Sunday, March 28, 2010

Two Scoops of Sorbet


I would love to try making my own ice creams but without an ice cream maker, I doubt it is easy or possible at all. My sisters who have made their own perfect scoops encouraged me to get myself an ice-cream maker. The type of ice-cream maker they have is the one that needs to be stored in the freezer overnight or something like that. Personally, I think it is rather troublesome because some space in the freezer needs to be allocated for the maker. I wonder if there are other types of ice-cream makers where pre-freezing of the machine is not required. I am just clueless about home-made ice creams and the gadgets required!

Anyway, since I don't have a maker, I decided to make the equally refreshing, non-creamy cousin - sorbet or sherbet. According to the info on Wikipedia, sorbet is a frozen dessert usually made from fruit juice or puree. Chocolate or cocoa version is popular too. Some sorbets contain wine or liqueur for extra flavor. At first, I wondered what is the difference between sorbet and sherbet. Well, apparently they are the same. The term sherbet or charbet is derived from Turkish whilst the term sorbet or serbet is Persian.

The two recipes below are based on my dessert book 'Desserts All Around The Year' by Martha Day. With some mandarin oranges in my refrigerator at the time of making this sorbet (about 3 weeks ago), I decided to tweak Martha Day's original lime sorbet recipe by using the mandarins instead. These sorbets are so good and so refreshing! They are so easy and cheap to make and what's best is that they make just the perfect desserts for family and friends after a hearty meal.


Mandarin Orange Sorbet

250g cups granulated sugar
600ml water
grated rind of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
175ml freshly squeezed mandarin orange juice

1. In a saucepan, dissolve the granulated sugar in 600ml water over medium heat, without stirring. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool.
2. Combine the cooled sugar syrup, lemon rind and orange juice in a bowl or jug. Stir well, taste and adjust the flavor. Add more icing sugar if you want it sweeter but do not over-sweeten. Add more lemon juice if you want it a bit more tart.
3. Pour mixture into a freezable container and freeze for 3-4 hours or until soft set. Remove from container and chop roughly. Place in food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Return to container and freeze again. Follow this step for an additional 2 times, each time placing it in the blender after it has soft set and freeze again. Blend until a smooth consistency is obtained. Best prepared 2 or 3 days ahead because of the process.



Chocolate Sorbet

475ml water
3 tbsp clear honey
115g caster sugar
75g cocoa powder
50g plain dark chocolate, broken into squares

1. Place water, honey, cocoa and sugar in a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring occasionally until sugar has dissolved.
2. Remove from heat, add the chocolate and stir until melted. Let it cool down and freeze until soft set.
3. Here on, follow same method as step 3 in the mandarin orange sorbet recipe above. Do the freeze/blend process for 3 times to achieve a smooth consistency.


Last but not least, if you're a real ice-cream lover and love to have it home-made, you'll be truly wowed by the tantalizing array of ice-creams at Perfectscoops by Quinn. Perfectscoops is by far one of my favorite blogs dedicated only to ice-creams. I had the warmest pleasure of meeting Quinn in person during my recent bloggers' meet up in Kuala Lumpur. With a warm and infectiously bubbly personality, it is not hard to guess that this lovely gal just loves ice-creams in every way possible!

Enjoy!

22 comments:

  1. I'm so glad I'm the first one here! Because the weather today is again super hot. I really need this...

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  2. Petite Nyonya,

    Thanks for the mention and so happy you are back! Lovely pictures by the way, I especially love the first shot. Mandarin Orange and Chocolate, sounds yummy together!

    And regarding ice cream maker, I have one which is the typical home use one, it does takes up space a little in the freezer but over time, I start making ice cream a lot and always seem to be needing it for party so I bought another one, which is bulkier and you don't need to freeze the bowl. Just turn it on for 5 minutes and you can churn your ice cream already. And you can do countless batches too if you want.

    However, it is not very practical because I was told if I move it around too much, it can cause the coolant to be not effective so it is sitting there occupying space on my kitchen counter. I kinda wanna return it to the shop I bought it from since Australia has a 'change of mind' policy.

    And the latest craze that I've tried, it's called Molecular Cooking. They offer it here in some high end restaurant. They squeezed out a blob of cream on a spoon in front of you. They spray liquid nitrogen over it. Wait a while for nitrogen to fully vaporize and you eat that spoonful of ice cream. Super yummy, wonderful experience but expensive too, that made me paid AUD30 just for a small spoonful of ice cream. It's fancy though...

