I’ve been trying to make chocolate sorbet and have been having problems with its texture. First, I tried making it with cocoa powder, water, and sugar. The result was grainy no matter how many times I sifted the cocoa powder or how many times I whisked the cocoa liquid. Not to mention how I whisked it — I used a balloon whisk once, then an electric mixer the second time. Then I followed the recipe in Linda Collister’s Chocolate. That one didn’t work, either. The small chile worked out nicely in flavor, but the texture was still grainy. Then I used the same recipe and strained the mixture then poured it into the ice cream maker. That one worked out best, but the result was barely chocolaty.
There are a couple of different issues here. First, much of the flavor of solid chocolate is carried by the cocoa butter. The fat itself doesn’t really have much taste but it brings out the deep flavors of cocoa powder.
However, as you may know, mixing a small amount of water with melted chocolate is a no-no — it will seize up most unpleasantly. It’s important that you use enough hot liquid to prevent the formation of the sticky sugar syrup that literally glues the particles of chocolate together, creating a clumpy mess.
Since you’re not choosing to use solid chocolate, and you’re not getting optimum flavor from the cocoa powder in the sorbet, what other options do you have? You might try using a form of chocolate that’s made to be dissolved in water-based liquids. Chocolate syrup, like Hershey’s — or, better still, Fox’s U-Bet — might work. You’ll have to alter the sugar content of the recipe though, since the syrup is already sweetened.
Here’s an old-fashioned trick that will help you get the right balance of sugar to liquid: Float a washed, uncooked egg (still in its shell) in the liquid; if the part that shows above the surface is the size of a dime, the sugar concentration is right; if it’s larger than a dime, the sugar content is too high. In effect, you’ve got a homemade hydrometer, which measures the specific gravity of the liquid. This is very useful when making sorbets with fresh fruit, since there’s no easy way of knowing the fruit’s original sugar content. Don’t forget to remove the egg before continuing the recipe! hope this helps
McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. New York: Scribner, 2004.
Article © 2006 Gary Allen. All rights reserved. Visit Gary’s Web site, On the Table.