We went to Big George's to acquire a new microwave. Yes, in the name of energy efficiency we decided that it was finally time to replace our old faithful microwave.
And we walked out with a Cuisinart Compressor Ice Cream Maker
(Oh, and a new microwave.)
We've already tried vanilla, chocolate, and peanut butter ice cream. I had a bunch of frozen blueberries and decided to make blueberry sorbet. You make a sugar syrup, mix it with pureed blueberries, and let the ice cream maker do its thing. Et voila! Blueberry sorbet.
Sounds easy until you have to push 2.5 pounds of pureed blueberries through a metal strainer. I made my sugar syrup and pureed my blueberries with some lime juice. Then I made a huge mess mashing the puree through the strainer. I had to bleach my sink when I was finally done. (We have an old-fashioned white porcelain sink. Blueberry anything stains it instantly blue.) It felt like it was taking forever. I thought to myself, "Fun experiment, but I'm never doing this again." Eventually -- after all the mashing and stirring and pressing -- only a thick mass of blueberry skins and seeds remained.
Then all I had to do was to mix the strained puree with the cool syrup, refrigerate it for a few hours, then pour it into the ice cream maker. Some 45 minutes later, I had a soft sorbet that I put in the freezer to finish hardening. Oh my, that first taste was heaven. Summer in a spoonful.
Oh yes, I would be doing this again. And again. I was already planning ahead for blueberry season when I would pick pounds of blueberries to last us the winter. I had better pick twice as much this year, if I wanted them to last long enough. Really, it probably only took about 10 minutes or so to strain the puree. Not that much effort for so marvelous a treat.
Simple Blueberry Sorbet
Note: this recipe works with a compressor type ice cream maker. It might need to be adapted for the kind that uses salt and ice (probably not, but you never know).
1 1/3 C sugar
2/3 C water
2 1/2 pounds fresh blueberries or thawed from frozen
3 Tbs lime juice
2 Tbs light corn syrup
Bring water and sugar to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook without stirring until sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool completely.
Puree blueberries and lime juice in a blender or food processor. This may take two or more batches, depending on the size of your blender.
Mix cooled sugar syrup, blueberries, and corn syrup. If possible, refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Pour mixture into the ice cream maker mixing bowl and process for about 45 minutes. Sorbet will be soft. For a harder sorbet, put it into an airtight container and let it harden in the freezer.
I've been hankering after (yes, I did say hankering) an ice cream maker for AGES. :) This recipe may finally give me the push to go and get one. I love blueberries, and this recipe looks fantastic. Thanks for posting it.
Christina
Posted by: HappySlob | April 20, 2006 at 06:20 PM
The recipe is actually out of the recipe booklet that comes with the ice cream maker. I don't know that I can say all the recipes that came with the machine are quite so good, but this one works well enough. We'll be investigating other books and online recipe sources.
Posted by: Kitchen Chick | April 20, 2006 at 11:02 PM
(Kitchen Chick's husband here)
Well, the peanut butter ice cream recipe that came with the machine is easily this good. WOW.
Posted by: Joe | April 21, 2006 at 07:47 AM
I make my fruit sorbets based on an article in Cook's July/August 1995. What the author recommended was to vary the amount of added sugar and lemon juice based on the amount of sugar in the fruit.
The (abbreviated) master technique is as follows:
2 cups fruit puree or juice
.75 - 1.25 cups sugar
0-2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp vodka or other alcohol
1. Prepare the puree (as you do above)
2. Combine puree or juice, sugar, lemon juice and alcohol. Stir until sugar has dissolved (usually 5 minutes at most).
3. Pour mixture into small container. Seal and refridgerate until mix is no more than 40 degrees.
4. Pour chilled mix into ice cream machine, churn until frozen.
Scoop frozen sorbet into container, transfer to freezer to allow to firm up.
The amount of sugar recommended for blueberry sorbet is one cup, while the amount of lemon juice is 2 tbsp.
Generally I have found this technique to be sound. I have made blueberry, rasperry, cantaloupe, watermelon and strawberry sorbets using the technique and love the results. I've also gotten creative and made some exotic-flavored sorbets, my best so far being lemon-ginger-basil.
I see that you use lime juice instead of lemon, and I can't think of any reason why one would be any different than the other. I just happen to have a lemon tree in the back yard, which makes lemons a good value.
I do recommend getting the article from Cook's if you're interested (I'm not affiliated with them in any way)...it's well worth it if you are thinking about making a lot of fruit sorbets. The article really helped me to create sorbets that are firm like ice cream and that tase like the essence of the fruit ingredients.
Posted by: Sorbet Lover | April 24, 2006 at 07:11 PM
I think you made a very wise purchase!
(Don't you just love how that happens!)
Well done ... the blueberry ice looks lovely.
Posted by: Ivonne | April 26, 2006 at 10:27 PM
Very informative post, got some good information about starting off in ice cream making, I'm more into juice making but this could be a natural progression. Your post also highlights the fact you should do some research before purchasing any sort of mechanical food/juice contraption in order to understand ease of use and capabilities.
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