the ‘passaverdure’ kind, as it makes it so much easier to get rid of stones and skin from the plums. If you don’t have a food mill, you will have to remove each stone and skin each plum separately, which is kind of tedious.
Ingredients
1 kg Mirabelle plums
250 g sugar
1 vanilla pod
1 egg white
Preparation
Wash the plums and boil them in a saucepan under lid with about 200 ml water. The water should be just enough to prevent the plums from burning.
When the Mirabelle plums have turned into mush, you can turn off the heat, and let them cool a little before running the whole lot through the food mill.
Discard the stones and skin that does not pass through the sieve.
Slice the vanilla pod open, scrape out the seeds and mix them with a teaspoon sugar.
Return the Mirabelle plum pure to the saucepan and bring it to the boil adding sugar, vanilla sugar and vanilla pod.
Turn off the heat after 10 minutes and let the jam cool.
Beat the egg white to a light foam and fold it into the jam just before freezing.
If you have got an ice cream maker, you can use it now.
Otherwise you pour the plum mixture into a strong plastic box, place it in the freezer , and remember to stir it vigorously with a fork once an hour to prevent crystallization.
You can stop the stirring regime, when the sorbet has an even creamy texture.
Serve the Mirabelle plum sorbet with a selection of other fruits like fresh plums or marsala cherries.
Mirabelle plums are in LA as well. Love your recipe. Thanks
It’s good to have a chance to use all the home grown bounty