Quince Ginger Sorbet
Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: June 8, 2023
“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”
-Roald Dahl, The Twits
I spent a couple years attending an international school in Hong Kong when I was younger, and though the experience didn’t have a huge effect on me (you can hardly call 5, 6, and 7 the formative years), I came away having read a lot of Roald Dahl. The Twits was one of those stories that left me especially wide-eyed.
It’s not fantastical really, not like James and the Giant Peach, or The BFG, and yet, I think it branded me with a sort of irrational fear that if I was bad, all sorts of horrible, completely off-the-wall fates would happen to me.
Because the Roald Dahl universe is twisted and creepy, the kind of place where people are just as likely to turn into ducks overnight as they are to turn blue and blow up.
But ultimately, it’s unexpectedly kind (but only towards good children) and instills a sense of wonder into young, impressionable minds.
That’s kind of how I feel about this quince sorbet. It comes out beautifully, and yet, the fruit to start with is the unlikeliest of heroes. In fact, it’s just plain ODD. First of all, the quince reminds me of a gnome, squat and ancient and completely unreadable. This impression isn’t helped by the fact that it’s covered with a dense fuzz, or that it doesn’t DO anything when it ripens except turn yellow. (Your best bet is to smell it – its scent will intensify into a perfumed cross between a pear and an apple). Cut into it, and you realize how hopelessly unworkable it is, the fruit equivalent of scratching your nails across chalkboard. Dense, like cheap furniture comprised of packed sawdust, its flesh is not amenable to most knives. I had to twist mine in, shimmying back and forth, until it finally relented.
But slip it in a pot of water and let it slowly simmer away, and a transformation occurs. The quince softens, slowly letting the water seep into its parched veins. And in exchange, the water turns pink. That seems like a pretty fair exchange to me, because once you puree the entire contents of the pot and run it through your ice cream machine, you end up with a sorbet that’s a fairy tale pink. The pink of cotton candy, and fairy wings, and giant gumballs.
See what I mean? This quince sorbet would fit perfectly in the wacky world of Dahl.
(By the way, I took the picture above after about an hour of simmering. After three hours, the color was substantially more intense, almost a burgundy-pink. It lightened considerably after being churned in the ice cream machine.)
QUINCE GINGER SORBET
Adapted from Gourmet
Makes 1 quart
Ingredients:
3 ripe quince (about 1-and-a-half pounds)
3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp sugar
6 cups water
Juice from half a lemon
1 coin of fresh ginger about 1/4″ thick
Peel, quarter, and core the quince. Put it in a large pot along with the sugar, water, lemon juice, and coin of ginger, and simmer, uncovered, for an hour. If you want the color to intensify, cover the pot and let it simmer another two to three hours.
Blend the mixture (I used my immersion blender) and force it through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl. Cool and refrigerate, ideally overnight. Freeze the mixture in your ice cream machine. Transfer to an airtight container, and freezer further.
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Red Velvet Cake Balls
I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. I sure did, although it was quite hectic. I was planning on talking about cake balls before the holiday, but just didn’t have time. But now I have some time to share this great recipe.
I have been making Red Velvet Cake Balls for the past 2 years now, since I found them on Red Velvet Cake Balls. They are pretty simple to make and I always get compliments on them. Bakerella is a very talented woman. It is amazing what she can do with cake balls. Check out her site, if you haven’t already.
There are not many ingredients. A cake mix, pre-made frosting, and some candy melt. Easy peasy.
So far I have found that only Duncan Hines makes a Red Velvet Cake Mix and Cream Cheese Frosting and not all stores carry them. I always find mine at Price Chopper.
I usually dip the cake balls is a mix of dark cocoa candy melt and a bar of dark chocolate like Ghiradelli for a more intense chocolate taste, but a hard candy coating. And since I usually do mine around the holidays, I buy colored candy melts to decorate.
Last year for decorating, I used my cake decorating bags and tips, but this year I decided to try squeeze bottles. The squeeze bottle has more control, but I like the smaller holes on the cake decorating tips. Either way, everyone loves them. Adults and kids. The taste is incredible and they are so moist. I get compliments every year. I had to make a double batch this year to please everyone.
Red Velvet Cake Balls
Ingredients
- 1 pkg red velvet cake mix
- 1 container (16 oz) cream cheese frosting
- 1 pkg (14 oz) dark cocoa candy melt
- 1 large bar dark chocolate
- 1 pkg (14 oz) red candy melt
- 1 pkg (14 oz) green candy melt
- 1 pkg (14 oz) white candy melt
- optional sprinkles
Cooking Directions
- Bake the cake mix as per instructions on the box for a 9 x 13 cake.
- Once cake is completely cooled, crumble it by hand into a large bowl.
- Then add in the cream cheese frosting and mix well. This can be done by hand or throw the crumbled cake and the frosting into a large mixer and mix on low.
- Then take a scoop at a time of the mix and roll into small balls about the size of a quarter. This will be very messy and you may have to wash your hands several times. But please refrain from licking them!
- Place the balls in a freezer friendly container lined with parchment/wax paper.
- When all balls are complete, place them in the freezer overnight or until you have time to do the rest of the recipe.
- When you are ready to dip, melt the dark cocoa candy melt and the dark chocolate together in a deep bowl in the microwave 30 seconds at a time until all melted.
- Dip the cake balls in the chocolate mixture and place on parchment/wax paper until chocolate has hardened. ( I use a fork to dip, roll, and shake off any extra chocolate.) If you want you may add fun holiday sprinkle before the chocolate hardens.
- In separate bowls, melt the red, green, and white candy melt and place in the squeeze bottles. Then decorate with any patterns you like. Or if you want, dip some of the balls in the colored candy melt instead of the chocolate.
- Makes about 50 cake balls.
I did buy pretty boxes to place the cake balls in to give as gifts for my daughter’s teachers and a few other people, but I was so busyI forgot to take pictures of the boxes all tied up with a nice ribbon and tag. But here are what the balls looked like decorated.
Last year I put them in tins to give out as gifts. Here is what they looked like. I placed the cake balls in mini cupcake liners to they don’t stick together and they look pretty. There are so many ways to decorate the cake balls and many different varieties of cake mixes and frosting to use.
The best part of the recipe is that it can be done in stages. One night I bake the cake. Another night I crumble and mix with the frosting and make the balls. I freeze them until I have the time to finish. I had them in there for a week and no worries. I think I will make some again for Valentine’s day.
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