Banana-Pineapple Tropical Sorbet
Submitted by shellstone
Fresh banana-pineapple sorbet churned with low-fat yogurt and honey, served in a hollowed-out pineapple shell for a stunning tropical presentation. Light, fruity, and low-fat.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
20 minREADY
40 minThis sorbet is half recipe, half art project, and entirely worth the effort.
Fresh pineapple gets hollowed out, pureed with bananas, yogurt, honey, and a touch of sugar, then churned in an ice cream maker. The sorbet goes right back into the pineapple shell, freezes solid, and gets sliced into dramatic wedges for serving.
The flavor is bright and tropical with a creamy tang from the yogurt. Low in fat and naturally sweet from the fruit.
Don’t want the showpiece presentation? Skip the pineapple surgery entirely. Just chop the fruit, puree, churn, and serve straight from the machine. Still incredible.
Kitchen Tips
- When hollowing the pineapple, work slowly and don’t puncture the bottom. That shell is your serving bowl
- Remove the tough central core from the pineapple flesh before pureeing. It’s fibrous and won’t blend smooth
- Ripe bananas make the sorbet sweeter and creamier. Don’t use green ones
- Freeze the filled pineapple for at least an hour so the sorbet firms up enough to slice cleanly into wedges
Ingredients
Directions
Because this sorbet is frozen in the pineapple shell, you must cut out the flesh according to the following special method. First, slice off the top, just at the point where the edges begin to straighten. Now stand the pineapple up on its bottom end. Insert a long, thin-bladed knife into the exposed flesh, next to the pineapple’s outer skin. Push the knife in tin the entire length of the pineapple, stopping just above the bottom - CAREFUL - you don’t want to penetrate through the bottom. Cut in a circle around the edge just inside the skin. You’ve now created a long cylinder of pineapple flesh that’s connected to the shell only at the bottom.
To separate the bottom of this fruit cylinder, insert the knife into the side of the pineapple, about 1 inch from the bottom. Without enlarging the hole that is the knife’s entry point into the fruit, fan the blade back and forth, cutting through the inside fruit cylinder in a large “V". Repeat this procedure on the opposite side. Now the long, central p pineapple cylinder is free.
Invert the pineapple over a bowl to catch the juice. Plunge a fork into the pineapple cylinder’s top end and, with firm determination, pull it out into the bowl. Remove the tough central core of the fruit by cutting the cylinder into quarters and then trimming off the center strip of eac each piece. Remove any “eyes".
Roughly chop the remaining pineapple flesh and put it into the bowl with the reserved juice. The rest is easier!!
Purée pineapple flesh and juice with bananas in food processor, gradually adding the sugar, yogurt and honey. Transfer to ice cream maker and process according to directions. Scoop sorbet into hollowed out pineapple shell, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least an hour.
To serve: Remove from freezer just before serving. Slice the pineapple from top to bottom into 6 wedges.
Of course, one needn’t go to all that trouble...but it’s a lovely way to present the sorbet. If you don’t want to do it, then skip all the hard part, and just chop up the pineapple flesh and go from there and serve directly out of the ice cream maker!! :)
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