Guilt Free Strawberry Sorbet - Almost

Summer in a bowl!

It was very warm this past weekend and I had a real hankering for some ice cream. I have to admit to a significant amount of whining. Now for this reason and that, we try to keep sugar out of the house. Lately fatty food has been fooda-non-grata too. Yeah, yeah, I know; what is a chocolate lover doing banishing sugar and fat?!?! Well, that’s just the way it is – most of the time - of course I fall off the wagon a lot, but I try. Then, the fabulous M had a brilliant idea – let’s have some sugar free, low fat ice cream – he’d even buy me a present - an ice cream maker.

Well, just the thought of a present made me take notice, but sugar free AND fat free ice cream? What’s the point? Never one to turn down a present, especially a kitchen power tool – I hopped in the car and away we went shopping.

Luckily I haven’t gotten over my need for strawberries yet…and since I have a new toy why not use both! I carefully read the instructions while depositing my tank in the freezer for an unbearable 6 hrs! I tweaked the provided Strawberry Sorbet recipe and replaced the sugar with Splenda. I left the corn syrup in though as I was concerned about crystallization, so there is still a bit of "sugar" left in the recipe. I chopped, I whirred, I chilled and then it was time to deposit my creation into my new toy!

In a surprisingly short amount of time I had a beautiful soft serve textured sorbet that was an explosion of strawberries and sweetness in the mouth. I diligently followed the instructions to "ripen" the sorbet in the freezer for 2 hours…kind of a mistake! Because I hadn’t used a true sugar syrup, my sorbet turned a bit hard due to crystallization. Next time I will cut the curing to about 45 minutes before eating. A little time to melt on the counter helped, but the texture was not as “creamy” as it could have been. It is definitely a sacrifice I am willing to make though, for something I can eat with wild abandon and zero guilt! The flavor was still great, it was low sugar (not sugar free, bummer) and completely FAT FREE. I’ll make this again…and again…and again.

STRAWBERRY SORBET RECIPE