This Homemade Orange Sherbet ice cream is creamy, delicious and has a flavorful orange flavor due to the the fresh orange juice and zest. This recipe is super easy to throw together and freezes within 3 to 4 hours.
Umm…okay, so I just learned that orange sherbet is not spelled orange sherBERT. No ‘r.’ Why is it pronounced like sorbet if we don’t pronounce it like that? Why make our lives more difficult, English language?! Why?!
It has been my dream for the last few weeks to make homemade trashy rainbow sherbet, but without all the food coloring. I’m still trying to figure that out in my brain because we need to do that. Growing up I had a serious fondness of orange sherbet, especially the variety that came in those gigantic plastic tubs with the plastic lid on it. I loved orange sherbet. And I still do, except now I’m not really down with eating the stuff with weird chemicals and stuff. I want a natural situation.
Turns out it’s not that difficult to make normal-no-chemical sherbet.
How to Make Homemade Orange Sherbet
- This recipe couldn’t be easier. It’s all made in a blender!
- Add the fresh orange juice, sugar, orange zest, vanilla in a blender.
- Blend it up!
- Pour it into your freezer vessel, and mix in the milk and the remaining orange zest.
- Press a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface of the mixture.
- Transfer to the freezer until frozen.
That’s it! Couldn’t be simpler!
How to Eat Orange Sherbet
- Put it on a cone. (Preferably a waffle cone.)
- Open the freezer door and eat it with a spoon.
- Add it to a glass and then pour ORANGE CREAM SODA on top of it!
Number three is the move. Definitely the move.

Homemade Orange Sherbet Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (or cane sugar)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons finely grated orange zest (from about 2 navel oranges), divided
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice about 2 pounds
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
Instructions
- In the jar of a blender, add the sugar, vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon or orange zest, salt, orange juice and lemon juice. Pulse until the sugar is dissolved, about 30 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and whisk in the milk. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator until very cold, about 2 hours.
- Pour the mixture into a an ice cream maker and proceed according to the directions of your ice cream maker, or until it reaches the consistency of soft serve. Add the reserved 1 tablespoon orange zest.
- Transfer the sherbet to a freezer safe container and place in the freezer until very firm, about 3-4 hours or ideally overnight.
- Serve it in a bowl, in a cone, or my favorite way, in a glass with orange cream soda poured over it. Yum.
- This orange sherbet will stay good in the freezer in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
If you make this Homemade Orange Sherbet, let me know on Instagram!Â
Looking for more summertime dessert recipes? Here are some favorites:Â
I need this in my life right now! Except, I haven’t got an icecream maker. I read that I can make this using a fork, right? Just a little icier. Not that it’s too bad of a situation.
If you use a fork, you’d have something closer to a granita, but that’d be awesome, too!
This is straight up heavenly!
I can imagine this being positively amazing made with peaches too!
Abby, peach juice would work beautifully! Doooo it!
It should be spelled shur-burt 🙂 Or in my Southern accent, it’s more shurrrrburt. Whatever, it looks amazing. The orange ‘Push-Ups’ were one of my favorite things as a child, but I loved (love) all sherbet. I need to make this asap!
Shuuuuburt. Haha. That’s amazing. LOVE!
this looks so yummy!!!! mmmm mmmm!!!!
As a Brit, I too got a little confused but I’m with it now! I can smell the orange goodness, even though it’s competing with a potato being baked in the oven.
This totally takes me back to my childhood! I love it!
Is there anything you can’t do? This looks amazing.
HAHA! A lot, trust me.
This sounds so yummy!
P.S. – You can use beet juice and spinach juice for natural coloring without affecting taste! ;o) Please tell me there’s a rainbow sherbet recipe in your near future?!?!
The fourth thing is to just sit on the couch, eat all of it by yourself, and watch the hills.
Glad to know I’m not the only person who still watches that show!
Ha….guuurl I tried watching that business the other day off Netflix and it didn’t go so well. LC’s crying situation drives me crazy. She’s a great looking crier though!
This looks like heaven. I’d chug it, that’s for sure.
You had me at that first picture. Orange sherbet reminds you of summertime as a child, doesn’t it? Let’s just take today off from work, sit around by the pool and eat orange sherbet!
xo Jackie
Whoa and awesome!! I would love this!
My husband gives me a hard time about the fact that the “r” shouldn’t be in the pronunciation. It drives me insane. He’s trying to get me to say it without the extra “r”, but i just can’t. This looks super yummy, by the way.
As a perso9n who eats squarsh, warshes cloths, and enjoys sherbert, my guess is the “R” sound is derived from a New England accent where “As” and “Rs” trade places. My Mother’s side of the family came from New England by way of the Mid-West. Definitely need to try this.
recipe.
Looks like a lovely dessert! Your post thoroughly confused me though ha! I had to go to Google for help. Being a Brit, the sherbet-sorbet definition is somewhat different and what the photos show looked somewhat like sorbet and definitely not our sherbet. But our sorbet definitely does not have milk in it! Now I realise that you have shared a recipe for a dessert that I most likely have never tasted. This article below should help explain the transatlantic differences. Thanks for helping educate me some more today as well as sharing a delicious looking recipe! 😉
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/sep/21/consider-sherbet
Oh hahhaa. I wish you could leave a voice comment so I knew how you pronounce it. I can’t imagine it in my head. Haha. But yes, our sherbet has milk; sorbets however do not.