Episode Twenty: Making Sherbet

When I was at intermediate school we did manual. I don't know what they call it these days but it consisted of Metal Work, Wood Work, Sewing and Home Economics. In Home Ec' one of the first recipes we followed was sherbet. It's very simple but it tastes fantastic and it doesn't require any baking, frying or freezing. All that is required for this idea is Icing Sugar, Baking Soda, Citric Acid, Tartaric Acid and Raro (or any other powdered drink) - the recipe can be found at the bottom of this post.

I took a few days off work this week for the school holidays so I could hang out with my kids and have a bit of a break from work which had been pretty hectic. We managed to fit a lot in but only managed to get photos of the sherbet idea. We played Lego, entered a kid's fishing tournament and generally mucked around. It was awesome!

The sherbet idea worked well for us because all three children were able to scoop out the ingredients with no hassle. The measurements were easy and the only real preparation was shaking it all up in small container with a lid. 

 

The cool thing about this recipe is you can show them how each ingredient adds it's own layer to the final mix. So I explained to them how the icing sugar acts a base and gives it volume. Then we explained how the baking soda mixes with the Tartaric Acid to give it the fizz (I demonstrated this by adding baking soda to a glass of water and getting the boys to drop a pinch of Tartaric Acid into it and seeing what happens - try it!). The Citric Acid gives it that bitter taste and the Raro gives it the flavour.

Once they got their head around the different ingredients we could experiment with amounts of ingredients used. If you cut back on the baking soda, what happens? If you put in too much Raro what happens to the consistency of the sherbet? We had a great time making our own mixtures and trying each others to see how they stacked up. The boys loved this idea so much that we did it again the next day!

Sherbet Recipe

Two tablespoons of Icing Sugar

1/2 teaspoon of Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon of Citric Acid

1/2 teaspoon of Tartaric Acid

Two tablespoons of Raro (or juice powder)

Add all of the ingredients into a small container with a lid. Put the lid on, shake, shake, shake and serve!

Have fun!