15 Sensational Sorbet Recipes (2024)

Sorbet is an ideal treat for a hot day, and the perfect reason to break out that ice cream maker. From fruit-forward sorbets to a spiced chocolate flavor and a boozy lemonade, these are our best recipes for making your own sorbet as well as using it as a component in layered desserts.

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Sour-Cherry Lambic Sorbet

"Above all, sorbet should taste — and feel — almost like eating fresh fruit," says ice cream maven Jeni Britton. This recipe incorporates both pitted sour cherries and cherry lambic beer for deep fruit flavor.

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Strawberries and Cream Gelato Cake

As stunning as it is delicious, this creamy strawberry and sour cream gelato cake from Il Laboratorio del Gelato owner Jon Snyder is the perfect centerpiece for summer celebrations. Make your own strawberry sorbet for the vibrant red layers with the recipe here or use store-bought.

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Mexican Chocolate Sorbet

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

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Boozy Frozen Strawberry Lemonade

Famed pastry chef Claudia Fleming's Boozy Frozen Strawberry Lemonade is sweet, zippy, and irresistibly delicious — exactly the kind of drink you want on a hot summer afternoon. The frozen co*cktail is made with lemon vodka, Prosecco, basil, limoncello, strawberries, and lemon sorbet and can double as a dessert.

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Tropical Jackfruit–Ginger Ale Sorbet with Charred Pineapple

Chef Sam Fore of the pop up Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites in Lexington, Kentucky, created this summer fruit dessert recipe for an icy, quenching sorbet of jackfruit, pineapple, and ginger ale.

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Chocolate-Raspberry Icebox Cake

This Chocolate-Raspberry Icebox Cake is creamy, it's dreamy, and it's so simple to make. Crushed cookies, fresh raspberries, and layers of tart raspberry sorbet and velvety vanilla ice cream transform into a gorgeous marbled layer cake in about 15 minutes — no frosting required.

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Lemon and Fresh Sorrel Sherbet

Pastry chef 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; mint, thyme, and basil are also terrific choices.

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Raspberry-Hibiscus Sorbet

This sorbet by chef and ice cream maker Fany Gerson has a creamy texture thanks to the addition of corn syrup or honey, which increases the sugar content and helps make the final product richer, less icy, and more scoopable. Bright and airy, with the perfect sweet-tart balance from the raspberries and just the right amount of a floral hit from the hibiscus, this is a super-refreshing summertime treat.

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Rio-Style Ginger Beer Floats

Chef Eric Ripert's sweet, fizzy drink, made with orange juice, passion fruit, and mango sorbet, is his Brazilian take on a typical American root beer float.

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Lemon-Rosemary Sorbet

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

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Strawberry, Lemon, and Vanilla Ice Cream Parfait

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

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Mango-Basil Vacherin

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.

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Melon Sorbet

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.

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Pineapple Carpaccio with Lemon Sorbet and Candied Zest

Here's a refreshing dessert that looks and tastes spectacular. If you can find one, try a pineapple labeled gold; relatively new to the market, this hybrid is always lusciously sweet.

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Tomato Sorbet

Chef Andrew Zimmern makes this recipe all summer long with everything from orange sunburst cherry tomatoes to Valencias to German Striped. He says the bigger the acidity and sweetness of the tomatoes, the better.

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