From time to time, I find pears at a very attractive price at the local market. And I wanted to make a simple recipe to take advantage of the availability of fruit. Going through the books, I remembered the pear sorbet. In short, sorbet is ice cream that does not use milk or dairy products.
Very refreshing and as the pears are cooked before making the ice cream magic, the fruit doesn’t need to be that ripe. Of course, if it’s there it helps to add more flavor.
I really liked the combination of pear and Riesling (white) wine, one didn’t kill the other. They ended up complementing each other and I must confess that I used a very cheap wine, but it was Italian!
A dessert that is first cooked and then frozen, any more complex notes of the drink are lost amid the water and sugar. Let those who know wine not listen to me.
Regarding the texture, it doesn’t have that creamy/unctuous thing. As it has practically no fat, it becomes more “crispy” (scratchy?) due to the ice crystals.
Not to mention that it contains alcohol, so freezing water doesn’t work the traditional way. Perhaps, as I used a different variety of pear it may have contributed to this.
Depending on how your ice cream maker works, the ice cream will still come out of the machine. Mine actually came out after almost 25 minutes, which is the maximum amount of time before the freezing bowl starts to melt.
The original recipe said it should come out like lightly whipped cream, mine was far from that. Remaining semi-frozen, but liquid.
Still, I believe it’s worth it. In the heat of recent times, nothing better than something cold. It’s practically a frozen drink!
Pear and White Wine Ice Cream
Makes: 900 mL
- 1200 g portuguese pear (~9 medium units)
- 125 mL white wine Riesling
- 100 g crystal Sugar
- 95 g liquid glucose
- 65 mL water
1 cup: 250mL | 1 tablespoon: 15mL.
- In a pan add water, white wine, crystal sugar and liquid glucose. Reserve.
- Wash the pears very well. Peel and remove the seeds and the hardest central part that runs along the length of the fruit. Cut into uniform pieces. Tip: peel all the pears and then cut them. In the meantime, place the pears in a bowl of water to prevent them from getting too dark. In the end, after peeling and removing the core, you should have around 800g.
- As you cut the pears, add the liquid mixture.
- Cook over medium heat until the pears are soft. The time varies according to the ripeness of the fruit. The greener it is (it lasts), the longer it lasts. And the more mature, the less time. I cooked for about 7-10 minutes, testing with a fork.
- Remove from heat. It is necessary to cool the pears and syrup. I put it in a plastic bowl and let it cool overnight in the fridge. Or you can make an ice bath to use the same day.
- With the pears cooked and cold, blend in a blender (or processor) until finely crushed, about 5-6 minutes. Sift the pear puree.
- Use the pure ice cream in your ice cream maker following the manufacturer’s instructions. Remove from the equipment, transfer to a container with a lid and place in the freezer.
- In my case, as it still came out of the ice cream maker very soft, from time to time I would stir the base that was in the freezer to make it as homogeneous as possible.
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