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Frozen Apricots
1 can apricots 1 1/2 cups sugar Water Drain apricots, and cut in small pieces. To the syrup add enough water to make four cups, and cook with sugar five minutes; strain, add apricots, cool, and freeze. Peaches may be used instead of apricots. To make a richer dessert, add the whip from two cups cream when frozen to a mush, and continue freezing.
This is a water ice rather than a pudding sauce: fruit and syrup churned in an ice-cream freezer. The whole success of it rests on getting the sugar concentration right, since too little sugar freezes into a solid block and too much never sets.
- Can sizeCanned fruit of the period came in several sizes; a common one held roughly 2 to 2 1/2 cups. Since water is added to bring the syrup up to four cups, the size affects mainly how much fruit you end up with, so aim for about that quantity rather than a large modern 29 oz tin.
- Total sugarThe 1 1/2 cups is in addition to whatever syrup the canned fruit is packed in. With fruit packed in heavy syrup you can drop the added sugar to about a cup; with fruit in juice or water, keep the full amount.
- "Freeze"This means churning in an ice-cream freezer, not setting in a tray. In a modern machine, chill the syrup thoroughly first and churn 20 to 30 minutes. Without a machine, freeze in a shallow pan and break up the crystals with a fork every 30 minutes.
- "Frozen to a mush"The point at which the mixture is thick and slushy but not yet firm, roughly the texture of soft-serve. Beyond that stage the whipped cream will not fold in evenly.
- "The whip from two cups cream"An older way of saying the froth skimmed off partly whipped cream, which is lighter than fully whipped cream. Whipping two cups of heavy cream to soft peaks and folding it in gives the same result, and turns the ice into something closer to a sherbet.
- Cook five minutesJust long enough to dissolve the sugar and clear the syrup. Boiling it down further concentrates the sugar and will leave the finished ice soft and slow to set.
- YieldA little over a quart plain, or a generous six servings; closer to a half gallon once the cream is added. Ripen it in the freezer an hour before serving for a firmer scoop.