Tangerine sorbet

So since my attempt at a tangerine ice cream didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, and I did buy more tangerines than I needed for the ice cream, I went ahead and tried to make a sorbet out of the remaining tangerines.

Peel and separate the tangerines. I had five left, and puréed them two at a time. I also zested one of them.

This was about 1/3 of the way into the purée. The larger blades couldn't get it as smooth as I want, so I switched over to the stick attachment for further blending.

Blend in sugar (I added 3/4 cups, hopefully that's enough), a pinch of salt, and a little bit of lime juice. Then pour into ice cream maker. This is after about 20 minutes of churning. With the camera flash working, you cann't tell from the picture that it was still churning... So I took another pic without flash...

They spinnin', they spinnin'!



Post Script: Shortly after I was "finished" making the sorbet, I recalled that I had read a transcript of Alton Brown's Good Eats episode that talked about making sorbet. So I looked it up. In one scene, he says of making sorbet:

Sugar in frozen desserts is more than just a sweetener. See, once dissolved in the liquid, the sugar molecules actually get in the way of ice crystals forming. [...] Now, too little sugar and you'll need an ice pick to serve your dessert. Too much, and you'll have a syrupy mess.

So, the trick, if you can call it a trick, is in nailing the right amount of sugar. And for that, all you need is your trusty sucrometer. Lent yours to the neighbor? Never got it back? No problem. A few simple rules will do.

Now, when I want a scoopable ice, I go with 7 ounces of sugar, roughly a cup, to every 16 ounces of liquid by weight. Now that's roughly, uh, 30 percent sugar.

In short:

Low Sugar = Rock Hard
High Sugar = Syrupy Mess

30% sugar solution = right amount of sugar

My original solution only had around 20% sugar, and sure enough, it was rock hard by the next day. So I took my giant tangerine ice cube out of the freezer to let it melt, then I'm going to add more sugar, squeeze in a lemon or two to balance the sweetness, and churn again.