Dairy-Free Pineapple Sherbet

Dairy-Free Pineapple Sherbet is a refreshing summer delight. It’s simple to make too. With just three ingredients, you can whip this treat up in minutes. Put it in elegant small cups and you’ll have made a swoon-worthy dessert with almost no effort. 

I adapted this recipe from one I found in the first suffrage cookbook. Collected by Hattie Burr of Boston in the late 1880’s, that cookbook helped to fund and gather support for the women’s suffrage movement. I called it sherbet because that is part of the original name. But there is no dairy in this one, so you might think of it more as a pineapple sorbet or ice. 

The brownie recipe I recently shared is adapted from another suffrage cookbook. All Stirred Up: Suffrage Cookbooks, Food, and the Battle for Women’s Right to Vote contains over 50 recipes from the suffrage cookbooks, both in their original form and adapted so that you can make them. It also tells the story of how women used those cookbooks to battle for the vote. 

To learn more about these amazing cookbooks, check out this video for a preview of what is in my book.

I prepared this batch of Dairy-Free Pineapple Sherbet with half a pineapple that had spent too long sitting on my counter. My longstanding pledge not to waste food or ingredients has been tough to keep these days. Somehow limiting my trips to the grocery store causes me to overbuy. I love pineapple, but I didn’t have a plan for this one. Pineapple is great in fruit salad, but I’d already made one with the first half of the fruit. Luckily, I had this recipe, which calls for just one-half of a pineapple. 

The recipe is dairy-free. (Although you might think dairy-free and non-dairy mean the same thing, they don’t.  My friend Alisa, who writes a wonderful blog on dairy-free food, explains the difference. ) And, if you use agar agar (a gelatine substitute that does not contain animal products), this Dairy-Free Pineapple Sherbet can also be vegetarian/vegan. 

While the recipe requires several hours resting time, the actual working time is barely 20 minutes. First you chop and blend up the pineapple. 

You do not have to worry about the size of the pineapple chunks. Use a food processor or a blender. Then mix the mashed fruit (the French call it a purée) with the sugar and let the mixture rest for a few hours. I refrigerated the mixture overnight.  

After the mixture rests, simply add the dissolved gelatine (or agar agar), stir, and freeze until you can scoop it with a spoon or ice cream scooper. 

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Dairy-Free Pineapple Sherbet

A 3-ingredient wonder. Dairy-Free Pineapple Sherbet from a recipe that is over 130 years old.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Dairy-Free, Non-Dairy, Pineapple, Sherbet, summer

Prep Time 20 minutes

Resting Time 8 hours

Total Time 8 hours 20 minutes

Servings 8 servings

Author Laura

Ingredients

• 1/2 fresh pineapple, chopped and processed or blended into pulp About 1 lb. 16oz/750g weighed with the top and bottom cut off.
• 1 cup granulated sugar 7oz/200g
• 1/2 tablespoon unflavored gelatin (1 & 1/2 teaspoons) Can substitute a non-meat-based alternative such as agar agar.

Instructions

1. Mix the pineapple pulp and the sugar in a medium size bowl, cover, and set aside in the refrigerator for at least several hours. Overnight is fine.

2. Stir 2 tablespoons of cold water into the gelatin and stir the mixture until the gelatin softens. Add ½ cup (4 oz/118 ml) of boiling water and stir or whisk until the gelatin is fully dissolved. Add ½ cup (4 oz/118 ml) of cold water. If the gelatin has formed into bits, press it through a strainer.

3. Pour the gelatin and water mixture into the pineapple and sugar mixture, stir until completely combined. Put into a freezer-safe, covered container and freeze for at least 5 hours or overnight until hard enough to serve. Alternatively, take the mixture out of the freezer when it is solid, but not completely hardened, and beat for about 2 minutes at high speed in a stand mixer or with a strong hand mixer. Then firm up the mixture by returning it to the freezer for several hours in the covered container.

Recipe Notes

Beating the mixture lightens it and gives it a whiter color that makes it appear like a traditional sherbet, even though the recipe does not contain dairy. The pineapple taste is more concentrated if the mixture is left unbeaten.

If you are in a hurry, divide the mixture between two long, low containers. The wider the surface area of the container, the quicker the pineapple sherbet will freeze.