Sherbet in the winter? I say sherbet anytime. Fresh, tangy and so easy to make! To begin I studied several recipes on the web and chose one from Yankee Magazine. It calls for four ingredients: lemon juice, sugar, heavy cream and milk. As I only had 2% milk on hand, I substituted half of the milk with half and half. To make it even more tangy, I added 1/2 tsp. of lemon oil.
Juicing a lemon without a juicer - using your hand with a heavy pressure, you roll the whole lemon against the counter top until it feels 'squishy' inside the peel. Then cut it in half, squeeze out the juice and remove the seeds from the bowl. You will get the seeds and very little pulp using this method. If you prefer more pulp, I suggest a hand juicer.
I whisked the lemon juice and sugar together and set the bowl aside while preparing the whipped cream. You should use a larger bowl to whisk these together than I did; It made a bit of a mess with this short bowl.
Next, whip the cream. I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for this. Using the whisk attachment, pour the cream into the bowl and let it whip on medium high for about three minutes. After three minutes test consistency by turning off the machine and raising the whisk. The cream should cling to the attachment and stand up in peaks in the bowl. If not, continue whipping and retesting. I prefer a stiffer consistency.
Next set up the ice cream machine. This model requires the freezer bowl and paddle be in place before the ingredients are added. Note: I completely forgot the Kitchen Aid had an ice cream attachment when I bought the one shown below. Well, when it gives out, I'll get the Kitchen Aid one.
First I added the lemon and sugar mixture to the machine, then the milk mixture and finally the whipped cream. The recipe says to 'fold in' the whipped cream but that was not possible in the machine. The machine would mix it.
You notice the color is near white. I considered adding some yellow food coloring but decided against it - keeping it 'nothing but natural'!
Confession time: I originally put the ingredients in the bowl before adding the paddle. Bad move as the paddle didn't fit because the ingredients were already freezing. So I had to remove everything, clean and refreeze the mixing bowl and start the churning process again. It turned out okay.
After mixing, the consistency was like a thick milkshake. I portioned it out into small glass containers and put it into the freezer to harden.
If you love the zing of lemons - this is for you!
Update 6/13/2020:
I have made this several times and finally attempted the cooked custard method for plain vanilla. I like maple syrup granola as a topping on the vanilla type.
I used the recipe for the custard type from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. That book is my only cookbook. The one I have was given to me by the mother many years ago. The one below is the updated version.
 
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