Health



January 8, 2009, 11:45 am

Making Orange Sherbet With Your Kids

I overbought clementines during the holidays and am now dealing with a box of withering fruit. As I mulled juicing them, I remembered a charming story from The New York Times magazine last weekend that has inspired me to try a clementine sherbet.

Dining editor Pete Wells wrote about his son Dexter’s fascination with all things culinary — a father-son obsession that has included grinding coffee beans and baking cookies. The father-son chefs had made lots of sorbet during the summer, but Dexter wanted to make ice cream. A food allergy to eggs prevents him from eating real ice cream, but recently while making tangerine sorbet, Dexter insisted on adding cream.

When it was frozen, it reminded me of long-ago Creamsicles and Orange Juliuses at the mall, but it had a bright juiciness I don’t remember from my childhood. What we didn’t eat right away Dexter packed into tiny plastic bowls to freeze for later. He wanted to sell orange ice cream to our neighbors.

Read the story first, then grab your kid and juice some citrus. The Wells family recipe is here. (I plan to substitute a soy milk creamer, although Pete says half-and-half works fine too.) And don’t miss the video demonstration by food tester Jill Santopietro in her latest (and funny) Tiny Kitchen video, posted below.


21 Comments

  1. 1. January 8, 2009 1:51 pm Link

    Here are some egg-free recipes for ice cream you might enjoy!

    Best

    http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/how-to-make-ice-cream-like-an-artisan

    — Charles Bauer
  2. 2. January 8, 2009 2:59 pm Link

    Does anyone NOT overbuy clementines?

    Because if you finish one crate, you know you buy another. I always do, every year. But I will also keep eating them well past their prime. Perhaps I should just make the sherbet!

    — Janet V
  3. 3. January 8, 2009 3:03 pm Link

    Personally, I’ve always found soymilk products to be a bit sweet by themselves. Simply substituting it here might result in a super-sweet end result. I don’t know if you can cut down the sugar without affecting the texture of the final product, but you might want to add the creamer first and then add the sugar in smaller quantities until you get the right sweetness. Alternatively, adding some lemon juice to the clementine juice might also work.

    Of course, I always though creamsicles were kind of sickly-sweet, even as a kid. Anyway, sounds like a lot of fun, and having kids help in the kitchen is a great way to get them to try new foods … assuming they don’t end up at the bottom of the toybox!

    — JM
  4. 4. January 9, 2009 8:02 am Link

    Soymilk creamer is not a healthful or natural food. It’s a heavily processed factory food. Unless you’re compensating for a dairy allergy/intolerance, you’re better off using dairy. Even if you can’t use dairy, consider pureeing some organic silken tofu yourself– or using coconut milk.

    — s
  5. 5. January 9, 2009 8:26 am Link

    The recipe sounds tasty, but kids don’t need cream or extra sugar. A great substitute for the cream is nonfat evaporated milk. Or better yet - make an instant smoothie or sherbet without the cooking step:

    Drop the orange slices into a blender with nonfat vanilla yogurt (or any flavor) and crushed ice (or use some frozen fruit like strawberries). Drink or freeze for later.

    Use all frozen fruits and make in a food processor for instant sherbet. For example, frozen dark cherries with a container of nonfat cherry yogurt. This makes a great snack or dessert - just pick the yogurt with the least added sugar!! I use “field tests” for quick label reading since many yogurts (especially those marketed for kids) are loaded with added sugar: http://www.FeedingTheKids.com

    — Ellie Taylor
  6. 6. January 9, 2009 10:19 am Link

    Any recommendations for ice cream makers?

    FROM TPP — I’m sure the readers have ideas. My advice is to pick a decent brand and buy one that is automatic and doesn’t need salt or ice. They are fun to have around and you can make much healthier frozen desserts than the kind you buy in the store.

    — AB
  7. 7. January 9, 2009 12:44 pm Link

    I have the Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker. It is very expensive, but works great. It makes the most amazing ice cream with very little effort. It is electric and does not require salt or ice. I can toss in the fresh ingredients as we sit down to dinner and serve ice cream or sorbet for dessert. No artificial anything. The only downside (other than the price) is that it is huge and will require a big space in your cupboard or counter for storage.

    We also have a play and freeze ice cream ball that we use on camping trips and it works! But I wouldn’t suggest it for regular home use. For home use you do want something automatic. For camping, however, the Play and Freeze is great. Get the larger Play and Freeze if you pick one up because it only makes a small amount of ice cream.

