Chocolate Sherbet | cooking ala mel

I learned something new today. Does everybody know the difference between sorbet and sherbet? I sure didn’t. While looking for an ice cream recipe, I found David Lebovitz’s chocolate sherbet in my bookmarked pages, and he very nicely explained it in his post (see link below). Sherbet contains dairy, whereas a sorbet does not. Otherwise, they have the same ingredients. I knew sorbet was European, and I know we used to eat orange sherbet when I was little..and it was always creamy. I’m not sure if I’ve ever had sorbet. But that’s about as far as my knowledge went.

Now, in my adaptation to David’s recipe, I used some fat free half-and-half. Considering it’s still low fat, I’m just going to hope that it didn’t completely change the identity of the sherbet to something else. It’s definitely still light like a sherbet! I opted to use amaretto instead of Kahlua. I always enjoy a bit of almond essence. It really intensifies the chocolate flavor here; this sherbet is by no means light in flavor. It’s very, very dark chocolate.

This would be wonderful topped with some fresh raspberries.. I can never have enough chocolate and raspberry together. Yum yum. I’m a girl that has a really hard time having ice cream without something on top or mixed in, so even though you really don’t need the dark chocolate syrup one bit, it was just enough to make my need for toppings happy without destroying the natural flavors of the sherbet. Which are absolutely perfect on their own.

Chocolate Sherbet

adapted from David Lebovitz

makes about 1 quart

½ cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup agave nectar

3 packets truvia

2 cups half-and-half (I used fat free..keeping it a sherbet)

1 cup milk

3.5 oz. dark chocolate (I used Lindt’s 90%)

¼ t vanilla

2 T amaretto (or almond extract is fine, too), optional

In a saucepan, heat the half-and-half with the cocoa powder, agave and truvia, while stirring. Bring to a boil and then simmer. Remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate, vanilla and amaretto. Stir in the milk. Place in the fridge until fully chilled, about 1-2 hours. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

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