With a bright, tart, and unique citrus flavor, Yuzu Sorbet makes an irresistibly tasty dessert that refreshes the palate. It‘s easy to make at home with just 3 ingredients! Use an ice cream maker or my no-churn method.
Have you tasted yuzu (柚子) before? This citrus fruit tastes like a combination of lemon, mandarin orange, and grapefruit. Yuzu juice and peel are used in Japanese cuisine especially in fall/winter when it’s in season.
Having fresh yuzu in the kitchen really excites me not only because they are rare fruits outside of Japan, but the amazing fragrance and flavor of yuzu in the air awaken my senses. If you have the chance and come across fresh yuzu, you must make this Yuzu Sorbet (柚子のシャーベット).
Watch How To Make Yuzu Sorbet
Refreshing and delightful sorbet to refresh your palate, super easy to make, and irresistibly tasty with a citrusy-floral essence of yuzu fruit.
Every year during the yuzu season, I buy one or two yuzu fruits to enjoy. They are quite expensive at the local Japanese supermarkets and to be honest, they are hard to find elsewhere. Some readers told me that farmers’ markets in their local area sometimes sell them. So if you do see fresh yuzu, you know you’ve just found yourself gold as they are hard to find.
Fresh Fruit for Yuzu Sorbet
This year, Santa came early for me. My friends have two yuzu trees that started to produce fruits this year and I was so fortunate to pick my own fresh yuzu fruits off from their trees.
Unlike lemon or lime, each yuzu produces a very little amount of juice as they have these gigantic seeds inside those small fruits. So even though I had 40 yuzu to use in total, the amount of juice extracted was not much. I made yuzu sorbet and marmalade and stored the rest of the juice/peel in the freezer.
Super Easy Yuzu Sorbet Recipe
This yuzu sorbet is very, VERY easy to make with or without an ice cream maker. I started with an ice cream maker but had to stop the churning early as I had to leave the kitchen (one of those “multi-tasking” leading to failed project incidents) and the sorbet was still too loose. So I finished off making the sorbet with the manual method.
This no-ice-cream-machine method doesn’t require much effort. You just need to stir the sorbet every 30-60 minutes while it’s in the freezer until it’s done. I recommend making the sorbet after dinner so you can set a timer for every 30-60 minutes and stir the sorbet while you are watching your TV shows or relaxing.
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Yuzu Sorbet
Video
Ingredients
- 6 yuzu
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Make the simple syrup first. In a small saucepan, combine 2 cups water and 1 cup sugar over medium heat. Whisk the mixture until all the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- Clean 6 yuzu thoroughly. For 2 yuzu, zest the entire yuzu fruit into a small bowl using a microplane or grater. Be sure to zest only the thin outer peel or colored portion (do not zest bitter white part). Then, cut the fruits crosswise in half for juicing (Step 4).
- For the other 4 yuzu, cut off the top one-quarter of the yuzu to make a cup and lid.
- Squeeze the juice out of all the yuzu (4 yuzu cups from Step 3 and 2 yuzu from Step 2). Strain the juice into the small bowl, making sure to separate the seeds. You should have about ¼ cup of juice and zest.
- Hollow out the 4 yuzu cups with a spoon. Be careful not to tear the yuzu cups when you are removing the seeds and flesh.
- Add the yuzu zest and yuzu juice into the simple syrup and combine well. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the mixture cool in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. I put the saucepan in the refrigerator directly, but it takes more time to cool as the saucepan is still a bit warm.
To Churn in an Ice Cream Maker
- Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and churn for 20–25 minutes until frozen.
- Transfer to a shallow container and smooth out the surface. Stuff the yuzu sorbet in the yuzu cups and put the yuzu lids on. Pack the yuzu cups tightly in a container so they won’t fall over. Store the yuzu sorbet and yuzu cups in the freezer. If the yuzu sorbet is still watery after you finished churning, you can continue with the no-ice-cream-maker method below.
To Make without an Ice Cream Maker
- Pour the mixture into a container (preferably metal), cover, and place the mixture in the freezer. Stir with a fork every 30–60 minutes to get rid of any large ice lumps until the sorbet becomes smooth and frozen throughout, about 2–3 hours.
Definitely looks good and refreshing, perfect for our weather here
Ah! So THAT’S what Yuzu is. I always see that word floating around somewhere and for some reason I just assumed it was some sauce–maybe because of ponzu? Haha. It does sound delicious and refreshing~grapefruit and lemon are my favorite citrus fruits so I’m extremely intrigued by it. Oh! I live 5 minutes from one of the largest “Japanese” areas in LA aside from Little Tokyo so I’ll be on the lookout. I even have a Mitsuwa 5 minutes away but every time I walk in I’m kinda broke! lol. Anyway, sorry for the long comment but I always get excited when I “talk” to you but that’s probably a good thing. 😉
That is very creative using the fruit shell as a cup for the sorbet. I’ve never seen this citrus fruit before and I should watch out for it so I could make your sorbet.
Exquisite and refreshingly citrusy!
Cheers,
Rosa
This sorbet looks absolutely perfect!!
My friends often eat Yuzu but I have yet to taste it – I reckon trying it in your delicious sorbet mode would work well 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
What an incredible dessert.. Never had Yuzu – sounds delicious
This is really fresh fruit, you were lucky to have it!!! And you are right, the seeds are really BIG
This looks super refreshing and I love the way you serve it!
Yuzu is new to me — never had it, nor heard of it. Sounds really interesting! And it looks gorgeous. But I’m a lemon freak, so anything that looks like lemon appeals to me. Gorgeous pictures, terrific recipe — thanks.
Omg! Would love to try this! 🙂 Looks delicious and really cute!
I have never bought fresh yuzu and it sounds perfect for a sorbet! This is so refreshing and with all the heavy meals we’re eating now around the holidays, something like this to cut through it all is just what we need. Looks really pretty presented in the yuzu shells.
I love Yuzu!! It is soooo good. I wish I could find a tree to plant, but no such luck yet. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much for your comment Laura! Yeah I truely wish to have a Yuzu tree but it is probably too cold here. I’m so glad you like yuzu too! It tastes amazing and this sorbet has unforgettable taste! 🙂
I will put this on my recipe list- I can imagine how fragrant and uplifting the sorbet would be! Have you had a chance to try a Yuzu onsen when visiting in Japan? That is an incredible experience- that is my kind of aromatherapy 😉 Have a great day.
I haven’t been back in winter time for a while (maybe several years) but yes I enjoy taking a bath with yuzu skin in it (I assume that’s what you’re referring – maybe in your case, it’s hot spring water with yuzu skin… nice!!!). Ah… so relaxing. I miss Japanese ofuro. 😀
I hope to taste real yuzu one day but in the meantime I can only salivate at pictures of your yuzu marmalade, sorbet and cocktails.
I have never heard of yuzu fruit. They do look just like a lemon. What a shame there is so little juice in them! I think your presentation is just gorgeous and after a big meal, what a gorgeous and elegant and light and refreshing dessert – perfect down under for our hot weather! xx