Homemade Rainbow Sherbet is the perfect creamy, fruity frozen treat with raspberry, orange, and lime flavors all mixed together. Try it today!
Sherbet is a frozen treat with the same creamy texture as ice cream but bursts of bright fruity flavor. This homemade rainbow sherbet recipe is a classic flavor combo of orange, raspberry and lime in one delicious, sweet and tart frozen dessert.
Sabrina’s Rainbow Sherbet Recipe
My Rainbow Sherbet recipe is a fun, colorful treat that’s easy to make. It combines the tangy tastes of the fresh fruit of orange, raspberry, and lime in one creamy, sweet treat. Each flavor is simple to prepare with fruit juice, sugar, and cream. And I just love how the bright colors come together, making it look as good as it tastes. The fresh sherbet flavors are perfect for a sunny day or whenever you want a fruity treat.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Orange Sherbet:
- 2 cups orange juice
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 drops orange food coloring , optional
Raspberry Sherbet:
- 12 ounces raspberries
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 drops red food coloring , optional
Lime Sherbet:
- 1 cup lime juice
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 drops green food coloring , optional
Instructions
Orange Sherbet:
- Mix together the orange juice, sugar, lemon juice, milk, heavy cream and food coloring.
- Place in ice cream machine for 20-25 minutes until hardened.
- Freeze for 2 hours.
Raspberry Sherbet:
- Add raspberries, sugar, lemon juice, whole milk, heavy cream and red food coloring to a high speed blender.
- Strain out the seeds.
- Freeze for 2 hours.
Lime Sherbet:
- Mix together the lime juice, sugar, milk, heavy cream and food coloring.
- Place in ice cream machine for 20-25 minutes until hardened.
- Freeze for 2 hours.
To Finish:
- Remove the sherbets from the freezer and let soften for 10 minutes.
- Scoop in alternating colors into a 9×5 inch loaf pan. Do not swirl the colors.
- Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 2 hours.
Nutrition
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Table of contents
Ingredients
Sherbet Base
- Sugar: White granulated sugar adds sweetness to the sherbet and will easily dissolve in the fruit juices to create a smooth texture.
- Whole Milk: Whole milk contributes to the creaminess of the sherbet, making it smoother and richer.
- Heavy Cream: Heavy cream adds richness and creaminess to the sherbet, giving it a luxurious texture. You can use a lower-fat cream, which may affect the final texture.
- Food Coloring: This is optional but if you want to make the colors brighter, you can add a few drops of gel food coloring to the sherbet mixtures.
Orange Sherbet
- Orange Juice: For orange sherbet, flavor the fruit mixture with 2 cups of orange juice. Orange pulp will disrupt the creamy texture of sherbet. To avoid this, use pulp-free juice or strain the pulp out. You can use freshly squeezed or store-bought orange juice.
- Lemon Juice: Lemon juice adds a tart contrast to the sweetness of the orange, balancing the flavors.
Raspberry Sherbet
- Raspberries: Raspberries are the main flavor and source of vibrant color in the Raspberry Sherbet. You can use fresh or frozen raspberries.
- Lemon Juice: Lemon juice adds acidity and brightens the raspberries’ flavor while also helping preserve the color.
Lime Sherbet
- Lime Juice: All sherbet recipes call for some form of citric acid. The citric acid gives sherbet a more tart flavor than most types of ice cream, setting it apart from other frozen treats. Both orange and raspberry sherbet call for fresh lemon juice to enhance the natural flavors in the recipe. However, lime sherbet already has citric acid from the lime juice, so lemon isn’t necessary.
Kitchen Tools and Equipment
- Ice Cream Machine: An ice cream machine is essential for churning and freezing the mixtures to achieve the desired creamy texture. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your specific machine, as different models may have varying freezing times.
- High-Speed Blender: A high-speed blender is used to puree ingredients like raspberries and achieve a smooth consistency. Strain out any seeds or solids for a smoother texture.
- 9×5-inch Loaf Pan: This loaf pan is used to layer and freeze the sherbet in alternating colors, creating the rainbow effect when you scoop it.
- Plastic Wrap: Plastic wrap covers the loaf pan before freezing the sherbet. It helps prevent ice crystals from forming on the surface of the sherbet and keeps it fresh.
