Sooorrrrrbet

[kerravonsen]

My first venture into vegetable-based ice-confection!

Experiment #45: Carrot-Ginger sorbet
Recipe:
* 4 carrots
* 2-4 T grated ginger
* 2 cups hot water
* 4 T Erythritol
* 2 T Xylitol (or was it 3?)
* 1 t Xanthan gum
* 3 T Splenda granular
* 1 T honeydew honey Beechwood honeydew (or other strongly-flavoured honey)
* 1/2 t nutmeg
* 1 t cinnamon
Chop up carrots, put in top half of double-boiler. Put water and ginger in bottom half of double-boiler. Bring to boil; let simmer for 15 mins. Put carrots in bowl (or jug); strain out the ginger from the water, keeping the water. Pour in enough of the ginger-water to cover the carrots. Let cool down for 10-20 mins. Puree the carrot-water mixture. Add Erythritol, Xylitol, gum; Splenda to taste, honey, nutmeg, cinnamon: mix. Put in fridge to cool more. Mix in ice-cream machine.
Result: Texture is ice-crumbly, rather than creamy, as this is a sorbet rather than ice-cream. Taste is mmmmm; spicy-sweet, reminiscent of pumpkin pie (though carrot rather than pumpkin).
Lessons: Nice taste, need to figure out how to make it creamy; if I add powdered milk it may dilute the flavour too much; I wonder if inulin would help, or making it a gelato by adding gelatine.

Comments

[capri0mni]

Oh, my... that sounds delicious.

either the milk or the gelatine might work (or both)

of course, being roots, carrots are probably never going to be quite as creamy as something like tomatoes (which are actually great big berries) or corn.

I'd try blending in some nonfat yogurt and gelatine. Sure, the yogurt would alter the taste, but the tartness might make it more interesting than simply making it bland with plain milk.

If this were my recipe (and it's not), I'd make a frozen yogurt flavored with the honey and spices, and then swirl the spiced carrot puree through it -- like a variation of fudge ripple. :-)

[kerravonsen]

of course, being roots, carrots are probably never going to be quite as creamy as something like tomatoes (which are actually great big berries) or corn.

I don't think the type of vegetable has got anything to do with creaminess, whether it be a root, a fruit or a grass. The only fruit I know that's naturally creamy enough to make an ice-cream texture by itself is banana. Normally the creamy texture of icecream is made with cream or milk, it doesn't matter what the flavouring is. Gelatine makes a gelato texture, which is different again.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

These are so cool; I always get a kick out of reading them, because it's not something I would ever think to do, but most of your experiments sound delicious. Including this one.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with LJ today? I left you a comment but it vanished!

[kerravonsen]

It seems to be back again.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Good! So you are back with your highly tempting recipes and oh-so-great descriptions:-)

[infiniteviking]

..Honeydew honey?? Made with the melon, or its flower? Wow, talk about a vegetable attack! ^___^

It sounds good, too!

[kerravonsen]

(goes and looks at jar) Sorry, that's "Beechwood honeydew"; a honey made from beechwood sap rather than flower nectar. It's a dark, strong-tasting honey.

[infiniteviking]

Ah! Still sounds yummy, though. ^____^ And wow, beechwood sap. Does that make it like beech syrup, in the same vein (so to speak) as maple syrup?

[kerravonsen]

Well, they don't taste at all the same, but the parallels are there. It's from New Zealand.

[infiniteviking]

Cool! Guess it's not the same beech that grows in North America, then. XD

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You could try adding pumpkin for texture, and banana freezes into dense creaminess on its own. Maybe they'll make it creamier. I've had home-made pumpkin ice cream, and it was delicious.

Gelato doesn't necessarily contain gelatine BTW. It's just Italian ice cream and never has eggs in it. The name just means "iced". :-)

[infiniteviking]

(Icon love. ^___^)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks! trixieleitz made it for me, and it's got all the languages I speak, plus more. :-) Do you know the last one (not one of mine)?

[infiniteviking]

*grins*

Yuch? Nope, never heard anything like that before. Sorry!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I hadn't either, but others have told me it's Klingon. The rest are human languages though.