Thirsty Thursday: Homemade Lime Sorbet, for Corona Beer Floats

As promised!

This weekend, one of our friends is hosting a “Trashy Cinco De Mayo” party.  I fought my pun-ish urge to create some sort of dish that featured mayo (seriously…it was tough) and decided that I will be bringing a Hamburger Helper & Tater Tot casserole.  Because nothin’ sez trashy like processed frozen potatoes on top of processed boxed dinner inside a 9x13 pan with CHEEEEESE. 

I’ll provide pics after the party.

But the Turbodog beer float last week inspired me to also make a slightly trashy cocktail that’s a bit “cinco de mayo-y”.  I mean, come on.  “Beer Float” sounds pretty trashy, amiright?
So the natural choice is the classic “bottom of the top shelf beers” —a tasty, ice cold Corona. (No Corona Light…that stuff’s just NASTY.)
To pair, I contemplated lime sherbet…but the dairy component of store-bought sherbet just left me icked out & shuddering.
The Hubs has an ice cream maker though…and this Pinterest-found recipe for lime sorbet sounded too tasty & easy to resist. So here we go!

Ingredients:
Zest of 4 limes
Juice & pulp of 8 limes
Simple Syrup (1 cup water + 1.25 cup sugar, heat & stir until completely dissolved, bring to boil, then let cool)
1 cup cold water
2 tbsp gin or vodka (this is optional, but if you add it, the result is a much smoother sorbet.  The alcohol prevents the sorbet from getting rock hard, so it’s easier to scoop & serve)
Green food coloring (also optional)

Directions:
First and foremost—freeze the bowl compartment for your ice cream maker.  Very important.  Unless you have some sort of fancy ice cream maker that doesn’t require this step.  In which case, I’m jealous.
While your simple syrup is cooking, zest your limes, and enlist the help of your handsome hubby to start juicing them as well.

(Mmm…limes…)

Once you have all your zest and the syrup is done, add the zest into the syrup to infuse the flavor a bit. 
Then add the juice (and the pulp that’s in the juicer) to the pot as well.  Add the cup of cold water, and the (optional) gin or vodka.  Stir well, and then place the pot or bowl into your fridge until it’s completely cooled (we left it in there overnight).


I wasn’t 100% pleased with the color, and since the end product in the recipe I was using came out almost white, I wanted to make sure that ours was going to have a green tinge to it, for presentation.  So of course… I added food coloring!!!  (Nothing says “trashy” like Yellow 5 and Blue Lake 40!)

One drop should suffice.

(After adding the food coloring, for comparison.)

Now, get out your ice cream maker.  Once your sorbet mix is totally cooled, you can get the bowl compartment out of the freezer.  Reassemble your machine, plug in, turn on.
Now start adding your sorbet mix into the machine.

(Churn, baby churn!)

Let the all-powerful magic frozen treat maker machine do its work, and about 15-20 minutes later, you have THIS:

It might still be a little soupy in places, depending on the awesomeness of your ice cream maker.  So scrape out the machine into an airtight container & place in the freezer until ready to serve.

For a float:

1/2 cup (one standard ice cream scoop) sorbet + 1 beer = AWESOME.

 

(Half-size version shown for presentation—I used a melon baller to make the small scoops.)

NutriFacts: (per float)
Calories 259.4
  Total Fat 0.0 g
  Saturated Fat 0.0 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g
  Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g
  Cholesterol 0.0 mg
  Sodium 26.0 mg
  Potassium 45.0 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 41.2 g
  Dietary Fiber 1.7 g
  Sugars 25.6 g
  Protein 1.7 g
  Vitamin C 19.0 %



One 1/2 cup scoop of sorbet by itself?   115 calories.  SOOOO yummy & refreshing.  Like the frozen lemonades/limeades you get at theme parks or baseball games.

Can’t wait for this party!

What are YOU doing for Cinco de Mayo?