As the thermometer heads into the triple digits a great way of using fruit is with an Ice Cream Machine. I have a ~$100 Cuisinart, but the lower models work just as well. Lets start with one I just made. Please contribute your own recipes.
Blueberry Citrus Basil Sorbet
3 cups sugar
3 cups water
bunch of lemon and lime basil (more the better)
1/4 lemon
4-5 cups blueberries
Make a simple syrup, bring sugar and water to a simmer/boil or until sugar is dissolved
Remove from heat, tear basil and crush lemon into pot, let steep 15-20 minutes strain through fine chinois removing basil and lemon
Cool completely
Add blueberries, puree with immersion blender
(optionally strain again to remove seeds and skins, I like the color, nutrition and texture, i leave 'em in)
Cool completely again and then process in your ice cream maker until 1.5x the original size (15 mins in my machine)
Remove from machine and place in freezer for 2-4hrs
pro tip: freeze the blueberries ahead of time and use them to cool the strained steeped syrup, puree and process in one shot
I had an hour so I just made a quick variation on it⌠I pureed the blueberries and threw in ice cream maker with some sugar. I steeped basil in 1/2c water, including a ginger tea bag since I had no lemon, and added it in 15 or so minutes when the blueberry mix was getting pretty cold.
Its surprising how much basil flavor there is with only the ten or so leaves I used - its very good!
This thread, along with the 93 degree heat yesterday, convinced me to get an ice cream maker. Iâm thinking that when I mess up a jam recipe and accidentally make syrup instead, I can use that to make ice cream.
A couple years ago I made ice cream with the kids, using a plastic bag in a plastic bag of ice and salt. But it was too much work for a meager amount of (slushy) ice cream.
That is one reason i use pectin, but sometimes even with pectin it doesnât gel. That happened to me with a black raspberry jam. I have a hard time getting any jam with black raspberries to gel. I used Pomona calcium pectin which requires no sugar to gel on the messed up jam. Worked like a charm, and the jam is fantastic.
16oz Milk
16oz Heavy Cream
8 oz sugar
1 vanilla bean split and scraped
8 egg yolks
1 cup ripe summer peach finely diced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup finely crushed graham crackers
Put milk, cream, vanilla bean and scrapings, cinnamon and half the sugar in a pot
Bring to simmer and turn off heat, cover and infuse 20 minutes
Combine egg yolks and remaining sugar and whisk until pale white and fluffy (blanchir)
Remove cover and fish out vanilla bean from cream mixture, turn the heat back on low
Temper egg mixture into cream mixture
Cook until mixture coats the back of a spoon (nappant)
Strain through a chinois into a container in an ice bath, stirring frequently to cool mixture
Refrigerate until fully chilled
Process in Ice cream machine
Combine peaches and graham crumbs,and add to the batch at the very end
Freeze and enjoy
Omit the last three ingredients for my all purpose Ice Cream base or Creme Anglasie
Moley, do you ever do anything with the fruit bits to make them not quite as âfrozen fruitâ tasting when eating the ice cream? They can be hard icy chunks. Sometimes I cook them for a little bit with sugar, or even just let them sit overnight in sugar.
For sorbet there is a similar issue of not wanting it too icy. I find a tsp or so of vodka helps there, its not enough to taste it. Maybe combine the ideas, soak fruit bits in sugar plus the vodkaâŚ
I also have a Dessert Bullet that grinds and mixes somewhat frozen fruit.It works fairly well.I use mostly Bananas and different kinds of berries together with a little Vanilla extract. Brady
I wondered how well those things work. It looks to me like you really need to add banana to everything to get a finished products that is slightly creamy. I do like sorbets but sometimes you just want the creaminess of ice cream.
I think Iâm going to pass on the bullet and buy one of those Cuisinart ice cream makers. They do sorbet, sherbert, custard, gellato, and all types.
Iâll have to try the corn syrup trick next time. The alcohol trick has worked well for me, but it is lowering the overall freeze point so it will be more soft. I usually puree fruit that I add as I had too many problems with ice chunk sorbet when I used whole pieces.
4 cups of cherries pitted
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 TB corn syrup
1 cup of champagne
3 Limes juiced and seeded
Make a simple syrup add corn syrup and cool
Combine syrup and fruit
Puree
Run through a Food Mill
Cool
Add chilled champagne and Process in Ice Cream Machine
Pluot/Plum Ginger Citrus Sorbet
4 cups Pluots/Plums cored and skinned
3 cups sugar
2 cup water
1 TB corn syrup
4-5 small pieces crystalized ginger
1 lime & lemon juiced and seeded
Make a simple syrup add corn syrup and ginger and cool remove ginger when cool
Combine syrup and fruit
Puree
Run through a Food Mill
Cool and Process in Ice Cream Machine
As always you may end up with extra sorbet base, reserve and freeze for later.
This one I bought as a backup for the restaurant, it works just as well and cheaper paid $49 from Amazon
Get an extra 2qt bowl, so you can make back to back batches every 12 hours or however fast you can refreeze the bowls. I own three 2qt bowls between the house and the restaurant.
My Freezer so far
Kiwi Pineapple ready for processing
Yes, we slice and freeze any of our over ripe bananas, then toss them into a food processor and whirl them until smooth. Comes out like soft serve ice cream. You can add sweeteners and flavorings as desired. Super easy.
Sorry for the bit offtopic reply. but i assumed it is oky, since the topic starter âstarted itâ
a lot of factors go into if icecream stays âsoftâ when freezing it.
havenât doublechecked. but from experiance.
-dry/wet weight difference. Stuff with a lot of water in it, like peaches but also strawberryâs easily forms solid blocks of ice due to the large water content. (the solute/dry matter avoids easy latice crystal formation)
Stuff like overripe pineapple and banana (when they feel dry) makes icecream thats stays soft due to in part itâs higher dry weight compared to water weigth.
-use overripe/dryer fruit
-use sugar or other things that disolve in water. (also alchohol)
-speed of freezing
The ice goes âsolidâ
due to H bridges in the water forming. If you freeze really fast or keep breaking them up durining freezing (like a stirring ice machine does) it avoids large frozen water crystals that form the âsolid block effectâ
-break up the H bridges, by stirring during freezing and giving them less time to form by freezing faster.
-Also putting your ice-cream out of the ice machine in an extra cold freezer helps
-cream/fat content. More cream, oil or fat makes incream more âscoopableâ
The fat doesenât usualy freeze at icecream temperatrures, or at least stays malleable. Coating smaller water crystals in fat thus avoids large crystals forming.
-more cream/fat helps
-use the extra fat milk instead of the low fat version usualy makes more malleable icecream.
-Air content The pockets of air, also brake up the H bonds between water molecules. And thus also avoid the âsolid block of iceâ effect. Whipped cream or stiring during freezing also rely on this effect. But also Aquafaba relies heavily on this effect.
-more air = âbetterâ icecream
-use aquafabe
Aquafaba sounds wierd, and i had my doubts. But itâs amazing. Makes amazing icecream and you donât taste the Aquafabe at all.
i personaly try to use less sugar in icecream due to it ruining the âbalanced tasteâ and try and use âdryerâ / overripe fruits. âinjectâ more air with the icemachine, by keeping it in there for the right amount of time.
Putting it in a really cold freezer directly after it comes out of the icemachine.
also when adding alcohol i add spirits (high% of alcohol) instead of wine or beer (beer icecream? yuk)
