The watermelon sorbet (or watermelon) is a fresh, light, and very easy summer dessert to make at home. With only two main ingredients plus water, you can get a refreshing and genuine spoon dessert, perfect for beating the summer heat.
This recipe works perfectly even without an ice cream maker: just blend the watermelon with sugar and water, and then put the mixture in the freezer, stirring it every 30 minutes for 3 or 4 times, until you get the perfect consistency. If you have an ice cream maker, in just 30 minutes, you’ll get a creamy and well-churned sorbet, just like at the ice cream shop.
Over time, I have experimented with many flavors of homemade fruit sorbets — strawberry, lemon, melon, peach, green apple — and each time they were a success. But the watermelon one remains one of my favorites, for its natural sweetness and its ability to offer a refreshing break without being heavy.
Try it: watermelon sorbet is a delicious and healthy way to cool down on the hottest days, with all the flavor of summer in just one spoonful!
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- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Very Cheap
- Rest time: 3 Hours
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 5 People
- Cooking methods: No Cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Summer
- Energy 133.60 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 35.05 (g) of which sugars 35.05 (g)
- Proteins 0.40 (g)
- Fat 0.00 (g) of which saturated 0.00 (g)of which unsaturated 0.00 (g)
- Fibers 0.20 (g)
- Sodium 4.90 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 170 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for about 5 cups of watermelon sorbet
- 1 lb 1 oz lbs watermelon (without rind and seeds)
- 3/4 cup cup sugar
- 0.85 cup cup water
Tools
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Blender
- 1 Ice Cream Maker
- 1 Saucepan
Recipe for watermelon sorbet with only 2 ingredients
To prepare the watermelon sorbet, whether you use an ice cream maker or mix it by hand, the preliminary operations are the same: put water and sugar in a saucepan and place the saucepan over the heat. Let it heat until the sugar is completely dissolved (1). It doesn’t need to come to a boil. Let it cool completely first at room temperature and then in the refrigerator. Remove the rind and seeds from the watermelon (2) and weigh 1 lb 1 oz of pulp. Put it in a blender or a blender and add the sugar-water mixture (3).
Blend for a long time until you get a smooth and homogeneous mixture (4). Cool the mixture in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. The rest time in the refrigerator is crucial, especially if you make the watermelon sorbet using a non-refrigerating ice cream maker, which is one that has a bowl that needs to be kept in the freezer from the night before. This is because if you pour a liquid that is not perfectly cold into the bowl, you could melt the cooling liquid and compromise the dessert’s success.
If you have an ice cream maker, after cooling the mixture in the fridge for 2-3 hours, pour it into the bowl (5) and let the ice cream maker run for about 30 minutes. When the sorbet has a firmer consistency and sticks to the paddles, it will be ready to enjoy (6).
To prepare the watermelon sorbet without an ice cream maker, pour the mixture into a low and wide container, preferably steel, cover it, and put it in the freezer. After about 30 minutes, take it out and mix it with a spoon. Repeat the operation another 3 or 4 times, stirring well to break the ice crystals and try to incorporate air into the sorbet. When it reaches a creamy consistency, it will be ready.
Serve the watermelon sorbet as a dessert at the end of a meal or for a refreshing snack. If you want, you can decorate it with chocolate chips to simulate watermelon seeds.
Storage
You can store watermelon sorbet in the freezer for a few weeks. As time passes, it tends to freeze completely, but just take it out of the freezer about 15 minutes before enjoying it to allow it to soften.
Tips and Variations
If you make the watermelon sorbet without an ice cream maker and find that the mixture is completely frozen in one block, you can recover it like this: let it soften slightly at room temperature, just enough to extract it from the container and cut it into large pieces. Put the pieces in the blender and blend first with short pulses, then longer, to give it a creamy consistency again.
