Sorbet tips and variations

Sorbet is one of the first things most new owners make and it is not uncommon to hear the expression ‘you had me at Sorbet’ when people are talking about their demonstration!

I thought in this post I would just remind you of ways you can ‘play’ with the sorbet recipe and experiment with different flavours and consistencys.

The basic principle

Raw sugar is ground to icing sugar as a sweetener – The amount of sugar depends on the fruits used and can be reduced or omitted completely, in some recipes like my frozen yogurt I sweeten at the end as required with natural honey.

Your chosen wet and a dry ingredient e.g Fresh fruit and Ice  are ground at high speed (speed 9) until the desired consistency is reached encorporated with aid of the spatula.

Add an egg white and encorporate – This is purely textural and optional, if you leave out you will just get an icier more granita or slushy style sorbet.  When using as a drink base i:e with champagne do not add it, there is also no need if using cream as it has a creamy consistency anyway.

Understanding and choosing your wet and dry ingredient

If you just grind ice in your Thermomix you will make a  ‘snow’, therefore if your second ingredient is also frozen (fruit) you will get a very dry granita, in order to get the preferred texture one of the ingredients needs to be ‘wet’ or a liquid needs to be added to emulsify the two often adding egg white alone is not always sufficient.

Dry Ingredients variations  –  Experiment with your ice cubes freeze:

Milk, Yogurt, Cream, Cordials ( Elderflower cordial works well) Juices, coconut milk or cream.

Wet ingredients :

Fresh fruits, Cream, Yogurt, Juice, Water, liqueur or Alcohol!

If the sorbet is not coming together it is too dry so add more liquid, sometimes you need to add alot.  Equally if sorbet is too wet add more ice, fruits like watermelon are very high in water and subtle in flavour so maybe best pre frozen or combined with other fruits.

Add extra flavour

Once you understand the priciple, get creative with flavour……

• Add zest when milling the sugar to add a real zing!
• Herbs, like mint, rosemary, lavender
• essences, pastes, cordials or infusions

Cocktail books can provide inspiration for pairings like pineapple and coconut (fresh pineapple and frozen coconut cream) Lime, elderflower and mint (pictured), there is no right or wrong combination so play around with your favourite flavour combinations and blends and have fun with it……