David Lebovitz’s watermelon sorbet is chilling down in the fridge, for churning tomorrow. I didn’t have any special desire to whip up MORE frozen dessert, but I received that enormous watermelon last week so it needed to be used. So far, I’ve made a small batch of agua fresca and a full recipe of shrub, and now this sorbet. I’ve still got MANY cups of melon to get through, but it’s feeling more manageable now
I’ve never made melon sorbet before, and this melon was nice and sweet, so I’m hopeful. Martha’s recipe called for some optional “white creme de menthe or Campari,” neither of which I cared to buy just for a TBSP or so, but I did have the vodka that David called for, so hopefully that will help keep the sorbet scoopable.
I bought one of those pans (and a serving plate the right shape to accommodate it) both because I admired the shape/presentation, and because I figured leftovers in a square or rectangular shape would be easier to store than would a large sector of a circle if it needed to be refrigerated. (I’ve not actually used it yet, because my wall oven promptly died an ignominious death and is old enough to need to be replaced, so it’ll have to wait until the new and improved version comes home.)
Watermelon sorbet churned. It’s my first such recipe and I was stressing at how differently the base behaved in the canister compared to ice cream; fairly quickly it just seized up and didn’t want to churn anymore, and of course it didn’t expand in volume the way ice cream does when you churn it. I used a spatula to help it for a while, but at about 23 minutes I called it and transferred the sorbet to its container, and into the freezer. The tastes I had were good, but it’s hard to compare it the super-rich ice creams I’m used to. Which, by the way, I have an enormous selection of at the moment …
This is really eggnog in ice cream form. Full nutmeg flavour and good mouthfeel. I think I’ll put in a splash of rum the next time, just for fun. It got a maple syrup drizzle this time. Excellent ice cream.
I have a ton of cantaloupe and am considering making sorbet with it. I vaguely recall folks being generally not-thrilled with melon sorbets… any experience or recos to share? The watermelon I made was fine and I’m glad I tried it, but it’s completely not-scoopable. You just have to chisel some out of the container, then chisel every spoonful for your mouth (and note I did use vodka AND sugar syrup in there to help with texture.)
Jeni BB recommends making a sugar syrup to churn with puréed melon. david L has a couple tbs of wine in his simple recipe. Thomas Keller has you air-chill cut melon in the fridge over a rack for 12 hours to drain of some of the water. Hooo boy.
I made the custard for the salted caramel ice cream in Rose’s Ice Cream Bliss on Thursday. Chilled overnight and churned last night. After like FOREVER it still wasn’t fluffy or airy. The insert was totally frozen so that wasn’t the issue. I finally gave up and just put it into a container to freeze hoping that it would harden up.
It doesn’t look great in the container. I don’t know if I should thaw and try to re-churn or just use it as a sauce on the peach crumble I plan to make.
I only asked that because I was just reading an ice cream troubleshooting article, and “too much base in the canister” was one root cause for your problem. Then I reflected that the base did seem a bit voluminous when I made it.
Strawberry and red currant popsicles. I made these in July at the tail-end of our season, but we’re just now getting to them (too many good things to eat in the summer time!).
This is the SE recipe for Best Strawberry Popsicle, but I’m finding I’m liking them even better if I use a tart jam other than strawberry mixed in with the fresh berries.
My first attempt at a ripple ice cream. I used DL’s Philadelphia-style vanilla ice cream recipe from The Perfect scoop, with a blackberry syrup cooked down from gleaned berries. I didn’t have the proper loaf pan for doing this, but the deal here was if we liked it, I would get one.
We liked it. I am getting a new loaf pan (glass or ceramic).
