Pear Ice

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Digital kitchen scale
• •Food processor with at least 1-quart (1-liter) capacity
• •Fine-mesh sieve, 6 to 7 inches (15 to 18 cm) wide
• •Flexible bowl scraper
• •Refractometer reading at least 0 to 50° Brix, or a Baumé syrup hydrometer
• •Ice cream machine with at least 1-quart (950 ml) capacity
• •Shallow 1-quart (950 ml) freezer container

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the cold

   Freeze the ice cream machine bowl completely, following its maker's timing. Calibrate the refractometer with filtered water, dry it, and set a fine-mesh sieve over a chilled bowl. Squeeze the lemon and weigh the sugar before touching the pears. Once the fruit is cut, the work must move without interruption.

   A refractometer that reaches at least 50° Brix is the easiest home replacement for the old syrup gauge. A Baumé syrup hydrometer works too, provided the strained mixture is deep enough to float it freely.
2. 2

   Pound the pears

   Peel and core the pears, weigh out exactly 8 ounces (227 g), and cut them directly into the food processor. Add all the powdered sugar and process immediately until the mixture becomes a flowing, completely smooth purée, about 60 to 90 seconds. This replaces pounding in a mortar, nothing more; the source ratio remains exactly one part pear to one and a half parts sugar by weight. If a cut face browns before it reaches the machine, trim away that thin surface and keep moving.

3. 3

   Add the lemon

   Pour in all the lemon juice and process for another 10 seconds. The acid sharpens the pear and arrests further oxidation. If the purée has already taken on a faint beige cast, continue without panic; its flavor is still sound, though lemon cannot return a color already lost. Do not add extra juice in pursuit of whiteness, because the book's two-lemons-per-pound proportion is part of the balance.

4. 4

   Pass the purée

   Rub the entire mixture through the fine-mesh sieve with a flexible scraper, pressing firmly until only dry fibers and any missed core fragments remain. Scrape the smooth purée from beneath the sieve into the bowl. The food processor removes the mortar work, but it does not replace this passage through the sieve; Williams pears can carry fine grit, and the finished ice should feel like satin under the spoon.

5. 5

   Balance to 22°

   Stir 1 cup (240 ml / 240 g) of the filtered water thoroughly into the strained purée. Test a well-mixed drop with the refractometer, then add more water 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) at a time until the reading approaches 40.5° Brix. From there, add water by the teaspoon, stirring and testing after each addition, until the mixture reaches 39.5° Brix, equivalent to 22° Baumé. Stop there. If using a hydrometer, take the reading at its stated calibration temperature and look for 22° Baumé. Without either instrument, use about 1⅓ cups (320 ml / 320 g) water in total; this is the closest honest approximation, but it cannot account for the ripeness of your particular pears.

   Adding the water gradually matters. Too little leaves an ice that stays overly soft; too much produces a hard, watery freeze. The syrup reading, not the measuring cup, has the final word.
6. 6

   Chill the base

   Cover the bowl with the covering pressed directly against the surface and refrigerate until the base is thoroughly cold, at least 2 hours. It should reach 4°C (40°F) or below before churning. A warm base wastes the machine's cold and begins melting its own ice crystals before they are properly formed.

7. 7

   Churn the ice

   Pour the cold base into the running ice cream machine and churn until it holds thick, soft folds and the dasher leaves a clear track, usually 20 to 30 minutes. If the mixture still sloshes after 30 minutes, stop before the machine warms it. Ça se rattrape: return the base to the refrigerator, refreeze the machine bowl completely, and churn again. Without a machine, freeze the base in a shallow metal pan and beat it vigorously every 30 minutes until evenly frozen; the texture will be slightly coarser, but the formula remains intact.

8. 8

   Harden and serve

   Pack the softly churned ice into a chilled 1-quart (950 ml) container, smooth the surface, cover closely, and freeze for about 3 hours. Let it stand at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before serving, just until a spoon enters without force. Form generous, loose spoonfuls rather than perfect spheres. The perfume should be pear first, lemon behind it, with no icy crunch under the teeth. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Williams and Bartlett are the same pear under different market names. Choose fruit that smells distinctly of pear at the stem and yields slightly under a thumb, but reject bruised or fermented-soft specimens; this ice has nowhere for tired fruit to hide.
• •Commercial confectioners' sugar often contains cornstarch, which dulls the pear and can leave the thawing edge pasty. Use pure powdered sugar, or grind caster sugar in the processor until powdery before weighing it. Trust the scale here, because the exact twelve ounces matter more than a compressed cup.
• •The source ratio looks unusually sweet before freezing because cold mutes sweetness and the sugar controls texture as well as taste. Reducing it produces a different ice and defeats the 22° balance.
• •Serve the ice after a rich dinner or during a shaded outdoor meal, with nothing scattered over it. Its fragrance is the finish. A cold dessert bowl and a proper spoon are enough.

Advance Preparation

• •Freeze a removable ice cream machine bowl the full time its maker requires, commonly overnight or longer. A bowl that merely feels cold will not freeze this sugar-rich base.
• •The strained and balanced base may be prepared up to 12 hours ahead. Press the covering directly against its surface and keep it very cold to limit oxidation.
• •Churn and harden the ice at least 3 hours before serving. It keeps well covered for about a week, though the pear fragrance is brightest during the first few days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 152g)