Easy ice-creams and sorbets

Dear all,

Few things refresh as well as ice-cream melting in the mouth. At the moment, all people in India are suffering from the crushing pre-monsoon heat – if you ever thought about making your own sorbets and ice-creams, now is the time to try.

However – to really succeed you need an ice-cream maker. These machines can be bought for a relatively modest amount. They consist of a container with thick walls, that needs to stay in the freezer for at least 24 hours. Then it is fitted with a kind of paddle that churns the ice-cream or sorbet while freezing it.

An ice-cream maker is so important because ice-cream needs to feel smooth in the mouth. I do not believe that you can achieve the same smoothness with crushing the ice crystals by hand. Our palates are highly sensitive and can feel big ice crystals.

I present here two of my favourite concoctions: Nutella ice-cream and sweet lime sorbet. Ice-cream can be divided into two categories: milk- or cream-based and fruit-based. Whereas Nutella ice-cream obviously belongs to the first category, sweet lime sorbet is a typical example of the second. Sorbet is an icy mixture of blended fruit or fruit juice and sugar syrup.

What about the eggs?

Traditional ice-cream is made with a custard base containing eggs. Honestly, I never understood what the eggs are doing in the ice-cream. It does not need to rise and it does not need to stick together – the main two functions of eggs in cooking.

To keep it simple: You can make any ice-cream or sorbet by mixing the tasty stuff – be it melted chocolate or pureed fruit – with sugar syrup. For ice-cream add plenty of cream. Just forget about the eggs. I never bothered and nobody every complained.

For the ultimate easy sorbet you can even use cooled fruit juice and pour it into your chilled ice-cream maker. In a few minutes you have fabulous sorbet.

By the way, granita is simply sorbet served in a glass with a straw. While the sorbet is melting, you suck this delicious, ice cold juice.
Wishing you happy cooking, always!
Kornelia Santoro with family
 

Nutella Ice-Cream

Ingredients:
(for 750 ml)

•  400 ml cream (2 packets 200 ml each)
•  250 grams Nutella

Method:
 

Pour the cream into a sufficiently big container with a tight closing lid. Add the Nutella and stir everything together. Close the container and place into the fridge for 24 hours. Keep your ice-cream cylinder in the freezer for at least 24 hours as well.
Take the Nutella mix from the fridge and give it a good stir to liquefy the thick cream. Churn the ice-cream as described in the directions for the ice-cream maker.
Pour the ice-cream into a container, close with the lid and place into the freezer.
 

Sweet Lime Sorbet

Ingredients:
(for 750 ml)

• 400 ml sweet lime juice
• 200 ml water
• 1 cup sugar

Method:

Squeeze the juice from fresh sweet limes. It is impossible to say how many fruits you will need. I always buy two dozens sweet limes and squeeze away – you need some patience and perseverance for this work. Put a sieve over a sufficiently big container and squeeze over the sieve so you don’t have any seeds in your sorbet.

Place the sugar and the water into a pot and heat it until the sugar dissolves. Let it simmer on low flame for a few minutes until the mixture has reached a syrupy consistency.

When the syrup has cooled down, mix it with the fresh lime juice. Close the container and place it in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Remember to keep the cylinder of the ice-cream machine in the freezer. Fill the liquid sorbet into your ice-cream maker and proceed as usual. Take the frozen sorbet from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving.

For Granita, place the sorbet into a glass und stick a straw into it.