Our Best Sorbet Recipes

Inspired by the ripe mangoes at a farmers’ market along the drive to Mount Kenya Safari Club, Hubert Des Marais came up with this smooth and creamy frozen dessert. Its intensely tropical kick comes from a coconut-milk base infused with ginger and cardamom.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten takes advantage of the first strawberries of summer to make this perfect alfresco dessert. As the red wine-infused sorbet melts, it forms a tart sauce for the sweet, tender berries, which also get topped with crunchy bits of meringue, a splash of aged balsamic and fresh whipped cream.

“Above all, sorbet should taste—and feel—almost like eating fresh fruit,” says Jeni Britton.

Chef James Holmes topped raw oysters with this sweet-savory sorbet before deciding it would make an excellent cocktail with Prosecco. A good-quality, store-bought raspberry sorbet is a fine shortcut.

Reminiscent of a Creamsicle, this creamy, tangy terrine can be made with a shortcut: store-bought orange sorbet.

Making this bright and herbaceous sorbet is simple. First, you make a simple syrup with rosemary sprigs. then you add that to fresh lemon juice, chill it, and mix it in an ice cream maker. Voila!

If you can find them, use blood oranges instead of lighter-colored navels because darker pigments deliver more antioxidants.

Jeni Britton’s easy sugar syrup can be mixed with almost any fruit puree and churned in an ice cream maker to make sorbet. During the summer, she loves sorbets made with locally grown heirloom melons and ruby-red sour cherries.

Because Mary Ellen Carroll and Donna Wingate happened to find plump huckleberries right before the ICA dinner, they decided to make sorbet and turn their lemon-poppy polenta cookies into whimsical sandwiches. Any tart store-bought sorbet (like raspberry, blood orange or lemon) would be delicious with these cookies as well.

Fresh strawberry sauce and refreshing lemon sorbet make these giant sundaes a delightful early summer treat.

Jeni Britton Bauer says the secret to a perfect layered terrine is the “clash of color and texture.”

Yigit Pura perfected this crisp-creamy French dessert while working at restaurant Daniel in New York City. His updated version combines little lime meringue kisses with basil ice cream and sweet mango sorbet.

To make these layered, free-form sundaes quickly, use store-bought caramel or butterscotch sauce. As a variation, substitute ginger cookies for the chocolate wafers.

Belinda Leong started to incorporate wild greens and herbs into her desserts during a foraging-focused internship in Copenhagen. When sorrel’s in season, she uses the tart, lemony green to flavor her tangy sherbet, but mint, thyme and basil are also terrific.

Mexican cinnamon and vanilla complement the heat of guajillo and chipotle chilies for this sorbet version of Mexican hot chocolate. 

This sorbet harnesses the flavor of fresh, in season strawberries for a dessert that's light and sweet, but not cloying.