Monday 29 November 2010

November 2008 - Strawberry Sorbet with aged balsamic vinegar

Back to work, the boss is back on deck and it is busy, busy, busy again but if I am going to get these posts in this month there is no time to waste being tired after work. Although I have promised myself that I will get an early night tonight to try and catch up on some of the sleep that I missed out on over the weekend. 

There was really only one recipe that I was going to make out of this issue. This is because I was recently given the ice cream attachment for the KitchenAid mixer by a wonderful friend over at Taste forums. I was over the moon as I had been looking at purchasing an ice cream machine or attachment. Initially I had thought that I would be able to get the attachment from Amazon.com for a lot less then they cost here but apparently the ice cream attachment for the US machine is not compatible with ours. I am not sure why exactly though. I have used it several times now and I am so, so please with how it works. It makes wonderful ice cream and terrific sorbets. 

My first foray into ice cream making using the KitchenAid attachment was this Salted Caramel Ice Cream. Oh my, was it ever so rich and sweet but it was oh so good too. It was relatively easy to make, although once the cream was added to the caramel it took ages for it to all combine together as the caramel solidified slightly and it took ages for it to all melt again. It was a great ice cream to make once but it probably wont be a regular that I make since it was so incredibly rich and too sweet for my liking. Perhaps I could reduce the sugar/caramel in it. 

I made this extremely easy Eggless Summer Berry ice cream, with some frozen mixed berries that I had had in the freezer for ages. It was nice, and I liked that it wasn't nearly as sweet as the salted caramel ice cream. Although the sheer amount of cream in it again made for something very rich. I also think that I may have heated the cream too long. It just didn't taste quite right too me. I will admit that I did prefer the custard based ice cream rather than the straight cream. Although I know that there is also a condensed milk ice cream that I would be interested in trying. For some reason I did not take a picture of this one. 

As well as the ice creams I have attempted two different sorbets. Both of which are based around the same recipe from this issue. Skye Gyngell's Strawberry sorbet with aged balsamic. I love the combination of strawberry and balsamic. Valli Little has a lovely Strawberry & Balsamic ice cream that I had made a couple of times last summer when I had a large amount of strawberries to use so I was very keen to try this sorbet recipe. I also made a Raspberry Sorbet based on Skye's recipe, although without the balsamic and using frozen raspberries and slightly more sugar, but I did this by taste. In the strawberry sorbet recipe the balsamic was just used to drizzle over the top when serving but instead I used it in the actual recipe in place of the lemon juice. I think that was better to put it in the sorbet rather than just drizzling over. This was such an easy recipe to make and was such lovely refreshing dessert. I am sure that I will be making this over and over again. 


Strawberry Sorbet with aged balsamic vinegar

Ingredients:
  • 500 g ripe strawberries, hulled
  • 150 g caster sugar
  • Zest & juice of 1 lemon 
  • Aged balsamic, to drizzle 
  • Almond biscotti, to serve
Method:
  • Place 400 g berries in food processor with sugar & lemon zest & juice (I used 1 tbsp of balsamic instead)
  • Process until smooth. 
  • Taste & add more sugar if necessary. 
  • Place mixture in a shallow plastic container and freeze for about 2 hours or until frozen at edges. 
  • Beat with an electric beater, then return to the freezer. Repeat this process 2 - 3 times or until frozen. 
  • Whiz the sorbet in a food processor once before serving. 
  • (Alternately, churn the mixture in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.) 
  • Halve or quarter remaining berries, then place in serving glasses with scoops of sorbet. Drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar and serve with biscotti. (I didn't)
Strawberry sorbet: 


Raspberry sorbet: 

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