Plum Prosecco Sorbet

Author Notes

While experimenting with frozen desserts, I was inspired by David Lebovitz's red wine raspberry sorbet that was featured on the design*sponge blog. Here's the link if you're curious: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/07/special-edition-dessert-with-david-lebovitz-giveaway.html. (Don't tell him, but I have a little crush on him.) I was thinking of what to do with the big ripe juicy plums I bought this week, and I thought a sorbet with Prosecco would be lovely and refreshing for summer. The cinnamon in this recipe is from Penzey's--it's Vietnamese extra fancy cinnamon. I like it because it has a little heat (like red hots candy) and a really rich flavor. (This is pretty much the only cinnamon I like.) If you don't have an ice cream freezer, the fruit base is a wonderful sauce. There will still be some small pieces of plum in the mixture after cooking. That was fine with me; you could strain them if you like. You could add a cup of water instead of Prosecco to make a non-alcoholic sorbet if you don't drink alcohol. (But alcohol does help the sorbet stay nice and soft.) And, unfortunately, the bubbles don't really make it into the sorbet, so any dry white wine will work. - drbabs

Note: Prep time is 20 minutes to prepare the base, 30 minutes or so to run the ice cream maker (depending on the machine), and 4-24 hours for freezing the mixture. —drbabs

Test Kitchen Notes

This recipe is easy enough to prepare and it produces a deliciously elegant dessert. The flavors start out with the sweet fruitiness, then you get the cinnamon and vanilla that make you think of eating cobbler, then the sparkling wine reminds you that this is a "grown up" dessert. I'll definitely make this again, but next time I’ll use my immersion blender instead of a potato masher for smaller lumps of plum. And, yes, now I'm obsessed with making sorbet. – nannydeb —The Editors