Rich Chocolate Sorbet

Hello, and I hope you're ready to meet the newest addition to our kitchen.  After much um-ing and ah-ing, in which Mum made a batch of delicious chocolate sorbet and we all became frustrated with the time it took to chill (HOURS), we traipsed down to the shops to get a thing.

The thing is a Cuisinart ice cream maker, which I have dubbed 'Rotato', because I like to name things.  And the bowl rotates.  It all makes sense in my head.

From what I've gathered, there are two types of ice cream makers - the ones with a refrigeration unit inside that cools the ice cream mixture as it churns it without the need to refrigerate anything separately, and those that are basically churners with bowls that you have to freeze beforehand.  This particular ice cream maker is the freezy-bowl variety.  The bowl is double insulated with liquid within, and you have to keep it in the freezer until the liquid is completely frozen.  Then tip your ice cream mixture in, churn for about 25 minutes, and voila!  Ice cream!

Of course, we had to test it out as soon as the bowl was properly frozen, so Mum made another batch of the chocolate sorbet.  This is seriously good stuff; it's intensely chocolatey, rich and smooth.  It's also dairy-free and egg-free as well!  If you don't like chocolate ice cream but you love chocolate, I can pretty much guarantee that you'll like this sorbet.

Recipe adapted from: David Lebovitz via food52
Ingredients
555mL water (divided into 375mL and 180mL portions)
200g white sugar
75g cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
185g dark chocolate
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method
1. In a saucepan, whisk 375mL of the water with the white sugar, cocoa powder and salt.

2. Let the mixture come to the boil, whisking frequently.  It'll boil pretty aggressively because it's a sugar syrup with more stuff added in, and boiling sugar syrup gets mad, yo.

3. Boil and whisk for about 45 seconds then remove from the heat.

4. If your chocolate comes in a block, chop it up until it's in little choc chip sized pieces.  Add the chocolate to the sugar mixture and stir until it's melted and combined.

5. Stir the remaining water and vanilla extract into your mixture.

6. Blend the mixture in a blender for about 20 seconds.  We used a stick (handheld) blender just in the saucepan and that worked well.

7. Let the mixture chill.  If you want this done quickly, pour it into a brownie pan to maximise surface area and pop the pan into an ice bath.

8. Once the mixture is cold, pour it into your ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions.  We did it for 25 minutes but we could have gone longer for a firmer sorbet.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, freeze the mixture in the freezer and take it out every now and then and beat it with the paddle attachment on a stand mixer.  This mimics the churning of an ice cream machine and breaks up the ice crystals - your finished product won't be as smooth and it will take a long time to get the sorbet to the right consistency, but it's still good.

After 25 minutes of churning, the sorbet was soft-serve consistency straight out of the ice cream maker.

When decanted into a container and frozen for longer, the sorbet reaches a scoopable consistency.

PERFECTION.