Those of you who’ve been reading our blog for a while might recall that we received a bottle of lemon vodka for Christmas.
It sat unopened in our hall cupboard until I found this simple recipe in the Silver Spoon cookbook. Serendipitously, both the cookbook and the vodka were gifts from our friends Pete and Nic!
- 3 lemons
- 200g (7oz) caster (superfine) sugar
- 50ml (10 teaspoons) vodka
- 500ml (2 cups) water
1. Thinly pare the rind of one lemon and squeeze the juice of all of them.
2. Place the water, sugar and rind into a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil for 15 minutes, then remove from heat. Remove and discard the rind, and allow the mixture to cool.
3. Strain the lemon juice into the syrup and add the vodka, stir to combine, then pour into an icecream maker and churn until frozen. The alcohol keeps the sorbet relatively soft and scoopable straight out of the freezer.
As the vodka isn’t heated, the sorbet packs quite an alcoholic punch. Best shared with neighbours who can walk home!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Yumo, I am just waiting on a part for my Kitchen Aid ice cream maker & then I think this will be the first thing I will make with it. Can’t wait! Thank You.
I can’t believe it, One of my posts next week is a sorbet too! Great minds must really think alike. I will try and put it off for a week. Yours sounds so good, Yumm…
You’re most welcome, Keri, I hope you enjoy it! Our icecream maker has been getting a bit of a workout lately with all the eggs! :)
Oh please don’t put it off, R, I’d love to see how you make yours! I’ve got a chocolate icecream recipe coming soon too. You can tell we’re heading into summer downunder, eh? :)
Celia this little darlin’ is right up my street, with summer dinner parties just around the corner I’m going to give this a whirl, will be checking out Rebecca’s icecream too (we have a grown up icecream monster in our family)
This would be brillant to have once the weather warms up a little here. Dear Melbourne: it’s spring, so please bring the sunshine out already!
The only time I use alcohol other than red wine, is to spike my baking :) Otherwise it just sits in the cupboard too. I must get my hands on some Vodka for this recipe though.
Yumm-o!
Your post has just cleansed my palate, Celia.
A wonderful recipe…love sorbet but without the “Head Freezers”…too much of this and it would probably last till morning!!xx
Mmmm…that would go down very nicely on a hot evening. My mind was wandering to ice cream making as well. I’ll bet you are making some gorgeous ice creams with all your eggs!…you just need a house cow now.
Anna, it’s such a simple little recipe, and I was so happy to have a reason to use my lemon vodka! :)
Emma, I’d love to send some sunshine down, but it’s decided to bucket down this afternoon here in Sydney! :)
Gill, thank you! It was very moreish – I think Pete and I knocked the whole batch off in two sittings…
Yvette, I think we figured out it made about four serves, each half a nip of vodka..hahaha
Brydie, please don’t say that too loud. I’m sure it’s against council regulations to keep a cow in the backyard. ;-)
What a wonderful recipe, I would love to see it adapted to a strawberry or blueberry version…or pair the lemon sorbet with a strawberry or blueberry sorbet. Will you tell me what moreish means? We don’t use the word here. Can’t wait to make this, may try it with Limoncello and see how it turns out. Enjoy your summer as we are in the early stages of fall. Sara
Sarah, here’s the definition from the encarta dictionary! This is the only sorbet we’ve tried so far, but I love the idea of blueberry sorbet, thanks! :)
more·ish [ máwrish ] or mor·ish [ máwrish ]
adjective
Definition:
U.K. extremely enjoyable to eat or drink: so good to eat or drink that you keep wanting more of it
hmmmmmmmm….what a fantastic sorbet! Our friends gave us an ice cream maker that I have to start making more use of 8). Glad that it’s Belverdere vodka you’re having ;)
Yum.
Mmm! We might be headed towards cool weather here in the Northern Hemisphere, but lemon vodka sorbet sounds delicious no matter what the temp is outside.
In fact- I think it would go good with gingerbread instead of a lemon sauce!
Thanks, Celia, you’re brilliant!
Waw, Celia!!
What a lovely & festive looking sorbet,..Only for grown ups, that’s for sure!
Just made a batch of lemon truffles and now this has got me thinking. Looks divine!
Sophisticated Sydneyites sip slushy sitron sorbet
oh no!!!! this is the wrong post….. ;-)
Soy, Belvedere is good? That’s nice to know. The icecream maker gets a big workout here – choc ice cream recipe coming soon, plus the InTolerant Chef will be posting a sorbet on her blog in the near future as well. Bring on summer! :)
Anna, Sophie, Gill, thank you! :)
Heidi, I’m not brilliant, the Silver Spoon cookbook is. Brilliance is thinking to pair it with gingerbread.. ;-)
Jo, a-little a-lliteration never goes a-stray..hahaha
So looking forward to summer! Do you eat this totally alone or is there something you could eat it with? Re cows: dwarf fruit trees have taken off, maybe we can expect Bunnings to start stocking dwarf backyard cows. Would you consider a milkable sheep? I love sheep’s cheese.
We just scoffed this, almost straight out of the container! ;-)
Glad to hear your dwarf fruit trees are going well, our dwarf apples are just starting to flour. Pete said that now we have chickens, we’re not allowed any more stock in the backyard! ;-)
Celia this looks so summery lovely. I once made a vodka and mango sorbet that was pretty heavy on the alcohol too. I made it as the dessert for ‘happy hour’ at our place (a monthly finger food event held with a group of food focussed friends when we all lived nearby and didn’t have to drive home – great fun to place parameters around the kind of food we could serve). So easy – much easier than ice-cream!
Isn’t having foodie neighbours just the best thing? Vodka and mango sounds fantastic!
Oh. My. I do like the sounds of this one, Celia! Just perfect for a hot summer night with friends…. :)
Must heave out our icecream machine again, it’s just a small one with a freezable bowl…hasn’t disappointed us yet!
It was definitely sorbet day today! How hot was it? Phew! This is just the ticket for days like this :)
Chris, your icecream maker sounds exactly like ours – we only have a little one with a freezable bowl. I think it hold about four cups. We’ve had ours for 22 years now, and it certainly gets a good workout! :)
Lorraine, wasn’t it lovely to have a hot spring day? Nice change from all the rain we’ve been getting… :)
hey Celia, i found your blog through Anna’s, and thought i’d say hello! as soon as i saw the Belvedere Citron, i knew we’d get along. looking forward to reading more :)
Angela, thanks for stopping by! :)