Colorful and sweet, homemade Rainbow Sherbet is easy to make at home and a favorite frozen dessert for the whole family. To keep it simple, this three-flavored sherbet is made using an easy no-churn method, so you don’t need an ice cream maker to make rainbow sherbet from scratch.
Why You’re Going to Love This Rainbow Sherbet Recipe
- Minimal Ingredients – Orange, Lime, and Pink Lemonade juice concentrate, plus a few other simple ingredients are all you need!
- Fun Flavors and Colors – Why make just a single flavor of sherbet when it’s super simple to make three different sherbet flavors and layer them together? They say we eat with our eyes first, and this frozen dessert looks as delicious as it tastes!
- Easy No-Churn Recipe – Because we’re making three flavors of sherbet, it’s more efficient to use a no-churn method to make them. Using the ice cream maker to make rainbow sherbet would take all day to churn!
- Family Friendly – Kids love rainbow sherbet. This recipe is naturally gluten-free, nut free, and easily made without food dyes too. We’re using pink lemonade concentrate here, but go ahead and switch to regular lemonade if you want to skip red dye.
You can also use it to make sherbet punch.
Ingredients in Homemade No Churn Rainbow Sherbet
- Three Flavors of Juice Concentrate, Thawed – To create the beautiful colors and bright flavors of this homemade rainbow sherbet, we’re using limeade, orange, and pink lemonade frozen juice concentrates. Allow the juice to thaw before mixing up the sherbet base.
- Fresh Citrus Zest – To really bring out the citrus flavors in this recipe, the zest from a fresh orange, lime, and lemon is a must!
- Heavy Cream – Because we aren’t churning this sherbet, we’ll whip heavy cream and gently fold it in. This adds lightness and helps to create a smooth, creamy texture.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk – In no-churn ice cream recipes, sweetened condensed milk replaces the cooked custard that adds richness, sweetness, and bulk to the base.
- Food Coloring – This is totally optional, but for really vibrant colors, add a few drops of orange, pink, and green to the flavors.
For the complete list of ingredients and instructions for making rainbow sherbet, please see the recipe below.
How to Store Rainbow Sherbet
Store this homemade rainbow sherbet in the freezer in an airtight container with a piece of parchment paper or wax paper pressed on top for up to one month. The paper covering helps to protect the rainbow sherbet from freezer burn and keeps it fresher for longer.
Tips for Making This Rainbow Sherbet Recipe
- Don’t skimp on the fat –High-fat milk and cream are essential when making homemade sherbet. In this recipe, heavy cream is whipped into stiff peaks. Any other dairy product won’t do that, so you can’t substitute milk or half and half.
- Try other flavors – we’re using lime, orange, and lemon juices to make this rainbow sherbet because they are easily found at the grocery store, but you can use any type of juice concentrates!
- For really bright, vivid colors, we used Americolor Electric Orange, Electric Pink, and Electric Green gel food coloring.
How to Make Rainbow Sherbet Popsicles
Rather than adding the semi-frozen sherbet into a loaf pan, divide it into popsicle molds instead! Freeze the pops for at least 8 hours before enjoying them. You can do the same with homemade Orange Sherbet, or check out all of our easy popsicle recipes for more ideas.
How To Make No Churn Sherbet With A Single Flavor
You can use this recipe and method to make a whole tub of no-churn lime sherbet or no-churn orange sherbet! Simply use 1 1/2 cups of juice concentrate in your favorite flavor, plus 2-3 tablespoons of zest.
You can mix everything in one bowl, and then freeze it for 8 hours, stirring the mixture once or twice around the 2-hour mark to add air.
Is Rainbow Sherbet Ice Cream?
Not quite! While you’ll find rainbow sherbet mixed in with the ice cream at the grocery store, it’s actually a bit different. Sherbet has more fruit juice and less milk and cream than ice cream does, which is why it has its own name and isn’t just called “rainbow ice cream”.
If you want to make a rainbow-style ice cream though, check out our recipes for Cotton Candy Ice Cream and Superman Ice Cream. Both are no-churn ice cream recipes with multi-colored swirls.
More Homemade Frozen Dessert Recipes:
- Lime Sherbet
- Butter Pecan Ice Cream Sandwiches
- Ice Cream Pizza
- Blueberry Milkshakes
- Coconut Sorbet
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Rainbow Sherbet
Yield: 1 quart
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Chilling/Freezing Time: 8 hours
Total Time: 8 hours 10 minutes
Colorful, zesty and sweet, homemade Rainbow Sherbet is easy to make at home with this no-churn recipe, and a favorite frozen dessert for the whole family!
Ingredients
- ½ cup thawed orange juice concentrate
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- ½ cup thawed limeade concentrate
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
- ½ cup thawed pink lemonade concentrate
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 cup cold heavy cream
- 7 ounces (½ can) sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
- Add the orange juice concentrate and orange zest to a medium-sized bowl. Add the limeade concentrate and lime zest to another medium-sized bowl. Add the pink lemonade concentrate and lemon zest to a third medium-sized bowl.
- In a large bowl, beat the heavy cream using a hand or stand mixer until stiff peaks form.
- Add the sweetened condensed milk to the whipped cream and gently fold to combine– you don’t want to deflate the whipped cream.
- Add a third of the whipped cream to the bowl with the orange juice concentrate and gently fold it to combine. Again, you don’t want to deflate the whipped cream. Repeat with the limeade and lemonade bowls.
- Cover each bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to chill until it is semi-frozen and has a consistency similar to soft serve– about 2 hours.
- Place scoops of each flavor into a 9x5” loaf pan and spread them into a smooth, compact layer. Cover and freeze the sherbet again until completely frozen– at least 6 hours.
- Scoop and enjoy.
Notes
- If you’d like your sherbet to have really vibrant colors, add 1-2 drops of food coloring to the bowls with the juice concentrates in Step 1. I used Americolor’s Electric Orange, Electric Pink, and Electric Green for this sherbet.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 271Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 45mgSodium: 53mgCarbohydrates: 34gFiber: 0gSugar: 31gProtein: 4g
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