Persimmon Sherbet (for Ninja Creami)

 

I couldn’t find any other recipe for persimmon sherbet on the internet, so… voila!

Sherbet is a bit more on the traditional side, isn’t it? Off the top of my head, I can only name a handful of flavors: orange, lime, raspberry, rainbow (which is usually a mix of the previous three), sometimes strawberry, and that just about covers it. It’s an old-fashioned treat that no one wants to disrespect by changing things up.

But doesn’t sherbet deserve a little more recognition and diversity in flavors? It makes an excellent blank canvas for all fruits, with dairy rounding out the sharper edges of whatever fruit flavor it hosts.

It’s also fun to invent new things, and I couldn’t find any other recipe for persimmon sherbet on the internet, so… voila! 

 I have heard that persimmons can be very sharp in taste when they aren’t ripened enough, but I thankfully have not experienced this yet. I got my hands on some Fuyu persimmons and waited to eat them until they were soft and squishy enough for my thumb to pierce through the flesh without too much effort. I also scooped the flesh from the skin and didn’t use the skin in this recipe, but if you don’t mind the potential grittiness that might add, you can leave on the peels.

Even though this sherbet has very little sugar in it, it’s still surprisingly sweet and soft. I would describe it as plush. It’s also scoopable with a spoon even after it’s been churned and left in the freezer for a few days. To be honest, I have no idea how I got this texture with such little added sugar, but you won’t hear me complaining.

If you haven’t tasted persimmon before, Fuyu persimmon (the squat kind that looks kind of like a tomato) is mild and has a flavor similar to pear and pumpkin. I used Fuyu persimmons, but Hachiya persimmons are also commonly sold in grocery stores. Hachiya persimmons are acorn-shaped and apparently more astringent if they aren’t allowed to ripen. I haven’t used Hachiya persimmons so can’t advise on how best to use them, but no matter what kind of persimmon you use, always let it ripen! My persimmons didn’t ripen all at once, so as they ripened, I just froze them until I was ready to make this recipe.

This recipe used about 2 persimmons (with the skins off), 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the rest was milk to fill the container. The mixture had a lot of volume, for some reason, which I wasn’t expecting for its weight. I wonder if persimmons contain something that causes them to bubble up and take up lots of space. Anyways, it made me nervous, so I scooped out a few spoonfuls before I froze it so that it didn’t go too far past the max fill line.

This is a super simple, three-ingredient recipe, but flavors like cinnamon and vanilla would pair well with it. I decided not to add anything extra since I wanted that pure persimmon flavor, and it tends to be on the milder side. I did, however, eat it between two snickerdoodles, and that was delightful.

I hope to experiment with more sherbet flavors in the future, both traditional and new ones. In the meantime, please enjoy this persimmon sherbet! Happy new year, everyone!

Persimmon Sherbet Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 ⅛ cups (256 g) persimmon, skins removed (about 2 persimmons)

• ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon (200 g) milk

• 2 tablespoons (30 g) sugar

Directions

1. Blend all of the ingredients and pour into a clean, empty Ninja Creami pint. If the mixture exceeds the max fill line, you can scoop out a bit and taste test it.

2. Churn on the regular Ice Cream setting and respin as needed to reach a creamy consistency. Enjoy! Leftovers are soft enough to eat with a spoon and do not need to be respun. 

Notes 

 I have no idea how to fix the paragraph formatting on this post. Someone please help me.