Plum, Pluot and Cherry Sorbet

One of the best things about summer is the abundance of fresh fruit. That being said, the worst thing about summer has to be watching fruit, at the peak of greatness, go to waste when it starts to spoil before you can eat it. Every year we make several visits to my Grandma's farm and always end up with more fruit than we can consume. This year Joe and I finally wised up and made an amazing plum, pluot and cherry sorbet... we added a little Port and honey for an extra kick. Honey is not in most sorbet recipes, but adding a touch to the simple syrup gives a delightful floral note that goes so well with the tartness of plums.

Certainly the Port is optional if you have little ones around. On the flip side, if you add too much alcohol to the mix you will end up with a tasty "happy hour" slushy... which can be just as nice even thou it will never set up in the freezer.
We discovered this by accident.


Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds of sliced plums and pluots pitted

1 cup of cherries pitted and quartered
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1/4 cup of Port wine (optional)


Simple Syrup

1 1/2 cups water and 2/3 cup of sugar and heat until the sugar is dissolved
add honey to taste

Method

1 First remove the pits from your plums and pluots and slice into blender friendly pieces. Place the sliced fruit, lemon juice, and cooled simple syrup into a blender and puree until smooth. Push the fruit puree through a fine mesh strainer to catch any large pieces of skin and discard them. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of fruit puree.

2 Mix the Port into the puree just before churning. Place the puree in an ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer's instructions- our machine took about 25 minutes. At the last few minutes of churning add the cherry pieces so they don't get bruised. Place the sorbet in an air tight container and freeze for two hours to firm up. Enjoy!

Makes a about one quart of sorbet.