Ice Cream, Gelato, Sherbet--Cook-Off 11

[Eden]

all you sorbet/granita makers: have you tried making them without sugar syrup? Just puree the fruit with some sugar and freeze. i learned this trick from a chef visiting from sicily; the flavors are very clean and direct.

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Actually one of my blueberry sorbet recipes does this, and it's lovely

2 qts blueberries, 1/4 c. each amaretto & cognac, and 1 cup sugar. cook for @ 10 mins, puree, strain, freeze... hmm, that might have to be next...

[bushey]

I'm definitely going to try this trick with fruits like berry and melon, but I don't think there's any way around using simple syrup for lemon granita............by the way, I sampled some Sicilian-style gelato in Florence last month and it was scrumptious.

[russ parsons]

nope, some things do take syrup, particularly citrus and especially if you want to capture the full flavor (much of which is in the peel)

meyer lemon granita

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons Meyer lemon zest (about 5 lemons)

1 cup Meyer lemon juice

1. Heat the water and sugar just until clear, about 5 minutes. Add the lemon zest and remove from heat. Let the syrup steep for at least 30 minutes.

2. Stir in the lemon juice. Strain the mixture into a shallow 9-by-12-inch glass baking dish.

3. Freeze the mixture for an hour. Remove from the freezer and stir with a fork, breaking up any chunks of ice. Return it to the freezer. Repeat 4 or 5 times over the next 2 to 3 hours. Each time, the ice will be a little less liquid and will stick together more. When it is firm enough to hold a shape, it is done.

4. Try not to let the ice freeze solid. If it does, chop it into small pieces in the dish and grind it in the food processor. (The result will be lighter and fluffier and the flavor will not be as intense.)

[cjsadler]

all you sorbet/granita makers: have you tried making them without sugar syrup? Just puree the fruit with some sugar and freeze. i learned this trick from a chef visiting from sicily; the flavors are very clean and direct.

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I've never understood the sugar syrup thing for fruit bases. You're adding water, and thus diluting the flavor of the fruit. How's that a good thing?

What's the supposed purpose of using syrup (other than those situations such as lemon, where additional liquid is needed)? Making it easier to dissolve the sugar? I never have much of a problem getting sugar to directly dissolve in the fruit puree/juice

Edited July 21, 2005 by cjsadler (log)

[bushey]

Does anyone remember the carts selling Bob and Larry's ices in NYC during the summer? This would have been in the late 70's and early 80's. They had the greatest flavors, and inspired me to experiment with my own watermelo, cantalope and honeydew ices. I never quite got the texture right, but the flavor was always quite good.

[Susan in FL]

Finally did the ice cream cook-offing... I revised the mango ice cream recipe I spoke of earlier in this thread, and hope to get it into RecipeGullet soon.

This ice cream recipe is not for those who do not want creamy, eggy ice cream. It's quite an indulgence; in fact, our servings tonight were too large. We're looking forward to tomorrow or after, when it has hardened some in the freezer, and we can scoop out a nice round portion and that will be it. But it's oh so good....

[KatieLoeb]

There's presently a giant can of fruit cocktail in my freezer. I've had this idea for some time that I can make "Trailer Park Ambrosia Sorbet", by whirling the frozen fruit cocktail in the food processor and stirring in more fruit cocktail, mini marshmallows, flaked coconut, a big dollop of Cool Whip and a tiny bit of vodka so it will retain a good texture. I need to make more room in the freezer to refreeze it since I don't have an ice cream maker, so I'll report back when I finally do this.

[skyflyer3]

I'd love to see more comments about gelato and its bases. Are there many gelato makers who feel they've achieved the secret to the stretchy texture, and intense flavor?

Similarly, has anyone tried the recipes Saveur poasted a few years back when they did that gelato article? If so, please post your results.

[Susan in FL]

The mango ice cream was much better tonight!

[Smithy]

Oh, Susan - that's mighty purty!

It certainly looks better than before. Congratulations!

[KatieLoeb]

The Ambrosia Sorbet is done. Definitely gave the processor a workout. Next time I'll have to chunk it up more with a knife before pureeing it.

