I adore buttermilk and anything made with buttermilk. It is a favorite ingredient of mine: biscuits, soups, cakes, pancakes, custards. All of it! Occasionally, when I can get my hands on some really good cream and am feeling particularly motivated, I’ll even make my own butter, separating and working out the buttermilk that I will then make into really fantastic biscuits, of course. Warm, beautiful flaky biscuits to cradle alarming amounts of homemade butter, of course. Try it. You won’t be sorry.
But in additional to all those wonderful delicious things, did you know it buttermilk makes a really fantastic sherbet? Really, it does. Just try David Lebovitz’s lemon buttermilk sherbet and become a believer (recipe in this book.) It is creamy and tart and the perfect refreshing counterpoint to something really sweet. A slice of MilkBar Crack Pie + a scoop of this sherbet is a perfect plate, the tart offsetting the sweet in the most magical way.
I’ve made the sherbet many times but earlier this summer I had an idea while I was staring at a container of blueberries crying to be used. Switch the lemon out for lime and swirl a bit of blueberry compote throughout. Blueberries, limes, buttermilk – a great combination. And it was. It was really really good.
I made a quart just before I left for an extended trip, telling my housesitter to help herself to it and anything else she might find in my freezer. When I returned weeks later, to a spotlessly cleaned apartment (much cleaner than I left it honestly), my friend apologized profusely for eating it all. Which was exactly what I had hoped. She told me she couldn’t stop herself and even went to far as to try to figure out the recipe to make more. I had to laugh and was thrilled she liked it as much as I did.
STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR: ENJOY THAT LAST BIT OF SUMMER. It’s bright and light and tangy and I think you should make this right now as summer takes its last few bows. There are still decent blueberries in the grocery stores and I’m certain this would work just as well with good frozen blueberries too. Let’s enjoy some brightness before the temperatures drop and the leaves start to turn. And if you are so motivated, a crack pie or two would be wonderful too.
Eight years ago: Chilled Cavillion Melon Soup
Seven years ago:Peach Sorbetto
Six years ago:Cold Melon Soup (a lighter, simpler version than the one above)
Five years ago: Bastille Day Lunch – Figgy BBQ Sauce
Four years ago: Yunnan Pineapple & Tomato Salad
Three years ago:Deep Dish Plum Almond Tart
Two years ago:Last of the Tomatoes – Fresh Tomato Sauce with Crispy Parmesan Breadcrumbs & Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette, Taking Advantage of the Last Bits of Summer
Last year: Borlotti Beans with Italian Sausages and Fennel-Pepper Relish
BLUEBERRY LIME BUTTERMILK SHERBET
Makes about 1 ½ pints
For the sherbet:
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
zest of 1 lime
2 ½ cups buttermilk
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 2-3 limes)
for the blueberry compote:
½ cup blueberries
2 Tablespoons sugar
- For the sherbet: In a medium, nonreactive saucepan, mix the water and sugar.
- Grate the zest of the lime directly into the saucepan.
- Heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let stand until the syrup reaches room temperature, then chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.
- For the blueberries: in a small saucepan, stir the sugar and blueberries together and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to a simmer and cook until berries just begin to soften and the mixture thickens.
- Transfer to a bowl, cover and chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.
- Just before churning, whisk the buttermilk into the syrup, then whisk in the lime juice.
- Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Once churned, drizzle in the chilled blueberry mixture and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours.
STRESSCAKE 
Leave a Reply