    By the way, we never have left over clementines. My kids eat them like candy. Don’t know if I’ll ever get to try this recipe because the clementines disappear as quickly as I buy them. Maybe I’ll hide a few so we can try this out : )

    Kids love to cook. Thanks for reminding everyone to include them in the food prep process making ice cream and memories at the same time.

    — Mom of 3
  8. 8. January 9, 2009 1:40 pm Link

    Don’t forget that the NYT’s own Minimalist recently wrote a column on making sorbet at home from fruits, and without an ice cream maker!

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/dining/10mini.html

    (The recipe does need a small food processor.)

    I had a very good sorbet a few weeks ago at Bar Boulud that was made with raspberries and crème fraîche. We can easily reproduce this at home (and for much cheaper); just use frozen organic raspberries since the fresh ones are out of season right now. Substitute yogurt for the crème fraîche if you like, or just pour cream or yogurt in with the berries.

    My favorite sherbets and sorbets are made with mango. Can’t get fresh ripe Indian or Thai mango at this time of year, but the ones in the freezer section are perfect for this.

    You can also use canned mango segments or mango purée / mango nectar. Double-check the can to check for added sugars if you want to avoid them or if your recipe calls for sugar, because you don’t want to oversweeten. With frozen ripe Thai mangos I find I need no or little additional sugar because the fruit itself is naturally very sweet….it’s hard to stop myself from “taste testing” the whole bag if I let them thaw.

    A favorite in my house when I was a child was a banana “ice cream” or “sherbet” that happened to contain no eggs, dairy, or soy. Sometimes we added swirls of peanut butter. If you Google for vegan banana ice cream recipes you will turn up dozens and dozens, each of which use a different combination of ingredients; the basic idea is to use a few overripe frozen bananas, two cups of some rich base (can be coconut milk, silken tofu, almond milk, etc.), perhaps up to half a cup of sweetening if needed (sugar, honey, agave nectar, etc.), and either peanut butter or a thickener (ground flaxseed, xanthan gum or guar gum, gelatin for nonvegetarians, agar, arrowroot, vegan egg replacer). Little bit of lime juice if you like to stop the bananas from discoloring, but we left this out.

    — cook at home!
  9. 9. January 9, 2009 1:59 pm Link

    This looks fun.

    I always prefer to churn by hand when making ice cream with kids. They get a better idea of the process and never seem to mind the work too much, as long as there’s more than one to trade off with. The equipment is cheaper, too. Using the ball is fun, too; I know REI sells them.

    My brothers live in AZ and have all kinds of citrus coming on now.

    I assume this recipe would work as well for oranges; what adaptations would be necessary for lemons?

    — Susan in WA
  10. 10. January 9, 2009 2:08 pm Link

    By the way after seeing Ellie Taylor’s comment at #5 ( http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/making-orange-sherbet-with-your-kids/#comment-190135 ):

    I think if given a choice it’s a toss-up between cream and nonfat evaporated milk.

    The evap milk is fat-free, rich-tasting and cheaper. But canned milks of all types contain very high amounts of substances called advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs cause cellular damage in our bodies. Heating milk to high temperatures produces AGEs. Canned evaporated or condensed milks are heated to high temperatures for long periods of time and are loaded with AGEs.

    Powdered milk is also the result of a heat evaporation treatment and contains even higher levels. Unfortunately it is often added to the normal jugs of milk (even organic sometimes) we buy and it’s not obvious on the ingredients label. (Sometimes you can tell if the label lists multiple types of milk or lists dry milk.)

    Organic cream, though, is just that: cream. If it comes from cows raised on pasture, the fat profile is more healthful than for cream from cows raised on feed. It’s a whole food, one we’ve been using for a long time now, and if eaten from time to time in ice cream is not a dietary supervillain.

    [Please note that AGEs are not added chemicals or preservatives. They are a natural consequences of applying heat to foods that contain sugars and protein or fat. (Yes, milk has sugars; not table sugar, but a different, naturally-occurring sugar called lactose.) Steaming milk for your cappuccino creates AGEs. Baking, frying, roasting, grilling, broiling all create AGEs. The browned edges on roasted brussels sprouts that taste crisp, caramelized and delicious have AGEs, the char on your burger has them, your breads and cookies have them, and of course french fries have them. Different foods contain them in different levels. Cooking food in ways that brown the food makes it tasty and creates lots of AGEs. Food that is raw, boiled, braised or steamed has far fewer AGEs because it is heated only to the temperature of boiling water. But who doesn't agree that roasted brussels sprouts taste far better than steamed?]

