Non-Dairy Ice Cream

One of the hard parts of a dairy allergy is the inability to eat ice cream.  Especially for a kid who likes ice cream, to watch everyone else eating it and know that if you have even a spoonful you’ll be sick for three days, sometimes life just doesn’t seem fair.

Last week after our visit to Microsoft’s visitor’s center, our host took us out to ice cream — and the store had non-dairy options, so our family members who need to avoid dairy products got to indulge.  Sherbets often have milk in them, but some “sherbets” are actually a sorbet (frozen sugared fruit pulp).  I spent a couple days searching for recipes, then this weekend pulled out the ice-cream maker.

I found a bunch of recipes that we want to try, and decided to start with peach.  Now, the recipe says that it makes 1-1/4 quarts, but my ice-cream freezer will make six quarts.  We have a big family, and if I’m doing the work, I want to have enough for more than one serving per person so I decided to double the recipe.

I started by opening four quarts of peach slices, and drained the liquid into a measuring cup.  The recipe calls for water, but there’s no reason to pour this peach-flavored liquid down the drain.  I added enough water to the peach juice to make four cups of liquid, then the whole works got poured into a big pot along with six cups of sugar.  The recipe said to boil it for five minutes, but I lost track of time so it went a little long.

Have you ever used a hand-blender?  They’re great.  It’s definitely my favorite tool for turning peaches into puree.  This is something I do quite regularly, because we like to use mooshed peaches instead of syrup on our pancakes.  My first hand-blender was a wedding gift and lasted twenty-one years.  My second one didn’t make it nearly so long.  In case you’re ever tempted to buy a cheap one, don’t!  Or, if you do, when the hand blender breaks, remind yourself that you get what you pay for and next time should spend more than $9 if you expect this kitchen tool to last long enough to be of any use.

Given the untimely death of my hand-blender, I got out the sieve and attempted to force the peach slices through the little holes.  Despite what the recipe said, this was not an effective way to mash peaches.

By now the kitchen was a bit of a mess.  I pulled the blender (full-size) out and learned that the last child who made fruit smoothies did a quick-rinse instead of a good cleaning job, and didn’t dry anything.  This resulted in the gasket mildewing.  Not a good time to learn this will be a high-maintenance machine.

Next I dumped my peaches into Kitchen Aid bowl, added the splatter guard, and attempted to turn on the machine in an effort beat/mash the peach slices.  Unfortunately, this machine has been a bit temperamental ever since I used the meat grinder attachment.  I guess I can say that it’s no longer being temperamental.  One of these days I’ll remember to phone KA’s repair department.

My options were dwindling.  I looked at my hands and noticed that – thanks to Enbrel – I was wearing rings.  Off they came, hands were thoroughly washed again, and I got to act like I was two years old and making mud pies.  Quickly, however, I realize that there was no way I’d be able to squish that much fruit with my fingers.  I gave up and decided that this fruit sorbet would have large chunks of fruit.

The remainder of the ingredients went in, and I debated whether, given the day’s luck with appliances, it would be a good idea to use the ice cream freezer.  What would be the odds on the motor burning out?  Was it me?  The peaches?  The day?  Nobody’s luck can be that bad, so I stupidly decided to go for it:  into the ice cream canister went the peach mixture.

Gazing suspiciously at the lumpy orange mixture, I had second thoughts.  What to do?…  Another check of the pantry led to the discovery that my mom left her blender here.  One cup at a time, I was able to mash the peaches in mom’s blender.  Whew!

That job took much longer than it needed to, but finally I was able to double-check my recipe, add forgotten ingredients, and pour the mixture into the ice cream canister.  I inserted the paddle, added the cover, and placed the ice cream canister into the bucket.

Some people say that there’s an art to filling the bucket with layers of ice and rock salt.  I’m not one of those people!  I just go for it, and it usually seems to work.  Would I be writing this if anything had gone according to plan?  I attached the motor to the top of the cannister/bucket, and as soon as I plugged the cord into electrical outlet, the thing started hopping around like it does when the ice cream is frozen and ready to eat.  I adjusted the height of the paddle and tried again.  The motor whined.  I stared in disbelief that there was another appliance not working.

Based on past experience, I know that ice cream takes about thirty minutes to freeze.  This time, it was acting frozen immediately.  I took the top off to check, and discovered that the stuff at the edges was already frozen.  In the center, however, the mixture was still warm.  Assuming that I could just use more time & ice to reduce the temperature, instead of letting the syrup get cold might not have been such a good idea.  Who knew?!

I thought that the problem – now that I knew what it was – would be easy to fix.  And it was!  Once the sorbet was done, I moved it to our large freezer to hold while I made waffle cones.  Despite the need to replace a number of my small kitchen appliances, the sorbet turned out well.

Peach Sorbet

2 cups water
3 cups sugar
4 cups peach pulp
1 cup orange juice
1 cup lemon juice
2 egg whites, beaten until stiff