Cranberry-orange sorbet

Sorbet is a sweet dessert along the lines of ice cream. Instead of dairy-based, it's fruit-based. That means sweet and healthy, right? Kind of, but not really. This cranberry-orange sorbet is fairly healthy, but there's a ton of sugar in it.

Saturday is my dessert day and I had no idea what I wanted to make. I finally decided to open the Epicurious website and make the first dessert that I saw on screen. Alas, a picture of cranberry-vanilla sorbet popped up and I thought it was perfect. As we get closer to Thanksgiving, cranberries become more and more popular. The only problem was I had no idea how to manipulate a vanilla bean like the recipe called for, so I ad libbed and created my own recipe. One of my favorite soft drinks in high school was Ocean Spray cranberry-orange juice. I recalled the taste and went for cranberry-orange sorbet.

Here's what I did:

Boil the cranberries in 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of sugar. Cook almost 15 minutes until the cranberries "pop." Be patient, the berries actually do pop. If you haven't witnessed this before, it's a lot of fun. Puree the cranberry mixture in a blender until as smooth as possible.

Bring remaining 3 cups water and remaining 2 cups sugar to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then remove from heat and cool syrup 30 minutes.

Stir together cranberry puree, sugar syrup, and citrus juices and freeze. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until hardened, at least 2 hours.

If you're interested in my review of the recipe, check the comments below in the next few days. I will write my thoughts there.

Ingredients:
16 ounces cranberries (thawed if frozen or fresh)
5 cups water
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup 100% pure orange juice (not from concentrate)
1/2 lemon juice
1/2 lime juice

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