Watermelon-basil sorbita

What the heck is a sorbita?

Slushie for grown-ups.

It’s a term I made up for this stuff, which was churned like a sorbet but froze like a granita.

With a little vodka, tequila or rum, it’d make a great frozen drink.

Blended with a little cream, it’d be a Sonic CreamSlush knockoff.

My only complaint would be the strong basil flavor. I love basil; it’s my favorite herb. But I went a bit overboard with the simple syrup, and my sorbita tasted borderline medicinal/perfumey.

Watermelon-basil sorbita

(Makes 1.5 quarts)

6 cups cubed watermelon

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

10-15 basil leaves (I used closer to 25. Don’t do it!)

1/2 lemon

Puree watermelon in food processor. Set aside.

Bring water and sugar to a boil in medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and drop in basil leaves. Let sit 5 minutes, then strain. Discard basil.

Pour basil syrup into watermelon puree, then squeeze in lemon juice. Mix well.

Churn in ice cream maker, then freeze. Or pour mixture into shallow dish and freeze, scraping occasionally with a fork.

Blueberry pie

It’s a blueberry explosion!

Ooey, gooey goodness.

That’s exactly what happened to the bottom of my oven — a blueberry explosion. I failed to set this pie on a baking sheet, and two days later the stench of burnt, boiled-over blueberry filling still singes my nostrils when the oven’s on. Looks like a fun day of oven cleaning (in 95-degree heat) is in my future.

It’s totally worth it, however, because the pie is delicious. In fact, this whole experience is a little bit of yin and yang.

The crust (adapted from a recipe here) was quite difficult to roll out and transfer, but the end result is sweet, flaky and not soggy.

The filling (recipe here) took about one minute to throw together and is perfect just the way it is.

Pie dough

(Makes 4 crusts)

4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup shortening

3/4 cup cold butter, diced

4 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. salt

1 egg

1/2 cup water

For blind baking:

Aluminum foil

Butter

Dry beans or rice

For egg wash:

1 egg, beaten with splash of water

Add first six ingredients to food processor. Pulse until coarse crumbs form. Beat egg and water in separate bowl. With food processor on, drizzle in wet mixture. Dough will become extremely thick and sticky. (Mine didn’t form a ball.)

Dump dough onto large sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap and form into disk. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

While dough chills, preheat oven to 350.

Remove dough and cut into quarters. Lightly form quarters into disks. Freeze two disks for later use. Roll out first disk slightly larger than pie plate (a healthy amount of bench flour needed here). Transfer to pie plate (good luck).

Grease one side of aluminum foil with butter. Place greased side down onto dough in pie plate and fill with beans or rice. Bake 5 minutes. Then, lift foil and beans from plate and use a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the dough. Bake another 5 minutes.

While crust bakes, roll out second disk to same size. Use a ruler to cut dough into six or seven equally sized strips.

Remove pie plate from oven and turn heat up to 425. While blind-baked crust cools a bit, make the pie filling (recipe here.)

Pour blueberry filling into pie plate. Gently weave dough strips to form lattice crust atop filling. Brush lattice copiously with egg wash.

PLACE PIE PLATE ON BAKING SHEET, then bake 50 minutes. I covered my whole pie with aluminum foil after 20 minutes, as the crusts were sufficiently brown.

Remove pie from oven and cool at least 2 hours. (Bonus: Refrigerate overnight — it’s even better the next day!)

*Optional: Whip 1/2 cup heavy cream with 1 tsp. sugar. Serve atop pie.