Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Oh, I feel like such a dummy on this one but I've got to put this out there.

So, I made the base for this month's raspberry sorbet and poured it into a new cuisinart frozen yogurt/sorbet/ice cream maker. As opposed to the last one I had, this time the bowl spins around and the paddle remains stationary. The spinning bowl is supposed to move the contents around (actually pushing them off against the wall) and when it gets to the spokes of the paddle - it gets pushed along.

Anyway, I made my first batch - following directions pretty closely although in hindsight I did make one mistake, i.e. you are supposed to puree the raspberries in a blender first, then add the other ingredients (i.e. sugar, corn syrup, and this cooled down mixture of water, sure-jel, and salt. I dumped all ingredients and pureed everything together.

The base was stored over night as directed, i.e. most in the fridge, some in the freezer. The next day, the freezer portion was added to the refrigerator portion until it dissolved and the entire base was poured through the ice cream maker (which was on when the contents were being added).

So, for the first few minutes - everything looked fine - the mixture was moving around as it should. However, by about four minutes, the mixture had thickened up and there was no movement in the ice cream maker - unless I facilitated it by pushing the mixture against the sides. CI's instructions said it should take about 20 minutes until it was ready, as did the manufacturer's instructions (15-25).

Looking more carefully, I noticed that most if not all of the what was now sorbet was clinging to the paddle and not rubbing against the walls. So, it was so thick that it wasn't reaching the cannister's walls and being pushed around. In the end, it only got about 4 minutes of turning.

It looks like the machine is working OK but I must have done something wrong. The cannister was refrigerated for about 36 hours and remember, the base was very very cold.

Any insights would be appreciated - particularly because I still have time to make more!

Best,
Gerard

Gerard - Generally, raspberry sorbet problems require an on-site inspection

However, after reading CI's instructions it appears to me that you did not make the mistake you stated. CI says:

Did you strain the mixture

Oh - I reviewed the video and they processed everything together - yes, I did strain although the stainer did not have a super-tight mesh (it got most, but not all seeds).

Gerard, I'm wondering if the base was just too cold. I think CI's fridges must be set REALLY low, since they think frozen items like a lasagna will thaw in way less time than in my fridge.
Did it turn out okay at the end?

The base being too cold could be it(!)... it certainly would make sense. Too bad they didn't tell you what the temperature of the base should be when it is added to the ice cream machine.

As it is now, it tastes very good - I probably would have added a bit more sugar but that's personal taste. Definitely good enough to serve tonight as part of a dessert course.

Since the recipe is all about developing texture, I would have to say that I missed the mark this time. Mine is dense - more like that of sherbert (or sherbet as they refer to it).

Definitely worth making again, but next time I 'll use a different strainer and let it come up a few degrees before pouring it into the ice cream mixer.

Gerard