Chocolate Sorbet

Mission accomplished: I successfully made chocolate sorbet WITHOUT an ice cream maker. It was a pain in the ass, but I did it. I pulled elements from several different recipes until I ended up with an incredibly rich tasting, chocolatey base that wasn't too sweet.

Chocolate Sorbet

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of water
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup of previously brewed coffee
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbs. chocolate liquer (coffee liquer would be good too)
1/2 cup (about 4 ounces) of dark chocolate chips, chopped finely

Directions:
In a heavy bottom pot over medium-high heat, bring the water, sugar, and cocoa powder to a boil, stirring frequently with a whisk. Once the sugar and cocoa have dissolved, continue cooking for another minute until the mixture thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining ingredients before pouring your sorbet base into a freezer-safe container.

Now at this point, nearly every recipe I found tells you to follow the manufacturer instructions on your ice cream maker and you'll end up with a velvety sorbet in under an hour. So. To compensate for the lack of this vital piece of equipment, I had to determine HOW it worked and that way I could replicate this process manually. Easy enough, right? (Yeah, I know: I'm a nerd.)

Essentially, an ice cream maker churns the base as it freezes which keeps the formation of ice crystals to a minimum; there are still crystals, of course, but they're really fine which makes for a smoother texture. It also incorporates air into the mixture as it freezes which, again, lends itself to a silky texture. Soooo... how to do this by hand? I didn't want to end up with a solid block of chocolate flavored ice and that's what would happen if I just poured the base into a container and popped it in the freezer. Instead, every 45-60 minutes, I used a whisk to break up the forming ice crystals and whip air into the base as it was freezing. Because I was doing this by hand, it took about 6 hours and just as many sessions with the whisk before it reached the texture I was shooting for, but O. M. G. was it worth it!

Enjoy!