    So, if you wanna get an ice cream maker, I hope these info will be somewhat helpful to you, for brands, I'd say Sunbeam or Cuisinart, those are good brands.

    Cheers!

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  3. I shouldn't be looking at sorbet or ice cream recipes... because every time I see these, I am gripped by the impulse to go out and buy and ice cream maker... sigh... Your sorbet looks absolutely beautiful!

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  4. I can't wait for summer to be here to eat lots of this. Looks very delicious and cooling.

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  5. And sherbert is better for you in term of calories !!! They look delicious!

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  6. Wonderful and delightful choice of flavors!

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  7. With no sign of this heat wave easing I could really do with these sorbets. They look really refreshing, esp the orange one

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  8. If your warm weather sticks around, maybe we'll get to see some more lovely creations! Your photo is stunning, it's so professional!

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  9. Your sorbet's look so refreshing and delicious! I love the mandarin orange flavor and your chocolate looks very dark and rich. They turned out great!

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  10. I think that sorbet is even more refreshing & yummy than ice cream. Love the light texture. and yours look really good.

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  11. Good to see a new post from you! I love the combination and this must be perfect for the recent hot spell you have in Malaysia!

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  12. Anncoo, yes the weather is really hot & thank you for being the 1st! ;)

    Qunn, it's a pleasure to make that mention. Seriously, all your ice creams are truly truly fabulous! Since what you said about the coolant issue of the maker which does not require pre-freezing, I might think of getting the 'needsto be frozen' type sometime soon. thanks so much for the info, at least if I will now make a much better informed decision! :)

    Shirley, I guess people like us are easily tempted by kitchen appliances! I got a hunch that I will buy one soon! Yikes!

    Sophie, my pleasure to be sharing lovely flavors.

    Mary, thanks for dropping by. It's summer all year round here :(

    Laura, yes sorbets are non fattening and refreshing.

    elra, yes, the orange & choc combi is nice :)

    HungryC, yeah..the heat is terrible! the orange one is indeed very refreshing.

    Lyndsey, it is perpetually hot all year round here, so I look forward t make other flavors too.

    Cinnamon-Girl, yes, the combi of flavors is very nice :)

    noobcook, yes, the orange one is very light in texture, just like you said.

    3 hung t'mies, thanks..wanted to post earlier but life got interrupted by a string of somewhat unpleasant happenings lately. now back to normal blogging :)

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  13. I actually prefer sorbet to ice-cream but my hb like ice-cream and do not like sorbet at all (cos usually sorbet = sour, for him!) so we settle for ...ice-cream!

    Maybe can serve the sorbet on red bean dessert soup and call it red bean float - cos' red bean dessert soup usually have mandarin orange peels in there, right?

    Pardon my craziness.

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  14. That chocolate sorbet looks mighty decadent. I'm so glad you didn't let the fact that you had no ice cream maker get in your way of creating such a rich looking sorbet.

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  15. I know what you mean about the ice cream maker - the freezer bowl takes up so much space. But honestly, sorbets are so wonderful - as you've demonstrated here, you can have a rich flavor like chocolate or a light, refreshing one like citrus. These are wonderful recipes!

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  16. Hello,
    There's an award for you at my blog. Feel free to pick em up!

    Have a nice day!

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  17. Hey, Joslynn!!

    Hope everything's getting back on track for you & your loved ones!

    Thank you for sharing your sherbet- and sorbet-making experience with me! I love home-made ones! In fact, I've been making my own frozen desserts, e.g. dairy-type ice cream. But, I've been reluctant to make sorbet, sherbet, gelato and frozen yogurt!! Why? I don't have ice cream maker! I tried a few times with manual churning, and it didn't quite work for me because I felt the texture of the final product rather "crystallized."

    I might give these non-dairy ones another go again! Thanks for sharing! Btw, I saw that book at Kinokuniya & MPH. Been itching to buy one copy ...

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  18. i like the contrast of colors with the ice cream! home-made ice cream is so wonderful...especially now that the summer season is coming up. oooh i can't wait to make some ice cream soon!

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  19. Hi Joslyn...I love gelato, sorbet and ice. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful and lips smacking sorbets. Haha will try them out one day. Btw I have a gift award for you , pls do drop by and pick it up at your convenience. :))

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  20. Those sorbets/sherbets....ices...look divine! Happy Easter

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  21. RIGHT time for these cool treat!

    Happy Easter!

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  22. Oooooooooooooo... I remember when you gave me this... the orange was soooo refreshing.

    From : Bryan

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