I made this delicious dessert for a New Years Eve dinner party, although unfortunately, it had not frozen in time (well not until I checked it after they’d walked out the door…) but that didn’t stop us! Instead, we put the slushy like sorbet into glasses added champagne! So, we did learn it makes an excellent cocktail! This boozy delight is certainly not for everyone due to the acquired taste of the Campari, my sister and I weren’t huge fans but our guests and parents, on the other hand, loved it!
As always, the recipe involved a lot of trial and error, as well as a few mental breakdowns along the way but it was worth it! (or at least I think so…)
In this recipe the first thing you are told to do -provided of course you are not going to make the ‘Chocolate-coated Ruby Red Grapefruit peel’– is to cut each Grapefruit in half and remove the flesh, originally, I started scraping it out with a spoon, which sounds smart until you discover how dense grapefruits are… But thankfully after I sat on the floor and contemplated just what I was doing, I got back up and cut the grapefruit into quarters and discovered you can simply just remove the peel like you did with orange slices when you were younger. Although the recipe says to ensure there are no pips, I didn’t look thoroughly, instead, I just glanced at the slices and put them in the blender. (where they’ll be crushed any way…) After the grapefruit has been crushed (or in my case completely slaughtered) the recipe says to strain the blended grapefruit through a sieve, and you would never believe how long it takes to achieve 500ml of juice, I don’t see how anyone could have any left, let alone make a cocktail, instead you can just give me the alcohol (trust me I felt like downing that Campari right about now…)
The second step is to lemon and orange juice to the grapefruit and mix, followed by pouring half into a small saucepan with the sugar until it has dissolved, I actually didn’t have any problem with this part (other than my dad trying to hoover the kitchen floor causing me to scream at him for five minutes…) although I do often find it to be a struggle when it comes to determining whether the sugar has dissolved yet or not! After taking the fruity mixture off the heat and left it to cool slightly I added the remaining juice followed by the Campari. The next part made me laugh and think oh Ottolenghi you are a diva (but a clever one) instead of simply placing the mixture straight into the freezer (or ice cream machine) he has you setting the bowl over an ice bath! It’s a smart idea I’ll admit, but why make things so complicated!
Unfortunately, I don’t own an ice cream machine, so I had to do it the long way, which involves impatiently waiting for your sorbet to be frozen enough for you to churn the crystals away, and sadly they don’t form every thirty seconds causing me to wait hours before I can do anything let alone before its frozen.
As I mentioned at the beginning I was unable to freeze my desert in time (well at least not to the stage of being able to scoop lovely balls of fluorescent pink sorbet) due to me starting this recipe at 5P.M. on New Years Ever instead I was able to achieve ad icy champagne cocktail, but thankfully no one was complaining at 1 am on New Years Day (but I can’t vouch for them 12 hours later..)
All in all, this recipe is delicious, for some, but definitely, time consuming due to a lot of waiting around for things to cool etc.. but its worth it! I have read the book cover to cover, and this has to one of the most simple recipes (especially compared to the ones I’ve made so far) so it would be good for beginners!
1 recipe down, 111 to go!
Below I have attached a step by step of my process!
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Goodies By Gu 