Summer is in full swing here–sunny outside (most days, anyway) and blissfully quiet at work. I get up in the morning and it’s sunny; I get home in the evening and it’s light out until after 9:00, plenty of time to play fetch with Roux and then sit on the deck and enjoy the evening, sometimes with a glass of wine. It’s wonderful! The pup is exhausted and the people are happy. The cat, well, he’s mad that he can’t go outside but seems to love to sit by the screen door and watch the birds and the bugs, and meow dramatically at us. Really, this time of year makes my heart happy.

As I’ve mentioned in a few posts, this time of year also brings berries in addition to the long sunny days. The strawberries grown in Washington that I buy at the market tend to be little flavor bombs that go from perfectly ripe to a moldy mess in a blink of an eye. That doesn’t stop me from buying lots of them during the all-too-short growing season–I just have to eat lots of them, with Skip’s help of course, or turn them in to delicious things that will last longer than a day or two, like shrub (try it with balsamic vinegar!) or sorbet/ice cream/some kind of frozen goodie. Well, this past weekend I picked up some delicious strawberries, some of the last of the season, and happened to have some buttermilk in the fridge so I thought, why not…these two might work together! And, boy did they ever! You should try this, seriously. Sherbet might be my new favorite thing this summer.

This recipe was inspired by a lemon buttermilk sherbet recipe in David Lebowitz’s book, The Perfect Scoop, that I’m going to have to try one of these days, too. A little note on sherbet, it is typically made with fruit and dairy unlike sorbets, which do not contain dairy. The fruit flavor can be more intense because there’s less fat to dull the flavors so, use fruit that is pretty ripe and flavorful.

Strawberry-Buttermilk Sherbet
Tools & stuff: Electric ice cream maker

1 lb (450 g) Strawberries, rinsed, hulled, & quartered
3/4 C (150 g) Granulated sugar
1 Tbsp (0.5 oz) Limoncello (optional)
2 C (526 g) Buttermilk*
2 Tblsp (1 oz) Vodka

Details:

• Combine strawberries, sugar, limoncello, & pinch of salt. Let sit for 1 hour, stirring a few times.
• Transfer the strawberry mixture to a blender, puree—leave some chunks or puree till smooth, your preference.
• Stir in the buttermilk; transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until cold, preferably overnight. Place the container that you’ll store the sherbet in after it’s churned in the freezer and let it get very cold.
• Pour into the freezing container of an electric ice maker; add the vodka. Oh, if you have some ice pop molds or something like the Zoku ice pop maker, pour the chilled mixture, minus the vodka, into the molds instead and make some yummy frozen pops!
• Churn until creamy. Transfer to the chilled container and store in the freezer.
• Before serving, let chill in the freezer for at least 2 hours. Then, before scooping, let sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes. Then, enjoy!

*Note: I used a Bulgarian buttermilk, full fat. I’m not sure how well this would work with low-fat buttermilk. If you want to make a strawberry sorbet instead of the sherbet, simply omit the buttermilk.