Prickly Pear Sorbet

• 25 prickly pears
• 4 cups sugar
• 1 qt. spring water
• 1 qt prickly pear juice
• 1 3/4 qt cranberry juice
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 egg, in shell
• pinch of salt
• sprig of mint

To make water-sugar syrup, mix the water and sugar together in a stainless steel saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.

Burn the barbs off the prickly pears by holding them with tongs over a flame. Peel the fruit, then puree it in a food processor or blender. Strain and mix with cranberry juice, lemon juice and salt. Mix pear mixture with about one-third of its volume of the water-sugar syrup, stirring well. Put in a 4-quart ice cream churn container and add one uncooked egg, in its shell, which has been washed carefully and dried with paper towels. A patch of the egg's surface, between the size of a dime and a quarter, should show. If it does not, gradually add more syrup until the small white eye of the shell appears. Remove egg and discard. Churn sorbet mixture until it turns opaque and to superfine ice. It will be ready to serve at just about the same time as the machine stops. Sorbet can be kept in the freezer after churning for a few hours, but its silky texture changes the longer it is frozen. Scoop and garnish with a sprig of mint.