Vanilla Coconut Pine Lime Sorbet

Well the weather's finally starting to warm up. I'm so ready for spring, summer and SORBET! This is just a quick post to try out my new laptop (yay!) and share my new favourite flavour of sorbet. It's so refreshing, a perfect intro to the warmer weather.

These flavours were inspired by what's been in my vege box lately. Creamy and tropical, this is a great one for those of us who need a dairy free replacement for ice cream... you'd swear it has cream in it! I'm so addicted to coconut cream ice-creams. I hope you like it too. :)

Note: You will need to freeze the pineapple pieces and the coconut cream ahead of time!

1. Grind vanilla, rapadura & lime zest on speed 9 for 30 seconds, or until finely ground:

- 80g Rapadura (or to taste)

- 1 vanilla bean, snipped in a few pieces

- Zest of 2 limes

(If you don't have a vanilla bean, just use a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract in the last step.) 

2. Add the ice cubes and grind on speed 9 for 10 seconds:

- 350g ice cubes

3. Add the frozen coconut cream and grind on speed 9 for 10 seconds:

- 450g coconut cream, frozen in ice cube trays (either tinned, or make your own from fresh or dried coconut)

4. Add frozen pineapple pieces, the two whole 2 limes (without skin), and the egg white. Process on speed 9 until creamy, pushing mixture down with spatula as needed.

- 2 limes, skin removed
- 300g frozen pineapple pieces

- 1 egg white (optional)

Quick Chocolate Sorbet

Being dairy-free makes it difficult sometimes when you're craving chocolate desserts - they all seem to have milk or cream in them! But after seeing a recipe for chocolate sorbet, I realized it was a completely milk-free dessert, and something I definitely needed to add to my 'repertoire'! So when some friends came over for lunch the other day, I gave it a go in the Thermomix - not the usual version, where you make a chocolate syrup, freeze it, reblend it, etc, etc... can't be bothered with that. I wanted an INSTANT version, where you don't have to wait forever to get your chocolate fix!

(It was starting to melt by the time I took this photo, as we left it sitting in the Thermomix while we went running around the yard looking for an egg, so we could add an egg white to make it more creamy! ...Finally found one - those confounded chickens have been hiding their eggs... I was very tempted to squeeze one to see if I could get an egg to pop out!)

This way of making a chocolate sorbet is not quite as smooth as if you made it the traditional way - you can taste the little slivers of chocolate as they haven't been melted - but nobody complained! The second time I made it, I tried slightly melting the chocolate, Rapadura, cocoa, coffee, vanilla and salt; blended them together, then added the egg white and ice and ground it all up... but I found it worked better when you didn't try melting them. Just make sure you grind the Rapadura and chocolate really, really well, before adding the other indgredients.

You can add less Rapadura and more cocoa if you like a darker chocolate flavour. Enjoy!

1. In your Thermomix bowl, pulverise on speed 9 for 30 seconds:
- 200g Rapadura

2. Add chocolate, and pulverise on speed 9 for another 30 seconds, until it's a very fine powder:
- 170g good quality dairy free dark chocolate, chopped in small pieces (eg: 70% cocoa Rapadura chocolate, or make your own with this recipe, or this recipe)

3. Add, and pulverise on speed 9 for 1 minute, using the spatula to help it mix:
- 30g good quality cocoa powder (eg: Planet Organic Cocoa)
- 2 Tblspns strong brewed coffee
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 egg white (opt. for creamier result)
- 700g ice cubes (add half first, grind a few seconds, then add the rest)

4. Eat it quickly before it melts!
...or freeze in a shallow tray, or in ice cube trays, and reblend when ready to serve.