Easy Homemade Strawberry Sherbet is a sweet-tart, light, refreshing frozen dessert made with fresh luscious strawberries. The perfect ending to the perfect meal, this simple sherbet ice cream recipe only takes minutes to prepare, and then your ice cream maker takes over.
Made from scratch with only five ingredients, this frozen confection will quickly become a treasured family favorite.
With a creamy consistency and beautiful rosy pink color, strawberry sherbet is bursting with flavor and a winning dessert for warm summer evenings and neighborhood cookouts. It also makes a great afterschool snack and a decadent and unique treat any time of year.
With fewer calories and less fat than regular ice cream, Strawberry Sherbet, like my Mixed Berry Sherbet and Dark Sweet Cherry Sherbet, is a flavorful and welcome change of pace from heavy, rich desserts.
Ingredients – here’s what you need:
- Fresh strawberries – with their heavenly aroma and irresistible sweet fresh taste, are the star of this recipe.
- Granulated sugar – what would a dessert be without sugar? And this is especially true with sherbet. The sugar combines with the strawberries to produce a delicious, frozen strawberry dessert.
- Light Karo Syrup – also known as corn syrup, combines with the other ingredients to add a bit more sweetness, but even more importantly, it gives the sherbert a creamy, scoopable texture.
- Buttermilk – is an unusual ingredient that adds creaminess and a bit of tang. It is also lower in fat than most dairy products commonly used in making ice cream or sherbet.
- Lemon juice – adds a citrusy element and complements and intensifies the flavor of the strawberries.
Directions – here’s how to make this recipe:
- Rinse and pat dry the strawberries with paper towels. Then remove any leaves or stems and quarter the berries.
- Combine the strawberries, granulated sugar, and Karo syrup in a large bowl. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes to macerate the berries and amp up their flavor.
- Pour this mixture into the bowl of your food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process the strawberries until the mixture is smooth. This should only take a minute or so.
- Add the berry puree, buttermilk, and lemon juice to a large bowl and stir until everything is combined. Cover and place this mixture in the refrigerator for four hours or until it has cooled to 40 degrees F.
- Add the mixture to the bowl of your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s directions to freeze the sherbet. This should take around 20 minutes.
- Transfer the strawberry sherbet to an airtight storage container and allow it to harden in the freezer for about two hours. Then, take it out of the freezer about ten minutes before you plan to serve it to make it easy to scoop.
Frequently asked questions:
While both are made with fruit, sherbet is made with dairy, while sorbet doesn’t contain any dairy products.
A trademark of sherbet is that it is always made with fruit, berries, or a combination of the two.
The most popular flavor of sherbet ice cream is orange, followed by lemon or lime, and then strawberry.
If you have been to a baby shower or bridal shower, you most likely have had punch made with sherbet and some combination of sprite, seven-up, ginger ale, or another lemon-lime soda and sometimes fruit juice. It’s both as beautiful to look at as it is tasty, and it’s really easy to make.
At our house, not very long! This sherbet is so delicious we rarely have any leftovers. However, it will keep well if stored in an airtight container for up to three months.
Sharon’s tips:
- You can substitute frozen strawberries in this recipe, and they do not need to be thawed first. If you do use frozen, you can skip the step of cooling down the mixture prior to freezing it.
- If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender to puree the berries.
- Strawberries have tiny seeds. I don’t strain them out, but if you prefer to remove the seeds, you will need to pour the pureed fruit mixture through a fine wire strainer or piece of cheesecloth before combining it with the other ingredients.
- I used a Cuisinart Electric Ice Cream Maker with a two-quart bowl to make this recipe, but any type of ice cream maker will work.
- Instead of rinsing my strawberries under running water, I have found the easiest way to clean them is to use a salad spinner. I put the berries in the spinner basket, fill it with water, swish the basket around and then let them sit for a minute or two. Then, lift out the basket and let them drain. You will be surprised at the dirt and debris you will find in the water.
More frozen dessert recipes:
If you are like me and like cold and refreshing desserts, in addition to this roundup post of 35 Different Ice Cream Flavors with Recipes, I think you might also like these popular recipes on my blog:
If you are looking for more recipes or menu ideas, you can find all of my dessert recipes here.
★★★★★ If you make this recipe, please leave a comment and give it a star rating. I would love to know how you liked it!
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Easy Homemade Strawberry Sherbet
Equipment
- Ice Cream Maker with 2-quart bowl
- Food processor with steel blade, or blender
Ingredients
- 4 cups quartered strawberries
- 1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup Light Karo Syrup or corn syrup
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Rinse and pat dry the strawberries with paper towels. Then remove any leaves or stems and quarter the strawberries.
- Combine the berries, granulated sugar, and Karo syrup in a large bowl. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes to macerate the berries and amp up their flavor.
- Pour this mixture into the bowl of your food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process the strawberries until the mixture is smooth. This should only take a minute or so.
- Add the berry puree, buttermilk, and lemon juice to a large bowl and stir until everything is combined. Cover and place this mixture in the refrigerator for four hours or until it has cooled to 40 degrees F.
- Add the mixture to the bowl of your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s directions to churn the sherbet. This should take around 20 minutes.
- Transfer the strawberry sherbet to an airtight storage container and allow it to harden in the freezer for about two hours. Then, take it out of the freezer about 10 minutes before you plan to serve it to make it easy to scoop.
This sounds delicious and I will certainly give a try. Carolyn