HHDD - Sorbet!

I've got 6 minutes to write this post before I am sooo past the deadline for my friend, Laura's, edition of Hay! Hay! It's Donna's Summer Day! Sorbet. Acckkk - me and my problem of not knowing when to shut the fakk up and I've only got 6 - errr, FIVE minutes to hit publish!

Why am I so late? Because I just spent the best 5 days with my lil Tartelette! What a blast we had! What a darling she is! We shopped, we baked, we laughed out loud! We drank wine and she had her very first s'more! ha! We exercised.. briefly. We cooked! We drank wine! We visited with family and enjoyed each other's company immensely! But, MY GOD. That lil girl wore me out! heheee And that statement is hilarious as she did most of the damn work - so there ya go. =)

So this is why I am going to run over that deadline by a couple few minutes - feel my pain, kids! Feel. My. Pain.

But I am here writing this up because I want to show my support for one of my new friends, an extremely talented baker, a fellow Daring Baker and last month's winner of HHDD - Caesar Salad! I'm talking about the lovely Laura of EAT DRINK LIVE. She totally blows me away with her creations and I'm so happy that she joined up with the Daring Bakers or I might not have discovered such a talent and such a fantastic lady.

Laura chose sorbet for this month and I was nicely surprised with her choice. I love sorbet but have never made it before - so this was going to be a great challenge! My first thought was watermelon - my all time favorite fruit. But as I was searching for recipes, I came across one for Gingered Pear Sorbet. Holy crap, I hadda make it! And as fate would have it, I believe this choice was meant to be. On Friday, Helene and I went shopping at Trader Joe's (how I heart you TJ!) and the first item we see is a lil glass pot of Ginger Spread. Oh man.. it just looked and sounded so good that we both bought a jar.

Once we were home (after a very lovely day) we unpacked our goodies and planned our method of attack for the next day of baking and sorbet making. After we had that settled we opened the wine. Okay, so we might have opened it a lil sooner, but who was keeping track?? Anyhoo.. the next day we started rather late (there is just so much to do - and by that I mean there is so much to gossip and giggle about!) but made the sorbet first. That ginger spread came in very handy as it was the perfect substitute for the ground ginger called for in the recipe. This sorbet is amazingly light and zingy. The pear flavor comes through very nicely but the sweetness and kick of the ginger is the star of this sorbet, for sure.

I'm now confident that I can take this base recipe and make all kinds of different fruity flavors and that just tickles me pink as I can have a whole cup (you did say so, Helene! I heard you!!) of it as opposed to like a 1/2 cup of low fat ice cream. Party on! teeee!

Ohhhh Laurrrrraaaaaa.... here be my submission to your lovely round up! Gingered Pear Sorbet - fanfarkintastic! :D

Gingered Pear Sorbet
Adapted from a recipe submitted by Donna Cline on All Recipes

1 (29 ounce) can pear halves (I went with a 15 oz. can of light pears in their own juice and a few larger pear halves from a jar of pears)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger (I used 2 tsp. of Trader Joe's Ginger Spread)
yellow food coloring (I omitted this - it's pretty enough on it's own)

Drain pears, reserving 1 cup juice (discard remaining juice or save for another use); set pears aside. In a saucepan, bring sugar and reserved juice to a boil. Remove from the heat; cool.

In a blender, process the pears, lemon juice and ginger spread until smooth. Add cooled syrup and food coloring if desired; cover and process until pureed. Pour into an 11-in. x 7-in. x 2-in. dish. Cover and freeze for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until partially frozen.

Return mixture to blender; cover and process until smooth. Place in a freezer container; cover and freeze for at least 3 hours. Remove from the freezer 20 minutes before serving.

PS - I can not recommend highly enough purchasing your own French Pastry Chef. Seriously kids, having your own comes in so handy. Not only will she boil your pear syrup for you, but she'll create a gorgeous lil rose out of a slice of pear so that your very boring pictures turn out extra special. =) Hurry - check out HSN or Amazon today!!!