Sorbet texture

So, we've been making tons of sorbets lately, since so much fruit is in season and it doesn't require us to bring the base up to 170.

And the flavors are incredible, not too sweet, a pure jolt of the fruit. But the texture leaves a tiny bit to be desired. I'm not sure if we've got something missing in the recipe, or if we're doing something wrong.

The texture is not really italian ice-esque. It's got the scoopability straight out of the freezer that we like, but it doesn't have that creamy texture we've seen in our favorite sorbets. It's still a little icy.

The generic recipe is: fruit, sugar, lemon juice, alcohol. We're adding about 2 Tbsp of rum/vodka per 1.5-2qts of sorbet.

I think, if I had to guess, we're adding too little sugar. But since I don't quite have measurements, it's hard to say. Our biggest success in terms of texture was with a sorbet made from some great michigan blueberries, and it was also one of the sweeter ones we've made.

Could we preserve our current sweetness level and improve the texture by cheating and adding some gelatin or agar agar?

Suggestions? Paging Rich4.

Two ways to achieve a smoother texture. First, increase the amount of sugar. Second, try adding an egg white to your recipe before running it in your machine.

Light Karo syrup to replace some of the sugar.

Have you thought about trying an avocado sorbet? The fat makes for an incredibly smooth product.

First, I'd look closely at the overall sugar/water ratio in your sorbet. This is difficult, because different fruits have differing amounts of sugar. Try making a batch with less sugar, and see where that leads you.

Second, corn syrup does modify the texture as well, but really I don't like to use too much of it, because of the resulting glaze effect. However, this really is personal preference.

Third, look at the actual fruits you are using. If you like the texture from blueberry, it's probably because it's really distinctive in that it has a lot of natural lectin (I could be wrong about the chemical or its spelling) - the stuff that makes it gel together with only cooling, even before you make sorbet out of it. It would be similar in texture to a concord grape sorbet, but you probably would not want to harvest out concord grape juice from the pits and skins and make your fingers really blue. But I hear it makes for a great pie.

Finally, I'd look at your sorbet maker. If texture is really important to you - like $700 important to you - then buy yourself one of those really nice free-standing Italian sorbet makers with a self-contained refrigeration unit and a mixing blade with speeds rivaling a kitchenaid. And man, watch that smooth sorbet gel.

Good luck...

Yeah, I knew the blueberry texture was due to the nature of the fruit, but hey, it's a good example of what I'm looking for.

We're going to bump up the sugar to what the recipes we're using are recommending. It'll make the finished product sweeter, but we'll see if the tradeoff is worth it. We are undercutting the suggested sugar by maybe 25-35% right now. For instance, for the watermelon we're currently using 6-7oz instead of the 9oz.

It's just.. the flavor and sweetness are so perfect right now that I just want to keep them as they are. Maybe a combination of a slight increase in sugar and a little tiny bit of corn syrup will help. We're going to try full sugar for the next batch and see how it works.

I'd think about going with all corn syrup - that will certainly increase the freezing point, making it smoother/more scoopable.

There's an excellent discussion of sugar levels/textures in Harold McGee's The Curious Cook.

How exactly are you putting the ingredients together? Does the sugar get pureed with the fruit? I've had good results for a raspberry sorbet that calls for making a simple syrup with sugar and water and letting it cool. Then I puree my raspberries, strain them, mix in the simple syrup and chill. The chilled mixture then goes into my ice cream maker. I always get a fairly smooth, creamy result - not too icy.

If we aren't adding any water to the mix (like with watermelon or blueberry) we just puree with the sugar.

I generally don't like the dilution of flavor we seem to get from simple syrup. I think the additional water really mutes the flavors.. but I'm open to trying anything at this point

Hi,

I was a pastry chef around town for about 6 yrs. and did a lot of experimenting with sorbets and ice creams. After much trial and error, I discovered that as a very general rule, a ratio of 1/2 simple syrup and half light corn syrup worked very well for fruit sorbets to acheive the texture I think you are looking for. Yes, you do lose a little of the intensity of the flavor with this method, but you gain a really rich, creamy and smooth texture. In particular, I got very good results with that formula for both raspberry and mango sorbets. Subbing lime juice for lemon in the mango sorbet is also quite good. I never liked the results I got with gelatin. If you try it and like it, please post your ratio.
It's not very scientific, but I always found it helpful to drop an egg in the sorbet base. It should float with about the size of a quarter exposed on top if your sugar/acid ratio is "balanced." If the egg sinks - add more sugar. If the exposed shell is larger than a quarter - add a little more lemon or lime juice. Again, not very scientific, but it worked for me.
Also, I know this may sound a little weird, but try substituting maple syrup for some of the sugar in blueberry sorbet sometime. We used to do this at one of the restaurants I worked at years ago and it was very well received.

Using an egg as a hydrometer can work quite well -- but make sure you use a fresh egg!

Let me also recommend Harold McGee's wonderful book The Curious Cook, which has an excellent chapter on sorbets, including information on the specific gravity of sugar needed to achieve scoopable textures and charts of the correct sugar to fruit ratios for different fruits. (If you click on the link above and use Amazon's "search inside" function, you can read part of it. There's also some information from the book here, but if you don't own a copy of this book, you should.)

Another trick that can enhance flavor as well as texture is to substitute jam in a 1:1 ratio for sugar.

Finally, if you find that you like the level of sweetness you get with less sugar than achieves optimum texture, you might try the chef's trick of substituting liquid glucose for sugar.