Last summer we bought a bunch of raspberries with the intention to make a bunch of jam. But we really got too much. So after freezing 24 pints of jam, I just juiced the rest of the raspberries and ended up with about 8 cups of juice. Into the freezer!
Now it is time to make some raspberry sorbet. I looked around online for some recipes and found that they were very similar: juice, water, sugar, and maybe lemon or lime. One recipe caught my attention because it involved invert sugar. I was hooked. But the ratios the recipe called for were way off, even at first glance. I looked up the molecular weights of sucrose and water and found that the ratio of sugar to water needed ONLY for the chemical reaction is about 95:5. Thinking that would probably end up as a solid brick of sugar once it cooled, I decided to add a little bit more water for a ratio more like 80:20. This turned out great.
Raspberry Sorbet
- 4 C. raspberry juice
- 2 C. sugar
- 1/2 C. water
- 500mg ascorbic acid (a crushed vitamin C tablet)
- pinch of salt
- 2 T. lime juice
- Raspberry juice comes from raspberries, not from a can. Press the raspberries through a strainer, squeezing out the juice, discarding seeds and thick pulp.
- In a one-quart pan, bring the sugar, ascorbic acid, and water to a boil, stirring occasionally.
- Using a candy thermometer, monitor the syrup, bringing the temperature up to 114°C/237°F/low soft ball stage. Remove from heat.
- Pour syrup into a heat-proof dish.
- Temper the syrup with about 1 C. raspberry juice by slowly pouring the juice into the syrup while stirring constantly.
- Add the syrup mixture back into the rest of the raspberry juice.
- Add salt, and lime, mixing thoroughly. Test for flavor.
- Cover the mixture and put it in the fridge until completely cooled.
- Chill using ice-cream maker until soft-serve consistency, according to manufacturer instructions.
- Put the sorbet in the freezer until frozen.
- Enjoy!