Turn Frozen Mango Into Creamy Sorbet

They’re good for more than smoothies—in fact, with just a handful of other ingredients, they can be turned into a refreshing, perfectly creamy sorbet. 

Plus, you don’t even need an ice cream maker to do it.

Instead, the key to this Mango-Lime Sorbet is the food processor. First, we use it to turn frozen and then thawed mango chunks, lime juice, water, sugar, and a pinch of salt into a sorbet base. Then, we freeze the base in ice cube trays. 

Once the ice cube–size portions are frozen, they go back into the food processor, where they transform into a creamy mixture in less than two minutes. After that, it takes just one more stint in the freezer to firm the sorbet up into a scoopable texture.

Traditionally, it takes tons of constant churning to make ice cream and sorbet. The food processor incorporates air easily—but you still need time in the freezer to get the mixture cold enough. Unlike ice cream, sorbet doesn’t have fat to keep it smooth at low temperatures.

Instead, the scientific secret to sorbet’s silky texture is the right amount of sugar. 

Without the perfect ratio of sugar, sorbet would freeze up hard and icy. The sugar dissolves in the liquid base. As the sorbet mixture freezes, the dissolved sugar does two things:

1. It makes sure the ice crystals that form are tiny.
2. It lowers the freezing point of water to below 32 degrees, which means that some water will always stay liquid.

All this science gives you smoother, more scoopable sorbet. 

And with the food processor and freezer doing all the work for you, who can resist?