Sloe sloe quick quick sloe!

Fruit and alcohol are 2 great ingredients for ice cream making. Usually I make ice cream with some freshly picked fruit OR a touch of alcohol but sometimes it's great to include both :)

This is a great example for making sorbet:

Sloe gin and berry sorbet - this recipe was inspired by a friend who made some sloe gin. If you've never tried sloe gin you might be pleasantly surprised - I was! This particular homemade sloe gin was a rich color, almost terracotta and tasted really good. You can see it in the picture below in between the blackcurrants and redcurrants. The fruit was picked fresh from my own garden. Now that's what I call a batch of 'homemade' ingredients!

So how did I develop the recipe? Well, I took one of my other fruit-based sorbet recipes and worked out the amount of sloe gin I would need to use to make a good sorbet. Balancing the amount of alcohol with sugar and water (which make the sugar syrup so important to a good sorbet) is not always easy because both the flavor and texture of the sorbet can be greatly affected by too much or too little of either.

Anyway, my sloe gin sorbet worked out a treat and I'm delighted to offer you the chance to try my recipe here. If you visit the page you'll also get to see the sorbet freezing as it's being batched in my ice cream maker courtesy of a little video clip I made.

I'd be pleased to hear your thoughts on what makes a good, unusual sorbet. There's so much to choose from when it comes to sorbet ingredients - wine, fruit, spices, herbs and more.