creamy cranberry sorbet

 

my mother makes this dish she calls cranberry ice.  i have never really liked it much.  it is too much of something and i am not sure what.  it was just never my thing.  but the kids (and hubs) always like it--natch LOVE it.  so they look forward to thanksgiving and nana's cranberry ice.  alas...not this year.  nana decided not to make it.  i make plenty of things that i either don't like or can't eat.  not doing that for thanksgiving.

so i wanted something a little different.  i looked and looked extensively online and found about 400 varying sizes and types of cranberries and water and sugar and then "put it into the ice cream maker..." since i don't have an ice cream maker, i didn't really want to use that style of recipe.  the only substitute i could find was to "mash with a fork and re-freeze several times until frozen through."  meh.  however.... i was intrigued by the volume of cranberry+ sorbets and ice creams.  finally finding a recipe that used coconut milk was the absolute creme-de-la-creme (see what i did there?)  so i did what i always do in this situation. 

wing it.

and so you have my creamy cranberry sorbet.  completely made up out of my own head, yet based on hours of research and a couple days of planning.

12 oz pkg of rinsed cranberries, soft berries and stems picked out
3-1/2 C water
1-1/2 C sugar
2 tsp vanilla
~4 oz coconut milk (NOT coconut water)

combine cranberries, water, and sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium heat.  cook & stir ~10 minutes or until berries pop out of their skins.  add vanilla to boiling mixture and stir to incorporate.

using a hand blender (one of the best kitchen tools i own, bar none), blend the cranberry sauce until very smooth.  it should look like nothing more than really thick juice...full of cranberry hulls.

strain cooling mixture through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth (cheesecloth takes FOR-EVERRRRRR).  if you don't strain the hulls out, it will be grainy and pieces will stick between your teeth.  narsty.

spoon about 2 heaping spoon-fulls (per serving) into a separate bowl.  freeze both containers 2-4 hours or overnight.

allow the larger portion of cranberry sauce to thaw for about 20 minutes.  re-mix with hand blender.  add coconut milk and blend until uniform in color.  (if you like, at this time you can halve that mixture and add more coconut milk to one half to get three varied shades of red and pink.)

use the hand blender once more, just before pouring into serving dishes, starting with the lightest layer.  freeze in the serving dishes for an hour or so before adding the next layer.  the top layer should be the full strength bright holiday red.

serve straight from the freezer.  it is truly noms.