We are consuming ridiculous amounts of ice cream in this house right now, it’s a good thing I love making them! Unfortunately for the kids, I mostly make boozy ones as they’re more fun to experiment with, but I recently had to dive-lunge to whip a boozy popsicle out of my 8 year old’s hands. I was playing around with different amounts of gin in popsicles to see how much is too much, and he thought it was just a strawberry popsicle. And for those of you who are wondering, yes, there IS such a thing as too much booze in a popsicle, as it won’t freeze!
This Asian Pear, Ginger & White Tea Sorbet is (exceptionally) alcohol free, leaving the addition of your favorite tipple entirely to your own discretion. This can also be made with regular pears, we just happened to have a few gorgeous Asian Pears from @justfarmed. I was cleaning out one of my kitchen cupboards whilst the simple syrup was on the stove, and I discovered a stash of forgotten teas. So I added a Pomegranate & White Tea @traderjoes bag to the simple syrup whilst it was cooling - the result was great! Now I’ll be infusing all my baking liquids with tea for an extra layer of flavor.
If you don’t have an ice cream machine, don’t fret. This mixture works well for granitas, just take a fork to it every couple of hours and scrape away. You’ll get some lovely crystals in there, which are just as pretty and delicious as any churned sorbet!
Ingredients (serves 4-6)
1 cup (235ml) water
3/4 cup (145g) sugar
1-inch (2.5cm) piece of ginger, peeled & sliced
1 bag of white tea - we used a Pomegranate & White Tea but you could also use a green tea, or any other flavor you feel would complement pears
4 Asian Pears (often also known as Asian Pears or Apple Pears), peeled, cored and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon (15ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
In a heavy bottomed saucepan, bring the water, sugar, and ginger to boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat, add the tea bag, and allow to steep for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove and discard the tea bag. Leave the simple syrup to cool to room temperature.
Add the cooled syrup (including the ginger slices if you’re a ginger lover, if not and you prefer a more subtle ginger flavor, remove them), pears, and lemon juice a to a blender. Blend on low, then proceed to medium until everything is smooth. Pass the mixture through a sieve, you will be left with around 1/2 cup of pulp which you can discard. You can also skip the sieving step if you like a dense sorbet, but I prefer a lighter one.
Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Prepare your ice cream maker, and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze for at least 2 hours before serving in chilled glasses.