How to Make
Time needed: 4 hours and 45 minutes
- Orange Sherbet
Mix orange juice, sugar, lemon juice, whole milk, heavy cream, and optional orange food coloring together in a bowl. Place the mixture in an ice cream machine and follow the manufacturer’s instructions to freeze it until it hardens. Freeze the orange sherbet for 2 hours.
- Raspberry Sherbet
Blend raspberries, sugar, lemon juice, whole milk, heavy cream, and optional red food coloring in a high-speed blender until smooth. Strain the mixture to remove any seeds. Freeze the raspberry sherbet for 2 hours.
- Lime Sherbet
Combine lime juice, sugar, whole milk, heavy cream, and optional green food coloring. Use an ice cream machine to churn and freeze the lime mixture until it hardens, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze the lime sherbet for 2 hours in a medium bowl.
- Layer the Sherbets
Remove the sherbets from the freezer and let them soften for 10 minutes. Scoop the sherbets into a 9×5-inch loaf pan in alternating colors without swirling them together. Cover the pan with plastic wrap, ensuring it touches the surface of the sherbet. Freeze the pan for an additional 2 hours before serving.
Can I Make This in Advance?
Absolutely! This is an ideal recipe to prepare ahead of time because the Sherbet needs a total of 4 hours in the freezer before it’s ready to serve. However, it won’t last too long. Over time, ice crystals form in the sherbet, ruining the creamy texture. Because of this, you don’t want to make this frozen treat more than 2 weeks in advance.
Nutritional Facts
Ideas to Serve
You can scoop sherbet into a bowl and serve as is or use it to make Rainbow Sherbet punch. Sherbet Punch is a favorite treat and drink for kids’ birthdays and summer cookouts! You can make the punch with different sodas and fruit juice, but the classic way is mixing equal parts lemon-lime soda and fruit punch. Add the soda and juice to a punch bowl and then scoop round balls of Rainbow Sherbet over the top. As the frozen sherbet melts, it keeps the punch cold while giving it an amazing fruity, creamy flavor!
How to Store
- Serve: Give the sherbet at least 2 hours to set in the freezer before taking it out and serving it with an ice cream scoop.
- Freezing: To keep leftover sherbet fresh, cover it in the loaf pan you froze it in or transfer the remaining mixture to an airtight, freezer-safe container. Kept sealed, the recipe will stay good in the freezer for up to two weeks.
Frequent Questions
This can vary depending on the brand of sherbet that you purchase. However, the most common flavors in store-bought Rainbow Sherbets are lime, orange, and raspberry. This recipe includes the same three key flavors. Scroll to the variations section for more flavor ideas.
While sorbet is also a dairy-free, frozen fruit dessert, sherbet still contains dairy. This gives sherbet a creamier, richer consistency, more similar to ice cream than sorbet.
Although it’s often mispronounced as sherbert, sherbet is the original name of this dessert recipe. However, so many people pronounce it as Sherbert that some sources, such as the Merriam-Webster dictionary, consider Sherbert a viable variant of spelling and pronunciation.
No, although both frozen desserts include cream ingredients, ice cream is made with a much higher percentage of dairy products than Sherbet, which is mostly made with fruit and only has some cream. Because of this, sherbet falls somewhere between sorbet and ice cream. It’s richer than sorbet but not as creamy as ice cream.
Sherbet is a frozen dessert made with a cream and milk base like ice cream. However, sherbet can also be made with fruit juice or fruit puree. It is mostly made from frozen fruit ingredients, with a small amount of milk and cream to make it richer.
Variations
- Pineapple Sherbet: Another flavor that tastes delicious in Rainbow Sherbet is pineapple. You can add it to the original blend as a fourth flavor or use it to replace one of the original three flavors. To make pineapple sherbet, follow the same directions as the orange sherbet, only swapping orange juice for pineapple juice and orange food coloring for yellow food coloring.
- Mixed Berry Sherbet: Instead of the original rainbow mixture, try making a berry blend with blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry sherbet. Just like with the raspberry flavor, you’ll blend fresh berries into a fruit puree and mix with sugar, citric acid, and milk. Then strain to remove seeds and skin. After freezing, scoop the three berry flavors into a bread pan in alternating flavors and freeze again.
- More Flavor Options: There are so many different versions of sherbet. Some other popular options are lemon sherbet, peach sherbet, mango sherbet, cherry sherbet, and more. You can follow the same basic steps with the new flavor ingredients to make whatever type of sherbet you’d like best.
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