A luxurious nut and pear lolly, plus a rhubarb sorbet packed with sweet-sour flavour

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uts make wonderful milks, and therefore they also make great granitas, sorbets and lollies. There is no trick or trouble to getting them right, but there is a magic about nut ices that is as jaw-dropping as a magician’s act – delicious and sophisticated, without adulterating the childlike joy that underpins every sort of ice-cream. Then, I like to celebrate rhubarb as a sorbet, which is great on its own, or with cold custard, or to accompany stodgier puddings.

This can be adapted for any nuts – it works particularly well with pecans (lightly roasted before making the milk, and consider using maple syrup in place of the sugar), hazelnuts (roasted before making the milk), almonds (roasted or raw, skin on or skin off) or pistachios (skinless, if you can get them, roasted or raw). You can get inventive and seasonal with the fruit, too, but it is really only necessary to add a sweet dimension to walnuts – other nuts can fly solo.

Prep 5 min