Watermelon Roll

As soon as the weather started warming up, my Twitter friends Nicole and Rachel began talking nonstop about Friendly’s Wattamelon Rolls. They aren’t something we have in the south (at least my part of the south) so I was intrigued and knew I would need to make one.

The idea of the watermelon roll is watermelon sherbet that’s studded with mini chocolate chips to look like seeds and then lemon sherbet as the rind. Cute, right? I experimented with painting the outside green but I could never get food coloring to freeze so the knife left green marks on the pretty sherbet. If you come up with a better way to do it, please let me know!

My kid is obsessed with this. He doesn’t even like watermelon but he cannot get enough! The lemon sherbet is so delicious. It’s on the tart side so you might want to add more sugar if you prefer it sweeter. The watermelon sorbet still has that watermelon texture if you know what I mean, which makes it seem even more like a real watermelon. I’m not the biggest watermelon fan so I’m kind of “ehh” on that part but I will say that it’s much tastier than the actual fruit. ;)

I think this would be so cute at a summer barbecue or a kids sporting event. Nothing says summer like watermelon!

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Watermelon Roll

Ingredients

For the lemon sherbet:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

For the watermelon sherbet:

• 3 cups watermelon puree I pureed half a medium-sized watermelon and let it sit overnight. It separated and I only used the thicker puree so that I would have a brighter color and taste. I recommend doing that but it will also work with fresh puree.
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions

To make the lemon sherbet:

1. Combine the cream, milk, and sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in lemon juice. Freeze in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Put in freezer once done. Once the sherbet has become firm, press it into the bottom of a large bowl. Place in freezer.

To make the watermelon sherbet:

1. Combine the watermelon puree, cream, milk, and sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in lemon juice. Freeze in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Once frozen, stir in chocolate chips. Pour into the center of the lemon sherbet that’s already been pressed into a bowl. Place to freezer to harden. Once firm, flip onto a serving platter. Slice and serve.
2. (I found that taking a hair dryer to the underside of the bowl allowed it to loosen up and come out of the bowl without melting too much.)