JoNorvelleWalker - I agree with you about it sounding more appetizing as a sherbet but, this is a very small town and I noticed a box of what I think is the very ice cream she craves at the tiny grocery the other day. I have never even seen sherbet in the store and this woman hasn't been more than a couple of hundred miles from here since the day she was born so I am pretty sure she has never tried sherbet in her life either. They probably ordered a couple just for her but I would bet that she is not the only local who likes this stuff. It is definitely NOT a premium brand of ice cream though. And she is definitely not a 'gourmet eater' I can tell you.
I read the label and could not bring myself to buy that last box to taste it for myself so I would know better what I am aiming for. I think though that I may have had something like it when I was a child so I am drawing a bit from taste/texture memory to imagine what it tastes like. If I had to guess ... the orange part really does taste more like Orange Crush than fresh or concentrated OJ but I can't bring myself to use that stuff.
She is 89 and I don't think she has ever made ice cream in her life - and I doubt she would know whether a custard base is what she wants. I would like to have her experience something a little more posh and creamy (hopefully with more taste from real ingredients not 'artificial flavourings') but I don't want to venture too far from what she knows either or she may not even try it.
Yes, I may try the ISI infusion thing but I definitely would like to include some pineapple bits as well. I will have to squeeze them out really well though I think - I am sure you are right about the icy result if I don't. Hopefully she will love it and eat it all at one go (or invite friends or her great-grandkids over) so it won't linger long in the freezer. And, I think I will use canned crushed, not fresh, horrible as that may sound, because it is a more familiar taste to her and I also don't know whether the enzymes in fresh pineapple would be another issue - I would probably have to cook it down anyway.
This is really all my fault. I was with her when she was talking with a friend who mentioned dropping round to her place for some ice cream so after that conversation ended I asked her what her favorite ice cream flavour was, never imagining that what she answered would be it .. I thought it would be more along the lines of vanilla, chocolate or strawberry. Before I could really think about what making this particular combo might involve, I opened my mouth to offer to make her some. She lit right up so I don't want to reneg now. Poor woman has just found out she has breast cancer and she has just lost one of her sons to cancer as well. It is probably my fault in the first place if the local store has just brought some in too - got her thinking about it I am sure. I should have just said I would make 'some ice cream' and then gone simple.
Oh well .. I will just do my best and if it is palatable but not to her particular liking, I would bet her great-grandkids WILL eat it eventually. They weren't too keen on my astronaut ice cream (from the freeze dryer - they had never heard of the stuff and wondered why anyone would ever dry out ice cream) but they have gobbled down all sorts of other horrid, overly sweet concoctions I have sent over.
