Pink Grapefruit and Aperol Fizz

Hands up those who like sorbet.

OK, those with your hands up are welcome to stick around. Those with your hands down may click away – I do not understand you but I am sure we can work it out next time, no hard feelings.

Now, hands up those who quite like the idea of taking a bottle of sparkling wine and drowning your sorbet in it. Now put your other hand up and raise the roof because that, my friends, is exactly what I did.

Allow me to explain. 

It has to be said that I would not just go and grab a flagon of Passion Pop and slug it over the sorbet (I might have done this when I was 17 18 and substituted the sorbet for a plastic cup). Nor did I turn to the other end of the spectrum and crack open one of my fancy bottles of Champagne that I save for celebrations - I would be too afraid to do that.

I actually put a little more thought into it.

Firstly, you need to know that I have a new ice-cream machine and I am in love with it.

I am dubious at best when it comes to kitchen appliances that only serve one purpose, but I know this is going to be a different story. We are in the throes of a summer romance and I think we will be very happy together.

I made a boozy Aperol and pink grapefruit sorbet to ring in the festive season because I just love these two flavours together. The resulting sorbet has both bitter and sweet notes and it is so refreshing. By itself, you have a lovely palate cleanser, but why not kick it up a notch and turn it into a cocktail to enjoy over Christmas and New Year?

Get amongst it I say.

This brings me to the bubbly part of my story. I met the lovely Sara from For the Love of Champagne when I was in Adelaide for Eat Drink Blog 2012. Her blog is just one sparkling celebration of all things champagne explained in a personal and approachable way. Reading it has certainly inspired me to learn more about Champagne as well as Australian sparkling wines and I recommend you head on over and check it out. After meeting Sara, I sent her an email to see if she might have any recommendations for an affordable, Australian sparkling wine to go with the flavours in my sorbet.

Here are Sara’s recommendations:

Pucino Prosecco - This is lovely stuff from King Valley with crunchy citrus flavours and spice - I think it should go very well. It's also extra dry, which should temper the sweetness.

http://store.dalzotto.com.au/pucino-prosecco.html

Bay of Fires Tigress Pinot Noir Chardonnay - Again, this is a lovely drop. It has notes of citrus and mandarin and again, very dry. It's made by the people who make the famous EJ Carr for Arras. Again, you can get it from Dan Murphy's for less than $20. I have provided the link below.

http://danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_366747/bay-of-fires-tigress-pinot-noir-chardonnay

In the end, I went for the Bay of Fires Tigress and this did not disappoint. It was perfect, maybe a little too perfect as I found it hard to stop at just one of these cocktails! Thanks Sara for your wonderful recommendations!

I leave you with a GIF I have made.  Please imagine that it moves the way it does because you have had a couple of these and not because I didn't use a tripod. 

Cheers to the holiday season!

Pink Grapefruit and Aperol Fizz

Adapted from this recipe by David Lebovitz

3 cups freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice – about 6 grapefruits

½ cup of sugar

¼ cup Aperol

1 tbsp orange blossom water

Dissolve the sugar in the juice over a low heat.  Remove from the heat and add the orange blossom water and Aperol. Stir to combine.

Put the mixture in the fridge to chill completely and then freeze in an icecream maker according to the manufacturers instructions. Store in the freezer to firm up.

Put 2 small scoops in a champagne coupe or flute and top with sparkling wine.