Strawberry Sorbet

Just four ingredients make this the quickest, easiest, and most intensely flavored strawberry sorbet.

By Max Falkowitz
Updated February 03, 2024
A rectangular container of bright red strawberry sorbet with a scoop being pulled from it.

Serious Eats / Robyn Lee

Why It Works

  • Starting off with the best quality berries you can find ensures a sorbet with both beautiful flavor and color.
  • The correct ratio of berry purée to sugar creates a velvety texture once frozen.
  • Making a base that's slightly sweeter and more tart than desired means the flavor—once tempered by the cold—will land just where you want it.

The best strawberry sorbet should also be the simplest. There should be berries—small enough to pop several in your mouth, and sweet enough to eat straight with a smile. There should be sugar. There should be some acid if needed, and some salt to make the flavor sing. And that's really it.

Berries like strawberries are rich in natural pectin, so they don't need much to keep their texture smooth when processed into sorbet. The trick, if you could call it that, is to remember an easy ratio. For every cup of berry purée that you're churning, add 1/4 cup of sugar for a velvety sorbet with a creaminess not unlike ice cream. (About 2 cups of halved berries yield 1 cup of purée.)

Lemon and salt can be added to taste, and amounts depend entirely on the sweetness and quality of your fruit. Go with your gut and keep in mind that the base should taste more sweet and sour than you'd want the final product; cold will dull the flavors a bit.

Here's the most important thing: Use great berries. Go to the farmers' market if you can and buy the sweetest, most aromatic berries you can find. They tend to be much smaller with fewer bland, tart white bits. Junk fruit makes junk sorbet, and the good stuff is really worth it. You'll want to lap this scarlet beauty up for the rest of the season.

June 2012

Recipe Details

Strawberry Sorbet

Prep 15 mins
Active 45 mins
Churning/Freezing TIme 2 hrs 30 mins
Total 2 hrs 45 mins
Serves 8 servings
Makes 1 quart

Ingredients

  • 2 quarts strawberries, washed (about 2 1/2 pounds)

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice, to taste

  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, to taste

Directions

  1. Remove tops from strawberries and purée in a blender or food processor until smooth. 2 quarts whole strawberries should yield 1 quart of purée. Add sugar and blend for 30 seconds. Add lemon and salt, blend to incorporate, and adjust to taste.

  2. Strain purée and transfer to refrigerator; chill for 2 to 3 hours until very cold. Churn sorbet in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer sorbet to freezer to firm up for 2 to 3 hours before serving.

Special Equipment

Blender or food processor, ice cream maker

Notes

You can scale this recipe up or down depending on your strawberry supply. The important ratios: 1 quart of whole strawberries (about 20 ounces) should yield 2 cups of purée. For every cup of strawberry purée, add 1/4 cup sugar to ensure a smooth, scoopable sorbet.

Read More

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
142 Calories
0g Fat
36g Carbs
1g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8
Amount per serving
Calories 142
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g 1%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 81mg 4%
Total Carbohydrate 36g 13%
Dietary Fiber 3g 10%
Total Sugars 32g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 84mg 418%
Calcium 23mg 2%
Iron 1mg 3%
Potassium 219mg 5%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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