Cool Dessert

Dunnit! At last, an apple sorbet that tastes pretty close to what I imagined with my inner taste.  Sorbets are difficult. To get the right texture (I never get the right texture) you need to make a sugar syrup, but you also need to add lemon or lime juice to tone down the sweetness. But you overdo the lemon, and then you add more sugar to take the edge off and ... it’s downhill all the way.  Yes, of course I have recipes. But none of the sorbet recipes I have ever followed have worked for me.  So I improvise. 

Anyway, to continue the domestic hardware saga (see my last post),last summer I went into my local Casa Mir? on Gran de Gr?cia to get an MP3 player and came out with an electric ice cream maker - heladora or sorbetera in Spanish, geladora in Catalan. I'd wanted one for ages and ages, even though it's perfectly possible to make ice creams and sorbets without one. You just have to remember to get them out of the freezer every hour and break up the crystals with a fork. Since I've had the machine, I've done all sorts of disastrous experiments with about-to-go-mouldy grapefruits and oranges, mushy bananas and chocolate chips, mint tea, defrosted forest fruits... So the apple sorbet was a great triumph. Here's how I made it. I peeled, cored and diced four large apples and did them in the microwave at maximum power with the juice of a large lemon until they were very soft. I made a sugar syrup with very approx 200 mls water and 150 grams of sugar. I pureed the apples with the hand blender, then mixed with the sugar syrup and put in the fridge in a jug. The next day I added concentrated apple juice to the puree - enough to make it pourable. This juice also is essential because apples in Spain are so tasteless. And then I churned it in the heladora for about half an hour. It was delicious, even if I say so myself. And, while we're on the subject of refreshment for these blistering days when you can hardly drag yourself into the kitchen, Theresa has posted a super blog about gazpacho She lives in Andaluc?a and she knows. Valerie and Theresa are the co-authors of the must-read book for all expats, In The Garlic: Your Informative, Fun Guide to Spain.