Pucker Up Buttercup Sherbet

Hi pals! It seems like ages since we’ve seen the sun huh? At least in my little corner of the universe, aka what I can see from my desk. Let’s shake off the winter blahs for new exciting tastes!

Introduction:

Winter may be my least favorite season, but it brings one of the best things. Citruses! Clementines are always my go-to snack between classes, but grapefruits always hold a special place in my heart. I would eat them for breakfast in grade school. My mom would let me use the grapefruit knife to cut out all the segments and then top it with as much sugar as I wanted. As a child with free access to a sugar bowl, I would estimate it was somewhere in the 1-3 cup range. And then at the very end, I would squeeze out all the juice and give it to my mom because it was her favorite.

Another favorite perk of the grapefruit is its amazing fresh smell. I would know, my apartment has smelled like it for a week now. It has a light smell, a light taste, so it only seemed right to make a sherbet out of it.

Theory:

An ice cream of grapefruit seemed too heavy for me, so I opted for a buttermilk sherbet. By nature, grapefruits are very tart and I decided to play it up by adding the tartest of all dairies: buttermilk.

Because I knew this sherbet could take a little substance, I added some broiled grapefruit. I had never heard of it before, but it is very simple: you put brown sugar on top of a grapefruit and broil it. Even my hamster could do it, if he didn’t eat all the sugar first.

The process of broiling creates a beautiful layer of hardened sugar. The chemistry of this is just exceptional. Heat (from the broiler) hits the sugar molecules and melts them on top of the grapefruit. The acidity of the fruit on the surface becomes slightly neutralized by the sugar. Then when removed from the heat, the sugar hardens into a crust and makes a great dessert. This could also be done with a kitchen torch, but most unfortunately, I don’t have access to one of those yet.

Experimental Apparatus and Procedure:

No tempering or confusing steps in this one. The longest part was grating the grapefruit peel because I didn’t have the foresight to grate them before I juiced them. It would have been 10 times easier if I had thought of that before.

A slight problem I encountered while making this was the stickiness factor. I’m not sure how, but I was sticky from my hands to my toes when I was finished.

There was a steeping period in this flavor, so during that time I caught up on some homework. Already loaded down! “Syllabus week” might as well be in a foreign language at my school.

Quick churn and then pinted. Let’s talk about the taste shall we?

Results:

When compiling a recipe for this flavor, I saw some people complaining about the tartness of this flavor. Someone responded to the comments saying it was more of an adult flavor. And its true!

This flavor is not sweet. Not even close. But guess what? That’s what I really like about it. It is not a vanilla flavor with a hint of grapefruit. It’s full on, make you pucker a little, grapefruit. And the buttermilk helps to bring that out even more.

I understand this flavor might not be a hit with everyone. Actually a majority of people would might not like it at all. But I’m okay with that! I am trying to expand the limits of ice cream.  Think of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry as being in a box in the middle of a room. Well me and my ideas are driving away from that box as fast as we can. Ice cream has been around for a lonnnngg time, so let’s start moving it along with us!

Discussion:

I must say, I really enjoy this flavor! And its name only helps. Ask anyone I’ve done a project with and they can tell you I don’t put up with a lot of bull crap. So, instead of thinking this is a saucy and sassy flavor title, its a more sarcastic and sassy one. I can’t help the sass, I think its ingrained on a genetic level.

School is underway! Thanks for your patience with me and this latest post. It’s gonna be a tough one for sure, so if you’ve got some extra strength, please send it my way!

Time for a fun fact! I’ve always loved swimming, in the lake, my pool or the ocean. I used to be called a fish because I could just paddle around for hours. Going underwater and hearing nothing and weighing nothing is one of my favorite sensations. So, in my typical “go all in” fashion, I have put the Lake George Marathon Swim on my bucket list. Lake George is about 35 miles long and I would like to swim it in my lifetime. To slowly prepare for this extravaganza, I thought I would start training now. I can be seen doing laps in my school’s pool often. Except I am not one of those sleek and graceful swimmers. Nope, I do laps of the froggy stroke; flinging my arms and legs out and propelling myself forward. Soon though, I’ll get some sort of official stroke down so I don’t stick out like a sore thumb next to the Michael Phelps of my school.

Well now that I’ve revealed yet another embarrassing detail of my life to you, more homework is calling my name. Or is that another flavor? I guess you’ll just have to come back next week and see! Scoop ya later!