Cantaloupe Sherbet

Up till now, I have not posted a recipe for a dessert. Not one! That is surprising because I love dessert. And my debut dessert is a great one.

Recently, we got two perfectly ripe, delicious cantaloupes. But let’s be honest: you can only eat cantaloupe with breakfast so many days in a row before it becomes tiring. We polished off one cantaloupe, but there was still the other one. What to do?

What about cantaloupe sherbet? I mean orange sherbet and lime sherbet is delicious. Why not cantaloupe?

Turns out, it is good. Really good. Astonishingly good. It’s a nice, light dessert or late night snack. And since it’s made from cantaloupe, you can even fool yourself that it’s good for you!

This is one frozen dessert that’s actually ready to eat right out of the ice cream maker, though it also tastes great after it’s been in the freezer for a while. Just be sure to store it in a plastic container – not glass. And to better protect the consistency, place some plastic wrap on the surface of the sherbet.

Makes approximately 2 quarts.

1 medium cantaloupe
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (don’t even think of using the stuff in the yellow plastic lemons. No really, don’t do it.)
½ cup sugar
¼ cup honey
3 cups 2% milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Cut cantaloupe in half around the equator of the melon. With a spoon, remove the seeds, then cut each melon half into four slices. Cut the orange flesh of the cantaloupe away from the rind, then cut the flesh into approximately 1-inch pieces. Discard the rind.

Put the cantaloupe pieces and lemon juice in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Strain the puree into a large bowl (this will make the finished sherbet wonderfully smooth); discard any solid bits of melon. Add the remainder of the ingredients to the cantaloupe puree and stir until the sugar dissolves.

Pour the mixture into the canister of the ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.