The cold, lemony dessert, 2 ingredient that I do in rehearsal each summer

I don’t remember the first time I had water ice. It is not a type of memory of “first bite”. It is a recurring summer rhythm, the genre that melts in every hot afternoon of your childhood until you cannot separate from the next one. What me TO DO Remember that my childhood summers are held on the sidewalk outside of John’s or pop in the south of Philly, my cup of paper sweating in my hand, the lemon ice inside already softening on the edges. I would dig with a small plastic spoon, to continue the coldest bite that I have been able to find before everything collapses in a puddle of sweet gold and Sushy.

More often than not, I had a sweet Bretzel Philly in the other hand – a small salty to balance the sweet. The rough touch of the dough, soft and slightly soft, made the ice even colder – it is a classic Philly combo. In my house, water ice was not a treat. It was a necessity. An adaptation mechanism for 90 ° afternoon in August without central air and without the intention of leaving our South Philly district. Of course, we struck Rita when we felt fanciful and we wanted pastry cream on the top – but the real jewels were the family places that have just said “water ice” in block letters on a plywood panel, and served it in the Cups Dixie. It was all we needed.

If you are new in Philadelphia, you might be tempted to pronounce it “water ice”. Don’t do it. It is more wooded ice. Say it with me: “Can I get a little lemon ice cream with wood?” Now you are part of the club.

But I no longer live in Philly, and I can’t just go down the block to take a scoop. The closest to Rita is a 45 -minute journey, which is not feasible for me on a regular basis. After years to aspire, I finally did something: water ice is ridiculously easy to do at home. It only requires three ingredients – the fruit, sugar and water – and it is about as weak as summer desserts. What surprised me the most was not just how feasible it was, but how much he tasted how much I remembered. Fresh lemon juice in homemade water ice gives a flowery and bright flower edge which even gives the best versions made in store a race for their money. It is more avant-garde, more dynamic and customizable.

Now, instead of needing to leave the house for that, I keep a pan of lemon water ice cream hidden in the freezer all summer. This is one of the best things I have done for my heart at home Philly Heart.

What is water ice?

For strangers, water ice can be confusing. Is it the sorbet? Granita? Italian ice cream? A snow cone? (Yes and no.) The texture is what distinguishes it. It is not laminated like Granita or crunchy like a snow cone – it is smoother, plus Slush and more cuillable. After sitting in the summer heat for a few minutes, he should be slurpable, with just enough resistance to keep things refreshing. This is the texture you continue when you sweat through your shirt to a block party and need something cold, quickly.

Water ice has roots in the sorbettis brought to Philadelphia by Italian immigrants at the end of the 19th and early 20th century. But in the real Philly way, the city gave it a new name, a new texture and a new place in the culture of the city. He became something that you caught in flip -flops after dinner or begged at the school house: as essential in Philly Summers as hoagies, fireworks and the arguments on which to park.

Ask five Philadelphians on their favorite water ice cream flavor, and you will probably get five answers: lemon, cherry, mango, pineapple and chocolate (it’s so good, believe me!). For me, it has always been lemon. It’s the original, and if a place cannot get a lemon – shiny, balanced, frozen without being chalky – then it’s not worth the trip.

How to make smooth and scoopable water ice cream

As mentioned above, water ice cream is incredibly simple: just fruits, water and sugar. But as with many easy recipes, it is also difficult to nail. The flavor must strike hard – slippery, tangy and citrus – but do not turn into bitterness. And the texture must be fair without icebergs, no grainy sugar and certainly no frozen blocks. The objective is a kind of semi -compared balance – cold and sufficiently frozen to maintain its shape, soft enough to pick up and smooth enough to melt on your tongue.

To get there, the key is in balance between sugar and water. Too much water and the mixture freezes. Too much sugar and it becomes a syrupy and soft, like a lemon loop. Sugar is not just stifling here; It is manipulating the structure.

At the molecular level, when you dissolve the sugar in the water and freeze it, the sugar lowers the freezing point of the mixture. This is good – it slows down the growth of ice crystals, helping you reach this fine and smooth texture. But you need enough sugar to make the difference, without switching to the sleevisant sweet territory; Balance is the key.

In my tests, the Sweet Spot (literally) was a cup plus two tablespoons of sugar by two cups of water, plus the juice of eight fresh lemons. I also add a pinch of salt to sharpen the flavor and tame any bitterness of lemon zest.

And yes, you will need an ice cream machine with this recipe. Domestic cooks often ask if they can simply freeze water ice in a saucepan and stir it every half hour. The answer? Not if you want the real deal. Philadelphia -style water ice cream obtains its distinctive texture from constant barattage by a paddle in an industrial machine. Your manufacturer of ice creams imitated, scraping the sides while the mixture freezes to break the ice crystals before they become too large. This agitation is crucial. Without that, your mixture can have a good taste, but it is never going well.

A note on lemons

Use costs. I know you know, but I say it anyway. Do not reach the plastic compression bottle. This recipe uses the whole lemon – a small amount of zest for aromatic oils and flesh for a natural balance of juice and pulp. The fruit is chopped and mixed, tense and combined with water to obtain the desired dilution to obtain a real lemon flavor – shiny, bitter, soft, floral and just a little impactful. If your lemons are particularly sharp, you can resume zest when the mixture turns around. Just before adding the lemon zest to the ice manufacturer – in front of the last minute of barattage – tap the mixture. If it’s very tangy, add only half of the zest or omit it entirely.

How to store water ice (and when pick it up)

Once produced, the water ice should enter a saucepan of refrigerated bread in the freezer. It is ready after about an hour, although it keeps up to four weeks if you closely cover the container. Do not forget: the colder it is, the more it will become firm, so if it is solid, let it rest on the counter for five to ten minutes before weighing down.

It may not be that of John or Pop, but a spoon of this and I am back on a sidewalk in South Philly, chasing the coldest bite.

Cook mode
(Keep the screen awake)