Blackberry Rhubarb Elderflower Sorbet
Chris Shenton
2012-01-21

This was for a Scandinavian cook-off focussing on Nordic berries and
flavors. I was hoping to get a smoother, creamier texture than the
more granita-like sorbets I had been making.  The answer seemed to be
to increase my usual amount of sugar when adding to the frozen fruit
pulp I've been using. McGee indicates for soft fruit ice you should
use about 1:1.5 water:sugar, and my Syrup was already about 1:0.6 so I
needed to add more sugar.

Batch 1:

14      oz      Blackberry Pulp (1 2/3 C)
10      oz      Rhubarb, from garden, frozen, very tart
3/4     cup     Elderflower Syrup (from Ikea)
3/4     cup     Sugar

Cook Rhubarb in covered dish in microwave until soft, puree, strain out fibers.
Add Blackberry.
Dissolve Sugar in Syrup, cool, add to fruits
Chill, churn.

Didn't set while churning, seemed way too soft.

It did set, barely, and had a soft, yielding texture, but I think it
wouldn't last more than a few minutes at serving time. Too much sugar.

The taste was excellent: fruity, tart from Rhubarb, a hint of aromatic Elderflowers.

Batch 2:

14      oz      Blackberry Pulp (1 2/3 C)
10      oz      Rhubarb, frozen Stahlbush Island Farms brand, sweeter than tart
3/4     cup     Elderflower Syrup (from Ikea)
1/2     cup     Sugar

Same procedure, this churned up to a much thicker set, and the frozen
result was a bit more crystalline than I wanted. But the dramatic
change in texture made me think the different Rhubarb had a big
effect.

Batch 3:

Soften and combine Batch 1 and 2, split in half, churn each in freshly
chilled churners.  Good compromise. The batch that was still partly
frozen churned up thick, the other seemed to need a bit more chill
time or freeze time before using the churner.

I'm not sure I could repeat this reliably to get good texture the
first time, unless I use identical ingredients -- in this case the
Rhubarb.