Rose Apple sorbet

Rose Apples, or fruit of the Syzygium jambos, are a revelation in wild harvested fruits. They are sweet and there is a rose water perfume that is intoxicating. They are crunchy and juicy when ripe and fresh off the tree, and produce a surprising amount of juice to pulp ratio through a cold press juicer. The flavour is balanced well with tart green apple juice.

This is the first year that the trees have produced so heavily. I think this is owing to two things - the fact we now have 3 bee hives in close proximity and they loved the flowers, and the fact we are in drought when we would normally have some torrential rain at the time of year they flower. The timing of rain to flower seems to be a factor in the success of all my summer crops, including mangoes and pecans, which makes sense from a pollination point of view. Horticulture gurus feel free to correct me if my observation is incorrect and there is something else at play this year with the amazing Syzygium harvests in Northern NSW.

You will need a fruit juicer for this recipe, and ideally an ice cream maker.

Ingredients

400ml Rose Apple juice (syzygium jambos) - approximately 800g of fruit with seeds removed

100ml green apple juice - approximately 1 green apple

juice of 2 limes

350mL sugar syrup (220g sugar combined with 250mL water, dissolved over heat and simmered for 5 minutes)

Instructions

1. Harvest your Rose Apples, remove the seeds.

2. Make your sugar syrup and place in the fridge to cool.

3. Juice the outer skin of the Rose Apples with a cold press juicer. Strain through a nut milk bag if you have one to remove any remaining fruit pulp.

4. Juice green apples. Combine the Rose Apple juice, green apple juice and lime juice and place in the fridge to cool.

5. Combine the juice and the sugar syrup in the bowl of an ice cream machine. Follow the instructions of your ice cream machine to make sorbet - this batch took 40 minutes using a Sunbeam Gelateria.

6. Freeze.