The Ice Cream Queen’s Cantaloupe Sorbet

One day in early summer, Lokelani Alabanza —visiting from her home in Nashville—stopped by Wild Sorrel to sign copies of her new book, I ce Cream Queen . We could have talked all afternoon about ice cream, our favorite flavors, our shared love of Elizabeth David, and the making of her remarkable book.

The subtitle: Flavors from Black America’s Past, Present & Future tips readers off that this book is much more than just a collection of recipes. She grew up in California with a love of ice cream inherited from her Tennessean grandmother. At age 18, a Eurail trip began trading her eyes to ice cream of different cultures and to the power of books.

Culinary school in Vermont followed, and formative years back on the West Coast working in the pastry departments of the Los Angeles restaurants Grace and Campanile. The way Loke tells it, it was a cross-country drive to a new job in Nashville, listening to an episode of the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Gravy podcast about Toni Tipton-Martin’s book The Jemima Cod e that began trading her eyes to a history she hadn’t known, cracking things open in a new way.

To know more—and to be truly astounded by the Black culinary history of ice cream and Loke’s own personal story—get yourself a copy of Ice Cream Queen . It is filled with recipes you’ll want to make with origin stories you’ll be fascinated and stunned to learn: Butter Pecan, Roasted Peach Cobbler, Buttermilk Plum, Butterscotch Oreo, Sarah Estelle’s Parmesan, The Mint Chip, and many fruit-driven sorbets like this recipe for Tuscan Cantaloupe Sorbet capturing the taste of high summer.

Lokelani Alabanza is a master ice cream-maker, a teacher, a historian, and a great storyteller ~ run to your local bookstore and start reading, learning, and churning ! Lokelani Alabanza Tuscan Cantaloupe Sorbet Print Recipe Pin Recipe Servings: 1.5 quarts In Monza, Italy, a sample of gelato di melone awakened my love for cantaloupe.

The pastel coral-­colored gelato was creamy and refreshing, and the distinctive, mouthwatering muskiness of the fruit came through clearly even when in frozen form. Years later, when I finally made cantaloupe sorbet at the creamery I worked at in Tennessee, it became a coveted special release. To make just a few gallons, we peeled and pureed many, many cases of melons—­but the labor was worth it.

If you want to try making cantaloupe sorbet at home, you need only three good melons. Components Method Ingredients 3 very ripe Tuscan cantaloupes peeled, seeded, and chopped (about 12 cups) 2 cups tapioca syrup or light corn syrup 1 tablespoon kosher salt Method Put the cantaloupe in a blender and finely chop.

Strain the mixture and measure out 6 cups juice (drink or freeze the rest). Pour the juice back into the blender, add another 11⁄2 cups water, the syrup, and the salt, and blend for 30 seconds.

Pour the sorbet base into an ice cream machine and follow the manufacturer’s instructions to freeze until the mixture thickens, 20 to 30 minutes depending on your machine. Cover with parchment paper or plastic wrap to prevent ice crystals from developing on the top of the sorbet and close with an airtight lid.

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