Pear sorbet with calvados
A delicate autumn sorbet made from poached pears; for adults, with a spoonful of calvados or pear brandy.
Ripe pears have a delicate aroma that acid or too much sugar can easily overpower in the cold. So they are stewed with just a little lemon and blended into a perfectly smooth purée. The alcohol is optional — it makes the sorbet smoother and softer, but you can leave it out entirely.
Type: Sorbet · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Easy
Equipment
Ingredients
- 650 g pears (cored) (ripe, peeled and cored (about 5 pears))
- 130 g water
- 170 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
- 30 g dextrose (glucose powder)
- 30 g lemon juice (fresh)
- 30 g Calvados / apple brandy 40 % (optional, or pear brandy — adults only)
Making the mix
- Peel the pears, cut out the cores and dice them. Sprinkle straight away with lemon juice so they don’t brown.
- Cover and stew them with the water, sugar and dextrose for 8–10 minutes until soft.
- Blend until completely smooth and leave to cool.
- If using alcohol, stir it into the cooled mix. Refrigerate the mix for at least 2 hours.
Method — Compressor ice cream maker
- Switch the ice cream maker on 5–10 minutes ahead so the bowl can pre-chill.
- Pour in the chilled mix (no higher than the fill line) and churn for 25–35 minutes until the sorbet is thick, glossy and holds its shape on a spoon.
- Transfer to a chilled container, cover the surface with cling film and leave to harden in the freezer for 1–2 hours.
Total time: 5 h
Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker
- Take the frozen bowl out of the freezer just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
- With the machine running, pour in the well-chilled mix — no more than two thirds of the bowl; freeze the rest in a second batch.
- Churn for 20–25 minutes until the sorbet thickens into a dense ice slush. Churning longer is pointless — the bowl has already warmed up.
- Transfer to a chilled container, cover the surface with cling film and leave to harden in the freezer for 3 hours.
Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours ahead. The mix must be fridge-cold (5 °C or below) — a lukewarm mix warms the bowl before the sorbet can set.
Total time: 5 h 55 min
Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines
- Pour the chilled mix into the CREAMi tub up to the MAX line (any extra into a second tub), put the lid on and freeze level for 24 hours.
- Put the tub in the machine and run the Sorbet program.
- If the sorbet is crumbly or powdery, add 1–2 tablespoons of water or juice and run Re-spin. Serve straight away.
Programme: Sorbet
Smooth over whatever is left in the tub, put the lid on and return it to the freezer; before serving again, run the Sorbet program or Re-spin once more.
Total time: 26 h 35 min
Stages
- Preparation
- 20 min
- Cooking
- 10 min
- Cooling
- 2 h
- Churning
- 30 min
- Hardening in the freezer
- 2 h
- Total time
- 5 h
Serving and storage
Serve with caramelised nuts, a piece of blue cheese or ginger biscuits.
Best within 1–2 weeks, kept in a closed container with cling film on the surface. After that the fruit flavour fades and the sorbet turns coarse. Do not refreeze once thawed.
Tips
- Fruit is sometimes sweeter, sometimes more tart. Taste the mix before freezing — it should be a little sweeter than seems right, as the cold dulls sweetness. A refractometer measures it precisely (target 26–30 °Bx); if it is below 25, add sugar a tablespoon at a time.
- Without alcohol the sorbet is suitable for children too; it will just be a little harder — let it stand longer before serving.
- Make apple sorbet the same way from aromatic apples (e.g. Jonagold); don’t peel the apples before stewing, as the skin adds colour, and sieve the purée.
- Don’t add more than 30 g of alcohol — the sorbet wouldn’t set in the freezer.
Why it works
Alcohol lowers the freezing point about seven times more than the same amount of sugar. Just 30 g of a 40 % spirit per litre of mix (about 1 % alcohol) raises the mix’s anti-freezing power by roughly a quarter — the sorbet is softer and smoother without being sweeter.