Pineapple Mint Sorbet

It's always delightful when our pineapples start turning just that bit of gold, signaling ripeness. Though it never fails that I anticipate sooner, and pick one before it's ready. This years poor specimen is sitting on a shelf waiting for signs of edibility. It's not like in the market where you can easily pick one up, and sniff for that fragrant pineapple smell. When fruit is on the plant, it would require getting down among the prickly leaves, so I usually just look for the color, and then, do the pull-on-a-leaf-to-see-if-it-is-loose test. Obviously not always infallible. These are what locally we call White Pineapples, and are fully ripe when only partly yellow. They are the best and sweetest of any variety known to man. I am not kidding.

Here you can see what I mean. It's not the bright yellow of standard commercial pineapples. I have a few of those also, but they need to be kept separate from the others so they don't cross pollinate.

These ornamental Bromeliads are in the pineapple family and bloom at the same time. I guess I should say that pineapples are Bromeliads.


For quite a few years, as we've been planting more and more pineapples, I've enjoyed the combination of mint with the fresh fruit, so thought that would be a winning addition to my Pineapple Sorbet. And seeing as mint is flourishing in our garden as well, this dish just cries out to enter the GYO (Grow Your Own) event of August 15 (#33), hosted by momgateway.

For this sorbet I decided to use Agave Nectar rather than sugar for an even more natural dessert. The recipe is almost too simple and so ridiculously easy, it makes the work to rewards ratio totally lopsided. All you do is juice enough pineapple to make 4 cups juice. That was about 2 medium pineapples. Then add 1/3 cup Agave Nectar (or 1/2 cup sugar) depending on the sweetness of your fruit, and 1/2 cup minced mint. That's it. Dump into your ice cream maker, adding the mint when it's almost finished. I think a bit of coconut cream and a few tablespoons of white rum wouldn't hurt, for a Pina Colada Sorbet. But, then AA people wouldn't be able to have any. Or kids. Unless you didn't tell them. Also, the addition of alcohol inhibits the tendency sorbet has to freeze solid. Cream helps with that too. All in all this was a delightful and refreshing dessert. Sooo good and completely guilt-free. Not that I get guilty about sweets.