Grape Sorbet

Last fall my dear friend, Laurel’s grape vines were loaded with plump, juicy Concord Grapes, after promising lots of grape jelly she let me pick my fill.  These grapes made phenomenally delicious grape jelly and after making several batches I finally ran out of jelly jars. I had just about a quart of pure Concord Grape juice leftover, so I stuck it in my freezer and promptly forgot about it.

Roll time ahead to the first of July.  I am planning on attending the annual cookout with Laurel and our friends and the grape juice that lay frozen in my freezer popped into my head.  We had been experiencing a hot spell and I had recently retrieved my little manual Ice Cream Maker from the back of the cupboard in the hopes of making something cold soon, so that led to the idea of a lovely Grape Sorbet.

I love my little Donvier and got the the quart tub into the freezer to prepare for the sorbet. I am sure you can make this in any type maker or just pour it into a shallow 9 x 12 pan and make it into a granita

The recipe was really simple.

Concord Grape Sorbet

1 qt of unsweetened Concord Grape Juice

1/2 cup of superfine sugar

the zest of one lemon

2 tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice.

Put all of the ingredients into a sauce pan and heat on medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Pour into a container, allow it too cool then chill in your refridgerator over night.

Once the juice mixture is chilled well and your ice cream maker is ready to go, pour the chilled liquid into the ice cream maker and follow the directions for your machine until it forms in to a thick slushy consistency.

Now comes the really hard part.  Scrape into a container and stick it into the freezer for several hours or overnight.  Of course you can ‘taste’ it but it was really hard to not eat it all.

Once it was frozen, scoop into pretty dishes, garnish with a lemon twist or sprig of mint and enjoy.

This fall, we will all be fighting over the grapes for sure.