There is little better,
In this scorching British weather,
Than a scoop of something icey
in your mouth.
I mean, surely, right?
The thing is, something icey does not always mean something nicey, if you catch my drift.
Imagine…
You’re at Glastonbury queuing for Lizzo, sucking on a blue ice pole, sticky all over with stale beer from an errant mosh pit while watching Aitch.
You’re on London Fields taking the sun and drinking warm Aperol hoping to hear the chimes from the nearest ice cream van.
You’re on holiday post swim, trunks chaffing as you waddle to the shop for a Calippo.
You’re trotters up outside a pub, sunburn on the back of your neck, a receipt for two ploughman's and two bitters weighing heavy in your pocket, the saccharine afterburn of a salted caramel Magnum furring your teeth as you check google maps for how much traffic there is on the route home.
Or…
You’re at home, working on the weekend, but your freezer is smugly packed with all three of the treats listed below.
I know where I am, where are you?
Boozy chocolate sorbet
Yes, yes, oh yey. This recipe is stolen almost wholesale from my old boss Stevie Parle, whose book Dock Kitchen Cookbook, is a veritable cornucopia of deliciousness. As I’ve written about already, Stevie was a huge proponent of the boozy pudding, and this is no departure on that front. Here though the booze plays a crucial part as, in raising the freezing point of the sorbet mix, it stops the sorbet from freezing solid and allows us a decadent no-churn sorbet from the comfort of our own home. It is slightly counterintuitive, but trust me, on a sweltering day the slightly bitter cocoa and the background harshness of the alcohol in this sorbet really has a cooling effect on both brain and body.
250g caster sugar
750ml water
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
150g best cocoa you can find
100ml booze - brandy, whiskey, tequila, and mezcal, are all good
(optional: 1” piece of cinnamon, a dried smoky chilli such as a chipotle)
Combine the water, sugar and vanilla (plus the cinnamon and/or chilli if using) in a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and after a couple of minutes add the cocoa, whisking all the time, then allow to simmer for a few more minutes until you have a thick glossy mix. Remove from the heat and add the booze, whisking again, then leave to cool completely.
If you have an ice cream machine then by all means churn this as normal, but if not, fret not, as this little gem works perfectly in a normal freezer. I tend to pour this into a relatively large container and initially stir it about quite roughly every 30 minutes or so. Do this three or four times and then leave to freeze completely, which should take about 3 hours. After that, enjoy. For a naughty adornment, whip some cream with a little more of the booze in it and serve balls of the sorbet with a spoonful or two of the whipped cream. Peak decadence in my book.
Horlicks ice cream (also no churn)
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to No Cartouche to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.