Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Pear Sorbet

pearsorbet

I'm off to Brussels, but Per will keep you company here until I'm back on Thursday night! Meanwhile, have a very cooling sorbet, won't you? This is the first recipe I tried from David Lebovitz new book, "The Perfect Scoop" which is every blogger's favorite at the moment. And for good reason, it's absolutely marvellous and I can't wait to make.. everything, really.

The sorbet was fantastic. It has a soft, true pear flavor, and the texture was great. (Admittedly a bit less so after a few days in the freezer, but that's the case with most homemade sorbets and ice creams.)

Pear Sorbet

4 ripe pears
300 ml water
130 g sugar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Peel the pears and cut them into smaller pieces. Place them in a small pan, and add 125 ml of the water. Cover with a lid and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the pears are soft.

Transfer to a blender (or to a bowl if you're using an immersion blender), add the remaining water, the sugar and the lemon juice, and blend until it's very smooth. Chill this, preferrably overnight, and then freeze in your ice cream maker. (Don't have one? Get one! Hand-stirred is never even close to what you get from a machine.)

And don't let it run too long in the machine, either. The longer you churn a sorbet or ice cream, the more air will come into the mixture. And unfortunately, this makes the flavor less intense. It's especially obvious with sorbets so when you think your sorbet is just about done, taste it, and remove it at just the right point. I can't tell you how long that will take - in my machine (which is by the way probably my oldest kitchen appliance, it's easily over 20 years) it will take 15-20 minutes. Or so.

Enjoy!

Recipe in Swedish:
Päronsorbet

9 comments:

Pille said...

Oh, that looks refreshing! I don't have David Lebovitz's book nor do I have an ice cream machine. But I'm determined to get both :)

Kinna Jonsson said...

Looks so good! Fun to read about your book experiences. I ought to try some more things from my collection of books too.

Anonymous said...

Is there ANYTHING that can be done to stop homemade sorbets and ice creams freezing solid after a few days? (apart from eating them all up, of course ;))

I bought an ice cream maker last year and I LOVE it.

winedeb said...

Ice Cream makers in the summer come in handy for those great frozen cocktails also! Like always, nice photo Anne!

Anne said...

Pille - definitely, you do need both! :)

Kinna - I love trying out new recipes, I wish there was even more time :)

Kitchen_Girl - Sorry, I don't know! It seems that most commercial ice creams have additives that help with that.

Derek Hill said...

Food looks great....I will try a couple of your recipes. Thank you

scarecrow said...

try putting an audio recipe on the fun section at www.pre.vu. see if you can do it in 60 seconds could be tricky

Unknown said...

A little alcohol, fruit liqueurs or wine/champagen helps the sorbet not freeze so hard. Also tastes good

Barry and Christine said...

I made this recipe using invert sugar and it was in the freezer for several days after being made -- it retained a very smooth texture and not icy at all (well no more than Sorbet should be) . It seems that the secret to smooth sorbets is the invert sugar