On Friday, I received my weekly shipment of organic produce and was excited to see a small basket of mission figs. I’ll admit that I don’t have much experience with fresh figs aside from eating them plain or in salads. I’m at a loss for words. This sorbet is incredibly good.
I searched around looking at different recipes and when I came to this recipe from Ms. Adventures in Italy, I knew I had found the one. She based her sorbet on a fig ice-cream found in Perfect Scoop.
I reviewed her recipe and my only concern was how hard this sorbet might freeze. I recently made a watermelon-yogurt ice that turned into a solid unscoopable block. The advice from readers was to add alcohol to keep the mix from fully freezing. Well, I’m not one to turn down alcohol :-) I went to our liquor stash to see what my selection would be and peeking from behind the brandy was a nicely aged port. Port & figs? Um, hell yeah!
Fresh Fig & Port Sorbet
adapted from Ms. Adventures in Italy
8 fresh figs
1/4 cup water
1 meyer lemon, zest and juice
1/3 cup sugar
4 tablespoons port
1 1/2 cups water
Remove the stems and hard bits from the figs and cut into quarters. Add figs, 1/4 cup water, and meyer lemon zest to a sauce pan. As the mix is heated, add the zest of the meyer lemon. Cook covered for 10 minutes or until the figs have softened and begin to break apart. Stir two or three times during the 10 minutes.
Stir in sugar and cook uncovered until the figs begin to thicken and become syrupy (about 2-3 minutes). Remove from heat.
Using a food processor or stick blender, puree the fig mixture. Remember, it’s HOT so use extreme caution.
To the puree, add the 1 1/2 cups water, port, and juice of the meyer lemon. I opted to user meyer lemon as it’s fragrant but not overly acidic. I didn’t want the sorbet to be too tangy.
Once the mix is cool, pour into an ice-cream mixer and mix according to your mixer’s directions. I let it run for about 25 minutes and it was semi-firm.
I took a few bites (it was hard to stop) then placed into a glass bowl and placed into the refrigerator freezer. I waited a few hours before diving into it … and found that it was indeed scoopable. The ice crystals are extremely small and it melts in your mouth. It’s creamy and thick without using any dairy products.
The flavor is lightly figgy with and undertone of the sweet port. The tiny yellow fig seeds dot the beautifully deep pink color of the sorbet. It’s absolutely, completely, totally, the best sorbet I’ve ever had and a great use for fresh figs!