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Pear Sorbet
When a pear goes bad and tries to take its siblings with it, there’s only one solution...pear sorbet. I looked on-line, I looked in FROZEN DESSERTS by Liddell & Weir, and THE ULTIMATE ICE CREAM BOOK by Weinstein, didn’t find exactly what I wanted, and threw this together from the books and instinct. I recommend both these books. Weinstein’s book has cone recipes, too. The great strength to Liddell & Weir’s book is they teach you a good simple syrup (super-saturated liquid sugar) recipe, and all the recipes in their book use that same ratio of sugar to water. This is a big deal – they tested in LOTS of different brands of freezers. Recipes online need to give you their own recipe for the syrup, or you’ll have no idea how sweet the recipe will be -- or if the ratio of liquid to solid works. I always try to test an on-line recipe before I need it for a party.
Remember – pears can fool you. The one with the rotten spot had chemically changed the entire pear; it was toast. Taste each ripe pear to be sure it hasn’t gone too far!
Pear & Ginger Sorbet
4 ripe Comice Pears (at least 1.5 lb English)
3/4 cup plus one Tablespoon sugar
2/3 cup water
2-3 Tbsp. Finely chopped fresh ginger stem
juice of one lemon
large pinch of salt.
Small pieces of candied ginger (optional)
Place sugar and water in a saucepan over heat until sugar melts – once sugar has dissolved, stir in chopped ginger and boil a minute or so. Then take off heat and set aside to cool. Once cool, pour syrup through a sieve to fish out the ginger matter – you can press on the ginger to squeeze the most out of it. Remember that your finished product will not be as intense as the mix, so if you want a ginger punch, go for more ginger.
Peel pears and take out the small cores, slice up and then cube for convenience. This will be more than two cups (Comice pears are large – I got 3.5 cups). Add the lemon juice (I sprinkled it over the pears while in the big measuring cup, to keep them from discoloring) and the cooled simple syrup and pears into a blender or food processor. Add a pinch of salt and blend on low speed until the pears are smooth (you can leave a few small pieces for occasional pear surprise, if you want.)
Pour back into 4 cup pyrex pitcher, place plastic wrap over the top and place in fridge until very cold (one hour minimum). Stir mix back together with spoon, and follow your manufacturer’s directions for your ice cream maker. The end result will be soft but ready to eat. For a firmer product, transfer it until a freezer-safe container, lay plastic over the top to protect from freezer burn, and freeze for a couple of hours. (Too long, and you’ll have to put it in the fridge for 15 minutes to eat it!)
This made a lovely, zingy pear sorbet. I used 2 Tbsp. Ginger, and will use more if I make it from scratch again – the ginger was masked by the pear. We could have added candied ginger, but W wanted to go for a smooth texture, so we didn’t.
When I melt down the leftovers (only a bit – W,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dragonherder1 and I did a good number on it!) to re-freeze, I think I will start it up and then add some candied ginger after the machine runs a few minutes. [Yes – this is the secret of the gelato places. Sorbets must be melted and re-frozen each day.]
Enjoy!
Remember – pears can fool you. The one with the rotten spot had chemically changed the entire pear; it was toast. Taste each ripe pear to be sure it hasn’t gone too far!
Pear & Ginger Sorbet
4 ripe Comice Pears (at least 1.5 lb English)
3/4 cup plus one Tablespoon sugar
2/3 cup water
2-3 Tbsp. Finely chopped fresh ginger stem
juice of one lemon
large pinch of salt.
Small pieces of candied ginger (optional)
Place sugar and water in a saucepan over heat until sugar melts – once sugar has dissolved, stir in chopped ginger and boil a minute or so. Then take off heat and set aside to cool. Once cool, pour syrup through a sieve to fish out the ginger matter – you can press on the ginger to squeeze the most out of it. Remember that your finished product will not be as intense as the mix, so if you want a ginger punch, go for more ginger.
Peel pears and take out the small cores, slice up and then cube for convenience. This will be more than two cups (Comice pears are large – I got 3.5 cups). Add the lemon juice (I sprinkled it over the pears while in the big measuring cup, to keep them from discoloring) and the cooled simple syrup and pears into a blender or food processor. Add a pinch of salt and blend on low speed until the pears are smooth (you can leave a few small pieces for occasional pear surprise, if you want.)
Pour back into 4 cup pyrex pitcher, place plastic wrap over the top and place in fridge until very cold (one hour minimum). Stir mix back together with spoon, and follow your manufacturer’s directions for your ice cream maker. The end result will be soft but ready to eat. For a firmer product, transfer it until a freezer-safe container, lay plastic over the top to protect from freezer burn, and freeze for a couple of hours. (Too long, and you’ll have to put it in the fridge for 15 minutes to eat it!)
This made a lovely, zingy pear sorbet. I used 2 Tbsp. Ginger, and will use more if I make it from scratch again – the ginger was masked by the pear. We could have added candied ginger, but W wanted to go for a smooth texture, so we didn’t.
When I melt down the leftovers (only a bit – W,
dragonherder1 and I did a good number on it!) to re-freeze, I think I will start it up and then add some candied ginger after the machine runs a few minutes. [Yes – this is the secret of the gelato places. Sorbets must be melted and re-frozen each day.]Enjoy!