3

I have a plastic ice-cream machine (two quarts).

I water, sugar and lemon juice, cool it until it just starts freezing, and then put it into the ice-cream maker for an hour.

As a result, it comes out with ice clumps and if I put it in the freezer, it comes out hard.

One time, I made it actually come out with a "snowy" texture, and that can be placed in a freezer without hardening it. However, I don't remember what I did special then.

What should I do to get my sorbet snowy?

chummus
  • 61
  • 1
  • How much water and sugar? – Peter Taylor Aug 22 '13 at 08:28
  • 1
    This is surely a duplicate of [What determines whether a sherbet will set or not?](http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/23278/) or [Tips for Creating a Creamy and Smooth Sorbet](http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/21891/), yes? There are probably others. – Cascabel Aug 22 '13 at 14:52

1 Answers1

3

A variety of factors can change the texture of a sorbet:

The amount of sugar or other large quantity solutes (less dissolved solids, harder texture).

The rate of freezing (slower freezing, larger crystals).

The use of any "stabilizers" (guar/xanthan gum, gelatin, etc.). These interfere with the formation of large crystals. I believe the stabilizer I use is xanthan and guar gums, cold-soluble gelatin, and glucose but I can't remember the ratios I used.

I have started to use liquid nitrogen to freeze my ice cream and sorbet in my standard kitchen mixer. Once I did that I noticed that the texture was much finer, likely due to the stabilizer and the rapid freezing.

Related question: Creating a creamy sorbet

Community
  • 1
RudyB
  • 1,071
  • 7
  • 16
  • Slow freezing with good churning actually makes smaller crystals, and if you freeze rapidly *without* sufficient mixing you'll get large crystals. The fact that liquid nitrogen boils away and essentially mixes/breaks up the ice cream on a small scale is a large part of the reason it makes such finely textured ice cream. If you instead dropped your bowl of syrup/custard into a liquid nitrogen bath and tried desperately to stir it fast enough, you'd get lots of large crystals as it froze way faster than you could mix it. – Cascabel Aug 22 '13 at 14:55
  • True. The agitation/ churning definitely is a factor also. I forgot to add that some recipes also call for a small quantity (a tablespoon or so) of alcohol as another antifreeze agent to help with finer crystals. I do not know how much real impact this small quantity would make on a half gallon of sorbet. – RudyB Aug 22 '13 at 17:16
  • Alcohol definitely works, as I mentioned in the possible duplicates I linked above. You'll get noticeable softening from 1-2 tablespoons of something 80 proof, and 4-8 tablespoons is enough to make sorbet hardly even freeze solid. – Cascabel Aug 22 '13 at 17:18
  • Jefromi : I always assumed that ultra cold temperatures worked more like phase change in metals -- you end up seeding crystals in multiple places so that they don't all form with the same orientation, thus it breaks apart more easily. I don't know how much the agitation actually does. (but I admit, I've never made it that way, myself). – Joe Aug 22 '13 at 17:31
  • @Joe Yeah, there's probably some of that too, but for example, the layer that nearly-instantly freezes on the outside of a normal ice cream maker is pretty hard. My guess would be you'd end up with a block of ice without the mixing, and it might break up more easily than if you froze it in the freezer, but it'd still be a block of ice. – Cascabel Aug 22 '13 at 18:01