I stirred in all the other ingredients and put it back in the freezer. I took it out once and it wasn't all re-frozen yet so I gave it a good folding and put it back it. It should be completely ready by tomorrow.

I did try it. It tastes pretty good! I accidentally over processed the rest of the fruit cocktail I wanted to fold in so it doesn't have the little chunks of fruit I was hoping for. But the mini marshmallows and coconut are very good.

[Smithy]

KatieLoeb, I think you get the prize for most creative name and recipe so far..."Trailer Park Ambrosia Sorbet", indeed! Will there be a picture?

[trillium]

I'd love to see more comments about gelato and its bases.  Are there many gelato makers who feel they've achieved the secret to the stretchy texture, and intense flavor?

Similarly, has anyone tried the recipes Saveur poasted a few years back when they did that gelato article?  If so, please post your results.

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I tried one that they had in that article, it was the one where you thicken the milk with cornstarch last summer. I fiddled with the recipe in Saveur and first infused the liquid with apricot stones. It turned out really well, but I havn't bothered to do it again, I've been playing around with just milk and cream mixtures (no eggs, no starch). I'm planning on trying the pistachio one soon, just as soon as berry season settles down here. I've been much too busy eating lingonberry sorbetti with rose petal gelati to get to the pistachio. Intense flavor depends on farmer's market fresh fruit, just the right amount of sweet and acid, and a light hand with the dairy to fruit ratio. Fresh milk helps too (I've been buying it from a dairy). A few drops of Kirsch helps berry flavors.

I do think I've discovered a couple of tricks with regards to stretchy texture. Number one and most important, is that you can't use one of those electric churners like Krups or Cuisinart. They add way too much air. (I'm sorry guys, but I think M. Pepin is right when it comes to fruit sorbets too). You're much better off with doing it in a Donvier, where you control the amount of air that gets incorporated. The other thing is temperature. Our freezers don't store it at the right temp, the way the gelati freezers do. So you have two alternatives: eat it right away, while it's still close to the right consistancy, or let it thaw and do a fiddley stirring routine to get it to the right temp (but it's not easy because it melts too fast). I think the best thing is to just make small batches and eat them quickly. Lastly, don't forget the panna to top it all off!

regards,

trillium

[AmyKay]

I am new to eGullet and this is my first official post (so please forgive me if I blunder about initially). Actually, this is my first post on any internet forum ever, so this is a very big step in my own very small world!

Anyway, I am really excited about this topic. My SO loves ice-cream, but is very diet/health conscious. So, I have tried converting rum raisen ice cream recipes into rum raisen frozen yogurt recipes. He always says he loves it, but I think he is just being kind. Also he may be drunk from all the rum I put in there.

Anyway, this thread has inspired me to try to make a cherimoya sorbet. This is a wonderful fruit with an unusually creamy texture, so I am hoping that the end result is reminiscent of ice cream, but without the cream. I can't wait to see how it turns out!

[Smithy]

I am new to eGullet and this is my first official post (so please forgive me if I blunder about initially).  Actually, this is my first post on any internet forum ever, so this is a very big step in my own very small world! 

Anyway, I am really excited about this topic. My SO loves ice-cream, but is very diet/health conscious.  So, I have tried converting rum raisen ice cream recipes into rum raisen frozen yogurt recipes. He always says he loves it, but I think he is just being kind. Also he may be drunk from all the rum I put in there.

Anyway, this thread has inspired me to try to make a cherimoya sorbet.  This is a wonderful fruit with an unusually creamy texture, so I am hoping that the end result is reminiscent of ice cream, but without the cream.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!

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Welcome, AmyKay!! We're happy to have you here, and it's an honor that this forum is the first place you've chosen to post!

I've heard of cherimoya, but I don't know anything about it. You describe it as having a creamy texture. Can you give more information? For instance - is it sweet, sour, big, small, pulpy? What the heck is a cherimoya, anyway, and where does it grow?

Finally, do post pictures if you can - and if you can't, tell us how it comes out anyway. Very few eGulleteers bite - except on food - so don't be shy about posting!

