Strawberry and Honey Sorbet

Since I still had about 2 cups of strawberries to use, I decided to make a frozen dessert. I was leaning towards David Lebovitz’s vegan strawberry ice cream, but upon reading the recipe again, I realized that it would probably be hard as a rock. I thought that the liquid-to-fat ration would be too high, since he uses rice milk. So I ended up making this sorbet from The Kitchn: the use of honey instead of sugar keeps the sorbet softer in the freezer, and the addition of vodka helps, too, by lowering the freezing point. I’d heard about that trick and had always been afraid that I would taste it, but it was only 1 tablespoon here and I would never have guessed. I’ll be making this one again! The texture was fantastic, including after several days in the freezer. And it’s delicious, too!

(Note that I actually ran out of honey for this and I didn’t have agave nectar that day, so I used some maple syrup. I used more than ¼ cup total because my strawberries were actually pretty tart.)

1 pint (16 oz.) strawberries, hulled and quartered
¼ cup honey (if you are vegan, use agave nectar or maple syrup)
1 Tbsp. vodka (or flavored liqueur of choice), optional
juice from one lemon

Place the strawberries in a blender or food processor and purée until very smooth. Push the purée through a fine mesh sieve to remove some of the seeds. Whisk in the honey, vodka, and lemon juice. (This should be on the sweet side since freezing will dull the flavor.) Cover and chill the mixture.

Once the strawberry mixture is completely chilled, pour into the ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Return the sorbet to the freezer for a couple more hours to continue firming up.