Chocolate Spice Sorbet

Last week when Mamma and I took refuge in Sucre from the unrelenting sun, I had a chocolate sorbet. Now, I like fruit sorbets because they are refreshing and light but really, if you want to get right down to it, I will take an ice cream any day over sorbet. But for some reason, perhaps the spice, this sorbet called my name. It was a rich, dark chocolate brown and now that I've tasted it, I don't think I'll ever look at chocolate ice cream the same. You see, the cream or milk or whatever dairy actually mitigates the flavor of pure, unadulterated chocolate sensation. Kind of like the difference between rich, full dark chocolate and its more insipid milk-chocolate brethen. So, there's the incredible punch of chocolate flavor. Then there's the spice. I was told the sorbet had cinnamon, cardamom and ginger and it reminded me an awful lot of those chocolate cookies at Christmas, you know, the ones with grape jelly and clove and light, white glaze topping? Is this a Buffalo cookie? An Italian cookie? Because people here don't seem to know what I am talking about. Too bad because that cookie is awesome, especially if you get someone who still uses lard to make them.

I could not stop thinking about this sorbet and this weekend when I stupidly bought an enormous thing of soy milk just days before going out of town, I decided to make my own with soy as a base. I used about 2 cups of soy milk, although water would be fine. Then I added a cup of sugar, a 3.5 ounce bar of bittersweet Perugina and 1/2 cup of dutch processed cocoa. By the way, Hershey's special dark costs $3 and this stuff from Holland cost $9, about which I was a bit put out but I sprung for it anyway. I added ground cardamom, ginger and grated nutmeg and cinnamon. Then a shot of vanilla and a shot of strong coffee to round it all out. Oh, a bit of cayenne and a pinch of salt for good measure. I love, love, love the flavor of the spice with the chocolate, I could eat this for the rest of eternity. Although next time I think I will skip soy and do water (even though it kept a sorbet-like quality, not dairy-like or creamy at all) and I will use fresh ginger, cardamom pods and some of those little, bright red Thai chiles. The ground spices gave good flavor but there was a slight murkiness or dustiness that I think I can avoid using fresh ingredients. Finally when I topped it all off with stewed figs last night, I knew I had hit the sorbet mother lode. Make this!