As the end of winter is approaching, I couldn’t be more excited to share a regular winter dessert that we make when blood oranges are in abundance. When we took a trip to Rome for our honeymoon many years ago, I was surprised to find that my favorite part of visiting Rome was not the sightseeing or the pasta, but tasting all the different gelati and sorbets. At just about every corner, you’ll find a gelateria claiming to have the best flavors in the eternal city. Instead of ordering a decadent dessert at the end of our meal, we would head to a gelateria and grab a scoop (usually two or more) to cool down in the scorching summer heat. With the cones in our hands, we made our way to the steps at Trevi fountain to enjoy our gelato and sorbets and people watch.
One of my favorite sorbets was blood orange and chocolate chip because it was unlike anything that I had in the US. The flavor of orange was intense with a raspberry undertone and nicely balanced with the dark chocolate chips peppered throughout. Since our trip to Rome, I tried to recreate that sorbet every winter when blood orange is in season. This is the closest I got to recreating the blood orange and chocolate chip sorbet from memory. Enjoy!
Blood orange and chocolate chip sorbet
½ cup of simple syrup
2 cups of freshly squeezed blood orange juice, strained
pinch of salt
¼ cup of your favorite dark chocolate chip, chopped (I used Toll House)
2:1 simple syrup
1 cup of sugar
½ cup of water
1. To make the 2:1 simple syrup, whisk water and sugar in a small saucepan and cook on medium heat and stir until the mixture comes to a boil and the sugar has dissolved completely.
2. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let it cool completely.
3. To make the blood orange sorbet, add the simple syrup, orange juice, and salt in a saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat.
4. Remove the mixture from heat and let it cool completely.
5. Refrigerate the mixture for 4 hours or overnight to let the flavor develop.
6. When ready to churn, pour the blood orange mixture into the your ice cream machine, stir in the chocolate chip, and churn according to the manufacturer’s instruction. (My machine takes about 25-30 minutes to get a lovely soft serve consistency.)
7. When the sorbet is ready, scoop out the sorbet into a freezer proof container. The sorbet can be served after 4 hours or stored up to two weeks.
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