So this was my first attempt at making a sorbet with my ice cream maker. I wanted something light, refreshing and low (ish) in sugar. I would say this was semi-successful. The fruits worked really nicely together and it was super-refreshing, but because sugar acts as a sort of anti-freeze this sorbet needed some serious de-thawing before it was soft and scoopable. I think this is a small price to pay for a low sugar option, but if you want to make this to be ready to eat straight from the freezer then do add quite a lot more sugar to this recipe.
Ingredients:
– 4 pears, peeled and chopped
– 1 cup of chopped and hulled strawberries
– 1/3 cup of raw sugar
– 1/3 cup of rice malt syrup
– 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
– water
Makes 1 litre.
Put the chopped strawberries in a small pan with one tablespoon of sugar and two tablespoons of water. Cook them slowly over a medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon. They will cook down to almost liquid in about 20 minutes. Blend or mash the strawberry syrup until it’s smooth. Set this aside to cool in the fridge.
Add the chopped pears to a large pan with 2 cups of water and the remaining sugar. Gently simmer until the pears are soft and add the vanilla essence and rice malt syrup. Blend until smooth and put this into a tupperware to cool in the fridge.
Once your mixes are cool, use your ice cream maker to churn them together. I added the pear first for about five minutes, then the strawberry syrup. As there is no fat in this recipe I churned for longer than with a cream-based ice cream to get maximum air into the sorbet. Once churned, freeze or eat straight away. I garnished with a sprig of fresh basil because it looks pretty and tastes pretty.
posted by Claire.
south by north 
YUM! Hey, what ice cream maker did you buy? I’m thinking of buying one as well since summer is approaching!
Hey Nia! I got the Cuisinart one with the bowl that you pre-freeze. I’m pretty happy with it so far! You should definitely get one, it’s so much nicer than shop-bought and chemical free! The cream-based flavours turn out a-mazing.
Oh man that looks delicious, and I love how you’ve shot it. You’re making me want an icecream maker! x
Thanks Alli! I don’t think I could love my ice cream maker more..
Looks tasty! I’ve tried to make low sugar ice cream before and had the same problem where the texture was ruined and was basically a rock when I first took it out of the freezer. I need to find out some ways to make a creamier texture w/o all the sugar.
Hey and thanks! I have done a LOT of reading into this, and basically to stop it freezing you need one of the following: large amounts of sugar, medium amounts of fat, or small amounts of alcohol. I read somewhere that a couple of tablespoons of vodka really helps keep sorbet soft, and you won’t taste it. I guess this option wouldn’t be suitable for kids though. You also need to make sure the sugar is in a liquid state, so something like agave, honey or rice malt syrup can be used in higher quantities as they are not as bad as white sugar. All my cream based ones have been lovely and soft, I guess because they have loads of fat!
Thanks for letting me know, didn’t know about the vodka part (: I thought there was at least one other way to improve the consistency, if I can get more info maybe I’ll write a post.
looks great, I’d be leaning towards the less sugar route, I can be quite the addict at times 😛 Seems sorbet makes a nice compromise 🙂