construction p1
solids, water, sweetening power, freezing point… time to put it all together. stop following recipes and start creating them.
one of the first lessons i learned on sorbet was how to “write” a recipe: place puree in a bowl, add simple syrup to taste, see how far an egg sinks into the base, if the egg floats enough that the a circle of shell (the size of a quarter) is showing the base is ready – if not add puree or simple syrup until the right amount of shell was showing. the time it took you to read this is about the same amount of time my lesson lasted. that was sometime around when silpats were the newest thing going. needless to say times have changed.
we are going to look at a couple different ways to build sorbet and ice creams recipes. this first one is based on the combination of fresh fruit, sorbet syrup and water. its is very traditional and when used properly yields very good results. the real advantage to this method is it simplicity. cut the fruit into manageable pieces, add the water, add the cold syrup, blend well and into the freezer. no resting or ageing is necessary. since your fruit is fresh and your ingredients are cold/uncooked/not oxidized you get a very fresh flavor.
the syrup is made from sugar, water and glucose. no stabilizer is used. if a formula contains the right amount of solids, water and sugar, it is in balance and will maintain perfect texture without the addition of stabilizer. this technique will maintain its quality when exposed to small-medium amounts of thermal shock…. the repeated in and out of the freezer during restaurant service, or the “oh wait there is a speech” of banquet service. stabilizer can be added but this method is intended to yield high quality results without it when you are churning sorbet for service daily or very frequently.
it is important to know how much sugar is in your fruit. the most accurate way is to place a small amount of the pureed fruit on a refractometer. once you know how many brix your puree is then you know how much sugar you have –– brix = % (32 brix = 32% sugar). if you don’t have a refractometer use the charts provided by puree companies (i will update this post with a table of this information in the near future). keep in mind the amount of sugar in your fruit depends on how ripe it is.
for more detailed instructions and information see the download below.