Kids Cuisine

Perhaps it’s a little odd to whip out the ice cream machine when the thermometer outside is barely nudging sixty, but what can I say, I’m an optimist — with a desperate yearning for warmer weather. That, and I find myself at the change of seasons with a taste for spring and a surplus of winter fruit. That is, my fridge is stuffed with pounds of juicy-sweet pink grapefruit that I picked up for a song at my overloaded grocer’s. And I’m a firm believer that when life hands you grapefruit . . . well, obviously, you make sorbet.

Since I’ve been reading David Lebovitz’s fabulous ice cream book, The Perfect Scoop, I wanted to try the grapefruit sorbet recipe out of that. But as it contains a significant amount of champagne and there was no way I was going to get the kids to juice all that grapefruit and NOT get to eat the resulting sorbet, I went to plan B. I modified a few ingredients, tossed them into my ice-cream maker, froze the sorbet overnight, and voila — Change of Seasons Pink Grapefruit Sorbet!

Pink Grapefruit Sorbet

• 1 tablespoon freshly grated grapefruit zest
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 3 cups water
• 2 1/2 cups freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice
• Red food coloring (if desired)

Combine zest, sugar, corn syrup, and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves; lower heat to medium-low; and then let boil gently for about 10 minutes, until the syrup reduces and thickens somewhat. Remove from heat and let cool over an ice-water bath or in fridge until cold.

Pour the grapefruit juice through a strainer. Stir the chilled syrup into the grapefruit juice and add a couple of drops of red food coloring, until the mixture is dark pinkish red. (It will lighten up considerably during churning.)

Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. After churning is complete, spoon into a freezer-safe container and freeze until firm.

Makes about 12 servings