Why do the whipped egg white and syrup for my sorbet not combine?

Question

For some fruit sorbet recipes, eg lemon sorbet, the recipe has three fundamental components:

• a syrup (maybe cooked with lemon zest etc)
• the juice of your fruit
• whipped egg whites

It is simple: Prepare all three ingredients, allow them to cool down, carefully mix together and fill the mixture into the ice machine. My problem is: The egg white will not combine with the juice and syrup. During freezing I'll get a very unpleasant and inhomogenous texture as a result.

Does anyone know why the egg whites won't combine and what I can do to fix this?

Answer 1

Simply whipped eggwhites are not especially stable, and don't have a nice texture. They are OK to be used in some applications, but rarely the best option.

Given that you already have syrup here, what I would do is an Italian meringue. For that, you stream the hot syrup (115 C/240F) into the mixer while whipping the egg whites, and do it long enough to get a glossy, small-bubbled foam. It is a much more stable substance, with friendlier behavior.

I haven't tried diluting Italian meringue with fruit juice, but frankly, I imagine that sorbet made with fruit juice won't be especially good, because of the high amount of crystals. I always use puréed fruit for sorbets, which works very nicely. It should be not so difficult to first fold some purée into the meringue, then fold the mixture back into the remaining purée.

Answer 2

I don't typically use egg white in my sorbets, but the advice I see is to whip 1 egg white per batch to fairly stiff peaks, then add slowly near the end of the churning process, until incorporated, when the sorbet is almost ready for the freezer. Churn a few minutes more...freeze. It sounds like you may be trying to combine before freezing.