Eating a spoonful of this fresh orange sorbet brings me back to when I was a little girl. I can vividly remember right where my grandmother kept the frozen treats for her favorite little granddaughter.
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Why Orange Sherbet?
When I was younger, while my mother worked, I would spend my days with my grandparents. My grandmother had impressive flower gardens all around her property, and as I recall, I would get to pick a bouquet of flowers every day then play on my seal (a rock dug up during landscaping that looked like a seal for me to teeter on). It was hard work being four in the summer.
My grandfather worked construction most days, but when he didn’t, he tended to his 50+ acre maple forest – repairing lines, tapping more trees, getting the sugar house ready for syrup.
When he came back home he would take a nap in his chair and then him and I would eat a frozen treat together. He, of course, had vanilla ice cream with maple syrup on top. I chose the orange sherbet – my favorite.
We do our best to make our food from scratch without added/artificial sugars, dyes, and unnecessary preservatives. Our daughter is also gluten, dairy, and egg free, so I had to account for her sensitivities while creating this recipe. Summer is approaching and I love to find ways to incorporate healthy into our frozen treats, so here it is!!
How To Make Orange Sherbet
Ingredients:
- 3 Cups Mandarin Oranges
- 2 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 – 1 Cup Canned Coconut Milk
- Maple Syrup
We are huge fans of Costco and take great advantage of our member savings. Every one of the ingredients listed we buy from Costco Wholesale. Being from Vermont, I absolutely love that I can find good quality maple syrup close by.
Peel your oranges and place on a cookie sheet in the freezer. I saved all of my peels for this DIY 3 Ingredient All Purpose Cleaner.
I froze my oranges for approximately 2 hours and they were perfect. You can use regular oranges for this recipe, but I prefer to buy mandarins since they are also a perfect snack size fruit, and tend to be a little sweeter making this recipe naturally sweet!
Measure out 3 cups of frozen oranges into your blender and add all remaining ingredients.
Start off with 1/2 cup of coconut milk and add more as needed. I really love a little hint of maple in mine, so I add maple syrup, but it is completely optional and not necessary.
Blend all of your ingredients for about 3 minutes. You may need to pause and scrape down the sides to ensure that all of your ingredients are being mixed well.
We went back and forth on purchasing a new blender and decided we would try the Ninja Professional Blender (Ninja Kitchen System #ad). I had been dreaming of a Vitamix for years, but the cost just didn’t seem necessary and I knew there had to be a better alternative. We took the plunge and decided to try out the Ninja and I LOVE IT!!!!
I can’t stand clutter and having multiple appliances is completely annoying to me. I love that this system has a single base with attachments for a full size blender (shown here), single serve cups perfect for smoothies on-the-go, and a food processor.
That’s it! I personally have never had leftovers from a single batch, so I cannot recommend or not recommend freezing this sherbet once blended. I imagine that it will harden too much, but it may be possible to freeze it in smaller portions and re-blend when you are ready!
Let me know if you try this recipe! I would love to hear what your favorite childhood frozen treat was below.
Fresh Orange Sherbet
Equipment
- High Powered Blender *see post above for a link to our favorite*
- Cookie Sheet
- Spatula
- Measuring Cups/Spoons
Ingredients
- 3 cups frozen mandarin oranges
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½-1 cup coconut milk
- 1 tbsp maple syrup optional
Instructions
- Peel mandarin oranges and separate. Save peels if desired (*see recipe below for how to use them*). Lay oranges out on cookie sheet and freeze for two hours.
- Put all ingredients into a high powered blender and blend for 2-3 minutes. You may need to use a spatula to scrape down the sides, but continue blending after.
- Blend until smooth.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!!
