With Summer slowly but surely approaching, I’m running out of ways to avoid ice cream. So with this recipe I embrace the frozen dessert world with the best alternative, sorbet. It’s very sugary, yes, but is way lower in fat due to its lack of artery-clogging dairy products.

This is the first time I’ve ever tried my hand at sorbet, I don’t have an ice cream maker or any real knowledge of how you approach making frozen desserts without the correct equipment. So if you know loads about the science of sorbet, please feel free to correct my (probably incorrect) methods, I will be very grateful to hear from you. This being an experiment, I only made a small amount, but by all means multiply the ingredients to make more – and let me know how it goes!

Serves 2

100g caster sugar
100ml boiling water
1 measure creme de cassis (not essential but gives the great colour and I needed an excuse to use it)
200g lychees, peeled, stoned and blended
Zest and juice of 2 limes

Just before I begin, a little note about the lychees. If you have a juicer, it may be that its really easy to blend them in there, but I used a hand held blender. I didn’t make them totally liquid, I left a few tiny chunks in there, but get them to whatever consistency you prefer.

1. On a low heat, bring together the sugar, creme de cassis and boiling water.
2. Once combined, bring to the boil and let it bubble for a couple of minutes or until its thickened slightly.
3. In a tupperware box (or whatever you’re going to freeze your sorbet in) mix the lychees, lime juice and zest. Add 1 tbsp of the syrup mixture and mix it all together.
4. Place in the freezer and wait 15 minutes.
5. After 15 minutes, remove from the freezer and add another tbsp of syrup, mix well, repeat this process until you’re all out of syrup.
6. Once all the syrup has been added, take your sorbet out of the freezer every 30/40 minutes to give it a quick mix with a fork. This is to imitate the churning process that would be taking place if you had an ice cream maker.
7. After a few fake churning sessions, your sorbet mixture will have become actual sorbet – it probably varies so I won’t give you an exact amount of time but you’ll know.

This is an all-day recipe on and off, so only give it a go if you’re homebound for a few hours. This is your track recommendation to enjoy with your dessert because I’m hilarious.

Thanks for reading x