Recipes

Champagne Sorbet

James Beard

Author and Educator

Champagne is a wine of infinite variety because every winemaker, through skilled blending, produces a wine with definite characteristics that distinguish it from its competitors—marked differences in flavor, lightness, dryness, and body. It needn’t break the bank, either. For a punch or mixed drink use a less expensive, non-vintage Brut Champagne, not a vintage or the finest Cuvée. This also applies if you are using Champagne in the kitchen.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 bottle Brut Champagne
  • 1/3 cup orange juice, from about 1 1/2 oranges
  • 1 tablespoon grated orange rind, from 1 orange

Method

Heat water with sugar until it comes to a rolling boil. Boil for 6 minutes. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved. Add the bottle of Champagne and heat (this burns off a bit of the alcohol). Remove from heat. Stir in the orange juice and grated orange rind. Allow the mixture to cool, or refrigerate overnight. Pour this into an ice cream maker or sorbet machine and process until the sorbet is softly frozen, not hard. Serve immediately.

Yield

6 to 8 servings