Oh, and by the by - getting an SO drunk on something so he thinks it's good is a pretty good strategy, in my book.

[AmyKay]

Thanks for such a kind welcome!

The first time I had Cherimoya was as a student in Spain. My host served them to us for desert a couple of times. They are green, with big dimples all over them. The flesh is a very light shade of yellow with big black seeds. I'll see if I can figure out how to post pictures tomorrow!

A couple of weeks ago I found them at a local Wholesale Food Outlet (read: discount grocer). This is a market that serves a lot of South American and Mexican customers, and there products reflect those tastes. So, I am guessing that it is grown south of the border. I brought one home and my boyfriend and I were both impressed with its creamy-ness. Straight out of the fridge, it already tasted a bit like ice cream.

We just moved to Colorado (elevation: 4600) from Houston (elevation: 3), so I am having all kinds of surprising new challenges in the kitchen. I am crossing my fingers that the sorbet turns out tomorrow!

[Pan]

Smithy, there was some discussion of cherimoya (aka buah nona) on page 6 of the "Frightfully freaky fruit" thread, with one photo.

And here are the results from a yahoo.com image search for "cherimoya."

[Busboy]

Fortunately, altitude does not affect sorbet, so you should be fine.

Welcome. I hope you're discovering my greatest food memories from Denver: the Denver Bread Company (according to my sources, still the only real baker in Denver) in North Denver, Old Saigon Restaurant on South Federal and Oliver's Meat Market on 6th, just past Lafeyette.

And I still pine for spaghetti with red sauce at The Saucy Noodle ("if you don't like garlic, go home") followed by dessert four doors down at Bonnie Brae Ice Cream.

[Busboy]

AmyKay:

Fortunately, altitude does not affect sorbet, so you should be fine.

Welcome. I hope you're discovering my greatest food memories from Denver: the Denver Bread Company (according to my sources, still the only real baker in Denver) in North Denver, Old Saigon Restaurant on South Federal and Oliver's Meat Market on 6th, just past Lafeyette.

And I still pine for spaghetti with red sauce at The Saucy Noodle ("if you don't like garlic, go home") followed by dessert four doors down at Bonnie Brae Ice Cream.

[KatieLoeb]

KatieLoeb, I think you get the prize for most creative name and recipe so far..."Trailer Park Ambrosia Sorbet", indeed!    Will there be a picture?

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It should be solidly frozen and scoopable by tomorrow so I'll see what I can do.

[FoodMan]

I just added the recipe for Middle Eastern Milk ice cream that I made this week. Check it out here

So far this is my best attempt at to make this wonderful concoction.

This is a photo of the just churned ice cream:

and here it is served after a good 24 hours in the freezer (sorry for the poor lighting), still perfectly scoopable:

For those of you who have never had this type of ice cream, it is rich and chewy and very flavorful. The main problem with making it here is the problem of getting real Salep (Sahlab as it is known in Arabic), a type of dried and ground up root. If you enjoy the flavors of mastic (NOT gum arabic), orange blossom water and rose water I guarantee you will love this recipe though.

I am thinking about trying to make it using the packaged Salep mix you find at middle eastern groceries and see if it works out. I am not too hopeful though....

Elie

[artisan02]

For those of you who have never had this type of ice cream, it is rich and chewy and very flavorful.

Elie

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This is one thing I remember about the ice creams I had while growing up in Virginia. They had this "heft/chewiness".... I haven't found any ice creams in a long time that replicate that chewiness. To me, it is a really desirable quality in an ice cream.

Anyone know how to achieve that?

[Chris Amirault]

Keepin' it cool, daddy-o:

Cook-Off XII: Composed Salads.

[KatieLoeb]

As promised:

Here's the whole tub of the finished Trailer Park Ambrosia Sorbet.

And here it is all gussied up in a wine goblet. My kitchen window is at sidewalk level and has the best light in my semi-underground kitchen/dining room, hence the odd background.

[Terrasanct]

This thread inspired me to make chocolate gelato. I'm not sure if I've ever made it before, and it's not something I can buy here. It's not done yet, but the custard tastes great! What would you serve it with?