I've been playing with my – very cheap – ice cream maker and want to try sorbets. Already had some success with a strawberry-black pepper one, but I hear some berries and stone fruit are very forgiving because they're pulpy and the fiber acts as a stabilizer helps prevent ice crystal formation.
How would I go about improving my chances with lemon or watermelon or other fruit that's mostly juice? I've heard using corn syrup helps, but I'm not sure if the closest product we have here is the right kind – it has about 53% water, which I don't want to add too much, and added honey flavour to serve as a cheaper honey substitute. (While also being overpriced for sugar syrup.)
I can however easily get powdered fructose and glucose, which are available for baking for diabetics and such purposes. Would that get the job done if I blend them 1:1?
I've also looked into thickeners, but if I'm looking at what's available in grocery stores, it's either gelatin and pectin, and both require cooking to work which affects the flavour of the fruit. Could I mitigate that by only preparing the thickener in say 1/4th of the juice, and then stirring it into the rest?
Best Answer
Serious Eats has covered this :
...
The article also talks about other ways to soften it (e.g., alcohol), but oddly, only links to a lemon recipe, nothing for watermelon.