Grapefruit Champagne Sorbet

Remember when I was honeymooning with my new cheapie ice cream maker? Oh, the good old days. We were young and so in love. And then I tried to make sorbet.

The short version: I made sorbet and it is good. It is not, however, smooth or particularly scoop-able. Ready for the long version? Let's go.

I used this recipe for champagne sorbet. I started by pouring 1 1/2 cups of Andre (what else?) into a saucepan with lemon zest, corn syrup, and sugar.

I brought the mixture to a boil and then moved it off the heat. I will note that the directions say one way to get a smoother mixture is to boil the sugar with the champagne (I poured mine into the champagne before I ever put the mixture on heat and it was like POOF!).

I poured the mixture into a stainless steel bowl through a sieve.

Then added 1/4 cup of fresh-squeezed lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups of ruby red grapefruit juice. I think that's mistake number 2: I didn't have any grapefruits and I thought, "oh, what the hey, I have juice!" I think that was a mistake b/c juice has added water, and also the flavor WAY overpowered the champagne.

I put the liquid mixture in the freezer for a while until I felt it was ready to add it to the pre-frozen machine. It got close to slushie level, but nowhere near sorbet. Eventually I just gave up in defeat and poured the mixture into my pint cartons (which I ordered from Amazon) and put two pints in my freezer.

This is the pre-frozen slushie phase. When I checked back the next morning, I had a champagne popsicle. BUT, if you take the pint out a little bit before you want to serve or eat, it will get soft enough to scoop. And if nothing else, I can call it granita!

By the way, do any of you have the KitchenAid mixer ice cream bowl attachment? Do you like it? What about the Cuisinart ice cream maker? I'm thinking I might have to upgrade someday, just to justify the purchase of pint cartons!