Craving a frozen chocolate treat but don’t want ice cream or frozen yogurt? Then make this creamy, bittersweet chocolate sorbet. It’ll satisfy your chocolate craving in no time!
You know the feeling when you really, really, really want something and then don’t get it? Yeah, well, that happened to me a few weeks ago.
One of our favorite ice cream places in town hosted a sweepstakes where the winner would get a full hour of free ice cream for them and 50 of their closest friends. I entered the sweepstakes and hoped to win, but alas, I never got the email. Boo.
My husband and I even began listing the people that we’d invite to our ice cream party and wondered if we even knew 50 people who would be in town for the celebration. While we never got to finish our guest list, my craving for ice cream remained strong.
Another bit of disappointing news was that I didn’t have any heavy cream in the house. What’s a girl to do when she craves ice cream but has no heavy cream in the house (and driving to buy some or going to an ice cream parlor were not viable options at the time). Well, I decided on something else that was equally as satisfying – chocolate sorbet.
Sorbet feels like one of those forgotten cousins of ice cream. It’s usually icy and not that awesome. Don’t get me wrong – there are some amazing sorbets out there, but they are far and few between.
This recipe from Joanne Chang starts off with caramelized sugar, which actually lowers the freezing point of the sorbet and prevents its from getting so icy. Genius, right?
Bittersweet chocolate sorbet
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 and 1/2 cups water divided
- 3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder I used Hershey's Dark
- 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate 62%-70% dark, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Place the sugar in a medium saucepan. Pour 1/2 cup of the water over the sugar so it moistens it. Turn the stove on high and allow the mixture to boil vigorously (this will take several minutes). Whatever you do, do not mix it! If you must, you can swirl the pan. After several minutes, the liquid will start to turn an amber color. Continue swirling the pan around until the liquid is a dark amber color and you can smell it.
- Take the pan off the stove and very slowly start to pour in the remaining 3 cups of water. Be careful, because the water will splatter once it touches the caramel. Stand back while you do this so you don't get burnt sugar on you. The caramel will harden on the bottom.
- Put the saucepan back on the stove over high heat and return it to a boil. Now, using a spatula, keep mixing the liquid until the caramel completely melts. This may take a few minutes. Then add in the cocoa powder and keep stirring until no powder remains. Turn the stove off.
- Place the chopped chocolate in a large bowl. Gently pour the hot caramel mixture into the bowl with the chopped chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted.
- Then place a fine mesh sieve over another large bowl (preferably one with a lid or can go in the refrigerator). Pour the chocolate mixture through the sieve into the bowl. Add the vanilla extract and salt and mix. Allow to cool and then refrigerate overnight.
- Churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and store in your freezer. It will last for at least a week.