    — cook at home!
  11. 11. January 9, 2009 2:35 pm Link

    I got a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker with points I accumulated at my job. I just got it so I haven’t used it yet. We love ice cream and sorbet in my house so it will come in handy. The one I got doesn’t require ice, salt or chemicals. I can’t wait ti try it!!

    — LJB
  12. 12. January 9, 2009 2:35 pm Link

    Sorry, I am a spoiler - BUT: This is not a healthy recipe - even though the tangerines are fresh.

    What is wrong with just eating tangerines?

    Or try freezing tangerine pieces and serve them to kids as “Tangerine Ice”. Or serve frozen blueberries. Kids will like them!

    Alexa Fleckenstein M.D., integrative physician, author.

    — Alexa Fleckenstein M.D.
  13. 13. January 9, 2009 2:58 pm Link

    Great idea Tara! I am going to use soymilk creamer, and I will substitute guar for gelatin for a vegan sherbert!

    — Allie
  14. 14. January 9, 2009 3:56 pm Link

    Geez! Picky, picky, picky! What a bunch of spoilsports! I found this article and its hero Dexter, charming, delightful! I read it aloud to everyone in my household and we all agreed we should try it, even without an ice cream maker. Just for fun! Remember fun?

    — Gilda
  15. 15. January 9, 2009 5:36 pm Link

    This Is The Best Medical Site I have ever seen

    http://doctorstube.blogspot.com/

    — godoctor2010
  16. 16. January 9, 2009 6:59 pm Link

    It must be hard to get the milk out of the soy–teeny little udders.

    I’d rather use real cream than fake “milk”. It’s a treat!

    — pmc
  17. 17. January 9, 2009 7:57 pm Link

    First of all, I was charmed by this article. Then I had my 21 year old son Sam pick blood oranges from our tree. Yikes! No gelatin, but plenty of vegetarians in the house, so, oh well… all the better we don’t have any. Oh, and I doubled the recipe and substituted honey for sugar (why not). Went with half the recommended amount by the way.

    This didn’t hurt the recipe one bit. The resulting blood-orange “ice cream” or sorbet was AMAZING! My son said we should sell it to a five star resort.:)

    — Robin Zerbib
  18. 18. January 10, 2009 11:35 am Link

    This way to make sherbet looks ok, and I’d bet it tastes great, but I always feel a little bad when adding sugar or cream to recipes.
    I’d rather go the italian way making sorbetto which doesn’t involve using cream. Some finer sorbetto is prepared with prosecco and other liquors that add a distinctive taste hard to find outside high end restaurants.
    Even better is making a sorbet in a Pacojet. Very expensive option but you can even forget to add any sugar since fruit and juice is all you need (and of course this four thousand dollar gizmo)

    — Juan Casanova
  19. 19. January 10, 2009 2:57 pm Link

    Some people are so silly with their “this recipe isn’t healthy enough!” comments. It’s far healthier than what most kids eat and believe me, the kids that eat homemade treats like this with real fruit in them are not the ones ending up obese. At least where I live in the midwest the average homemade school lunch is a lunchable with chips, cookies and juice, this sherbet would be a giant improvement.

    Always worrying over whether something is healthy enough and policing your kids so that everything that passes their lips is organic and free range and not served in the wrong plastic container, etc etc etc. is kind of obsessive and not really a good way to teach a kid normal healthy eating habits.

    — Jen
  20. 20. January 12, 2009 3:30 pm Link

    great job Jill. you make these fun videos, and people need to take themselves a lot less seriously. it’s sherbet or sorbet - get over it. some people need to relax, and like the Italians, eat these things in moderation. Bravo Jill.

    — Ozzie PDX
  21. 21. January 13, 2009 10:39 am Link

    As soon as I saw the title, I knew… and sure enough, half the comments are “Unhealthy! Unhealthy!” Starting with the post itself (mustn’t eat cream, must have fashionable soy “creamer”!), and continuing into the comments (mustn’t eat cream, it contains fat, must have nonfat evaporated milk!… mustn’t eat evaporated milk, it contains weird chemicals like all cooked milks!… if you have cream, it must be organic, and have you checked the lifestyles of the cows yet?…omg, this contains sugar, and I feel bad when I use sugar or cream in a recipe…).

    And of course there is a guest appearance by our old friend the “obesity epidemic”, without which no comment thread on health or food may be considered complete.

    Threads like this are why I avoid this blog. It’s like a parody of mental illness.

    — jaed

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