Strawberry Champagne Sorbet
Late spring is an amazing time to go strawberry picking, and what better way to use hand picked strawberries than to make this ultra refreshing Strawberry Champagne Sorbet? Super smooth and fresh, this flavorful sorbet uses roasted strawberries paired alongside classy champagne to help cool you off in the hot days to come.
About This Strawberry Champagne Sorbet Recipe
Do you ever feel fancy adding a strawberry to your glass of champagne? Well that is what inspired this frozen treat. An amazing spring and summer bake, this strawberry sorbet takes fresh strawberries and roasts them with lemon and sugar to help strengthen that strawberry flavor. It’s then pureed with the sparkling wine adding a dry, acidic flavor profile to the sweet, fruity strawberries. This sorbet does require an ice cream machine since you can’t make sorbet without one.
The Origin of Sorbet
Sorbet has been around since around 3000 BC in the form of flavored ice in an ancient Asian culture. Ancient Egypt also practiced the art of presenting guests with cups of ice and flavored with fruit juice. As time went on, sorbet made its way around the world as Marco Polo discovered this cultural practice and brought it with him as he gallivanted around Asian and European countries.
The noteworthy country he brought this flavored ice to was, of course, Italy. Italians took this flavored ice, elevated it into a more classy treat, and called it gelato. They used gelato as a palette cleanser between courses. But of course it wasn’t until the Italians started traveling to the United States when sorbet became enveloped in American dessert culture. And now we make delightful flavors such as grilled pineapple mint sorbet. Read more about the history of sorbet here!
Strawberry Champagne Sorbet Ingredients
- Strawberries: Hand picked or fresh from your local grocery store are both acceptable for this fruity dessert. You can also use frozen strawberries to make strawberry sorbet, just be sure to let them thaw and pat dry before roasting.
- Champagne: You can use either Champagne or Prosecco and make is a dry one! If you’re looking for other boozy desserts to make, check out all of my boozy recipes.
Major Allergens Present: Alcohol
Equipment Needed
- Ice cream machine: Whether you have an attachment for your KitchenAid, a “put the bowl in the freezer” machine, or a compressor ice cream machine, you need one. I’m not a fan of no-churn ice cream/sorbet because that’s not what ice cream is. I own a compressor ice cream machine and I very much think it’s worth the price.
- Blender or food processor: Used to blend up the whole strawberries to make your sorbet base. Either a blender or food processor will work.
How to Make Strawberry Champagne Sorbet:
What is Strawberry Champagne Sorbet Made Out Of?
This fruity dessert uses champagne or Prosecco and fresh strawberries. Frozen strawberries are okay but you will need to thaw them and pat them dry to avoid any excess liquid. Freshly picked strawberries are best because those have the best strawberry flavor unlike Driscolls. For the sparkling wine, I prefer something cheap since I’m not drinking it, and I prefer a drier one but the choice is yours as to your sparkling wine preference.
Roast the Strawberries:
Since strawberries are not a particularly loud flavor, especially when not using freshly picked strawberries, we need to roast them to help strengthen that strawberry flavor. The lemon juice, zest, and sugar also aid in bringing out the flavors. Roast just until the strawberries turn soft. Wait until cooled to room temperature.
Blend all the Ingredients Together and Churn:
Blend those roasted strawberries with the remaining juices with the champagne, corn syrup, and water. The corn syrup is to make the sorbet more creamy and dreamy without adding any sweetness, and the water allows it to freeze. Alcohol has a tendency to prevent anything from freezing so that water helps to balance it out. You can opt to strain before churning, but if you blend well enough, you won’t need to.
Churn your strawberry champagne sorbet in your ice cream machine until it is smooth in texture and not too firm or icy. Ice cream machines pulverizes the ice crystals that form as well as incorporates small amounts of air creating a creamy and dreamy texture. Ice cream does 2/3 of its freezing in the ice cream machine and 1/3 of its freezing in the freezer. You can allow to freeze in as little as 6 hours but I always prefer overnight.
Help Making Strawberry Champagne Sorbet:
How to Churn Sorbet in Your Ice Cream Machine:
- The amount of time it takes depends on how cold your base is to begin with. The warmer it is, the longer it will take, and the colder it is, the short it will take.
- If you’re using a “put the bowl in the freezer” ice cream maker, then I would suggest chilling your base until cold before churning since you only have a certain amount of time the frozen bowl is good for.
- When churning you want to watch out for overchurning. As the sorbet churns it will start to freeze and you will notice it start to ball up. If those balls are still rolling then we’re still good. However, if those balls stop rolling and are just being pushed, then we are on our way to overchurned sorbet. The perfect spot is just when those balls stop rolling.
- To test, spoon a little out. If it is smooth, holds it shape, and a very small amount of liquid sorbet base forms around the edge then it’s good. If it doesn’t hold it’s shape and shpools out, then it needs more time. And if it you spoon it out and it’s more chunky instead of smooth with no liquid, then it’s a overchurned.
- There’s nothing totally wrong with overchurned sorbet. It will just be a little icy and more solid. With ice cream and sorbet you want 2/3’s of the base to freeze in the machine and 1/3rd to freeze in the freezer. However, you can melt down your base and try again if you overchurned.
Enhancing This Strawberry Champagne Sorbet Recipe:
- Roast your strawberries with some herbs like basil or thyme which both go very well with strawberries.
- Try a different light wine such as rose or riesling instead of champagne or prosecco.
How to Store and Freeze Strawberry Sorbet:
- Store the sorbet base in a container in the fridge for up to 1 week, and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Should your sorbet get super icy or freezer burn in the freezer, you can melt it down and rechurn.
Troubleshooting Strawberry Champagne Sorbet:
- I overchurned my sorbet! That’s okay! You can melt it down and re-churn or you can deal with an icier and firmer sorbet. Definitely check out my tips above on churning best practices.
Something else going wrong? Reach out and we will troubleshoot together!
Strawberry Champagne Sorbet
Equipment
- Ice Cream Machine
- Blender or Food Processor
Ingredients
- 24 oz Fresh strawberries or 1.5 16 oz containers
- 1 ea Lemon juice and zest
- 4 Tbs Granulated sugar
- 175 g Champagne
- ½ tsp Kosher salt
- ¼ cup Water
- 1 Tbs Corn syrup
Instructions
- Make sure if you're using a "bowl in the freezer" machine that your bowl has been placed in the freezer well in advanced.
- Preheat the oven to 400℉.
- Combine your strawberries, lemon juice and zest, and sugar in a small pan and roast until the strawberries are soft. Cool until room temperature.
- Add the strawberries plus juices to your blender with the Champagne, salt, corn syrup, and water. Blend until smooth.
- Churn in your ice cream machine until firm but not too icy. Transfer to a freezer safe container and allow to freeze for a minimum of 6 hours or overnight (preferred).
Nutrition
I couldn’t get over how refreshing this was! Felt super fancy with the champage too haha
Omg yum! Very refreshing, I love this!
This was incredibly easy and even more delicious. Definitely recommend making this for a warm summer day and can’t wait to try adding a scoop to some bubbly for a fun summer day drinking slushy!