sorbetti bonanza!

Thank god for department stores' mid-year sales! Kitchen devices prices are seldom low enough to warrant any sort of splurging. The store was jammed packed with desperate shoppers. Crowds were mad and pushy; salespeople, inpatient. Good thing I knew exactly what I was looking for: in and out in 15 minutes, $45 later.
Meet my 1 1/2 quart ice cream maker. Just like the one my mom has. And if i can make ice cream the way my mom does, I'm in business. I had already purchased The Perfect Scoop, an ice cream recipe book for beginners, and was already fantasizing of all the amazing frozen goodies I would be making.
I gotta confess though, I don't really have a sweet tooth. Pies, tarts, molten cakes, even eclairs can parade in front without me salivating. Ice creams are good, but only on a cone, and even then, only if the cookie is good. But, perhaps this is something I have developed as a result from growing up in hot-ass Venezuela, sorbets (helados de agua) have always had a special place in my heart. Whenever the ice-cream cart would make it to my street, I would (after begging my mom to give me money) run screaming "!heladero! !heladero!," and dig through his dry-ice box on wheels for "manzanitas," popsicles made of tart green apple (and a lot of yellow #5,) or a "bati-bati," a grape-(or tutti-frutti?) like concoction served in a plastic cone with a surprise piece of gum in the bottom that was like my childhood crack.

This time I want to make all those sorbets that make my mouth water; the ones that would actually quench your thirst. What sort of flavors do we crave when it's hot outside? (The tricky part here is that San Franciscan summer is never warm enough.) Lime, for sure. Watermelons and blackberries. Peaches and nectarines, but I do think they'd benefit from a little cream, no? The possibilities are endless as long as there is water and sugar.

Given my inexperience with sorbets, and with my new machinery, I got three amazing orange flesh melons and their scent is intoxicating. My strategy: test, test, test, until the result is the desired one. Yesterday, I followed every instruction on the recipe. I used 1/2 cup of sugar, pinch of salt, no water, and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Purée until smooth, chill for at least two hours, and pour onto frozen bowl of ice cream machine. Within 30 minutes, the texture was smooth and malleable. But, oh, too sweet! It's been in the freezer since then, in an airtight container, but it is unscoopable. Despite having a warm scooper, the sorbet crumbles, and does not fall onto the plate in beautiful smooth round scoops. More like haphazard chunks in a pathetic attempt to make a half-scoop...

Today, I will make a second batch: no sugar, maybe another tablespoon of lemon juice. Maybe my airtight container isn't airtight after all. I'm raiding the internet and every pastry chef I know for suggestions. All I'm saying is that it better work, 'cause my all-time-favorite sorbet flavor is on the menu in 11 days...