Fruit Intelligence : Frozen Dessert Fundamentals

April 27, 2026

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By Michael Laiskonis, Culinary Director, Les vergers Boiron

Sponsored by

As we shake off the winter chill and begin to focus on the warmth of summer months to come, frozen desserts inevitably begin to take center stage on our menus. With the right tools and a broad range of flavors at our fingertips, however, every season can be the peak season to show off your skills with sorbet, ice cream and other cool treats.

The key to perfecting frozen dessert components – balancing taste, texture and intensity – is proper understanding of their complex technical aspects, from formulation and ingredient composition, the role of sweeteners, and the nature of ice. With these fundamentals, pastry chefs can begin to refine their recipes, troubleshoot problems and, ultimately, create their own recipes. In this introductory primer, I’ll introduce a few key formulation concepts, especially as they relate to fruit-forward granite, sorbet and ice cream or gelato preparations.

Simple Sorbet Science

Like so many pastry preparations based on proportion and ratio, the formulas needed to create a perfectly textured, flavorful frozen dessert are quite narrow in scope, and standards remain largely unchanged since early technological advancements more than a century ago. There may be no single ‘ideal’ sorbet formula, but we can assemble bespoke recipes much like an algebraic equation, based on the flavors at hand and our desired result.

In very simple terms, we can think of a sorbet as a frozen mixture containing roughly 30% solids – with sugars providing the bulk of that mass, along with stabilizers, flavorings and non-soluble solids. The balance of the formula is water – roughly 70% – and the nature of the solids ultimately controls how that water behaves in the finished sorbet.

We can further refine a typical sorbet formula within the following ranges:

Fruit or other bulk ingredients: 25-70%
Sucrose: 10-15%
Glucose: 4-6%
Dextrose: 0-5%
Invert Sugar: 0-4%
Nonfat Milk Solids: 0-2%
Stabilizers: 0.2- 0.5%
Total water: 67-72%
Total Solids: 28-33%*

*Some exceptions made for non-soluble solids, fats, alcohols, types of stabilizer, etc

Ice Cream vs. Gelato

A question I’m often asked is: What is the difference between ice cream and gelato? The key factors that define these two products are primarily fat content, density, and sometimes, serving temperature. For commercial ice cream manufacturers in the United States, ‘ice cream’ is in fact a term subject to a strict standard of identity, which states, among other parameters, that to be referred to as such, the product must contain a minimum of 10% milk fat. Gelato (which has no legal definition in the U.S.) often refers to products that fall below that fat threshold. Others may also define gelato by minimal overrun – the air that is incorporated into the product – which often expresses itself in a creamier texture. And ‘traditional’ gelato shops may also serve the product at a slightly warmer temperature, which can enhance sensory aspects like intensity of flavor. While some may argue over more nuanced definitions, for most of us what we call the finished product is of less importance than formulating for the results we want.

More complex than a sorbet, due to the addition of fat and additional types of solids, a typical formula that offers characteristics from a lighter gelato to a richer premium-level ice cream would fall within the following range:

Milk Fat 8% – 14%
Egg Yolk Solids 0% – 2%
Nonfat Milk Solids 9% – 12%
Sweeteners 12% – 16%
Stabilizers and Emulsifiers 0% – 1.0%
Water 55% – 64%

Even a casual reader would recognize that the formula above does not quite constitute a ‘recipe,’ but is important to determine the values of these basic elements before we can begin to assemble which ingredients will provide these components.

Know Your Ingredients

The key to success is knowing which components are fairly static and which are variable. And then it’s about knowing the composition of our ingredients and how they supply those basic components such as water and solids, namely sugars. Of course, this basic information is important to pastry chefs no matter the preparation at hand. With knowledge of an ingredient’s composition, structure and function comes true power to the cook. Rather than thinking of, say, an apple, as simply an ‘apple,’ one must strip it down to its base components of water, fiber, sugar, pectin and acid in order to understand how it will behave in an application. When we create a balanced sorbet or ice cream recipe, a fruit’s water and solids content is key.

For example, among the range of fruit purées flavors on offer from Les vergers Boiron, these technical aspects are available to guide us. Mango will have a consistent Brix or sugar content of 19% (with a range of +/-2%) and a slightly higher corresponding total solids content of 19.5% by weight, while Purple Fig provides a sugar content of 20% and total solids reaching 24%. Useful for building the recipe to follow, the PGI Corsican Clementine purée has a solids content of 11.2% and 11% sugar. The relative intensity of a fruit’s flavor will also determine how much of that fruit is used; subtle White Peach may make up 60% or more of the total recipe, but bolder Bergamot or Kalamansi may only comprise 30% of the total recipe. The varying proportions of water and solids in each of these fruits will of course determine the added water and sugars needed to achieve a balanced recipe.

Non-soluble solids in sorbet are usually minimal and thus their effects are of little concern to us. However, the soluble solids – sugars – are of great importance in terms of tempering overall sweetness and dialing in texture and firmness. Water containing dissolved solids such as salt and sugar is affected by colligative properties. These solutes will raise the boiling point of water on the high end of the temperature range (as in a boiled sugar syrup); and at the low end, they lower the freezing point of water. It is this very property of freeze point depression that makes sorbet and ice cream possible at all – that at serving temperatures below water’s freezing point it is soft enough to scoop and consume.

Knowledge of the properties and composition of sweeteners is crucial to creating perfectly balanced frozen desserts. Relative to sucrose, or plain sugar, glucose powder has a water content of roughly 5% and will have less of an effect on the freezing point of water. Invert sugar (roughly 20% water) and dextrose (7% water) on the other hand have a greater effect on the freezing point compared to sucrose. Such information can set us on the path of formulating new sorbets and ice creams, or simply reverse-engineering and refining existing recipes to see where its components may fall along the formulation spectrum.

When it comes to ice cream and gelato, dairy products add more complexity with the fat and nonfat solids they provide. In order to reach the proper balance of the target formulation, we’ll find ourselves likewise adjusting the ratios of whole milk (3-4% fat) and cream (36-40% fat) as well as any additional nonfat milk powder to boost the protein and lactose content not sufficiently provided by liquid dairy ingredients. Fruit-based ice creams usually find higher proportions of cream and milk powder to reach target levels, due to the high water content of fruit purées; such formulations are more elaborate, but the results offer more intense flavors and natural colors.

Below are three recipes that begin to demonstrate these concepts: Red Prickly Pear Granité, Red Rhubarb Sorbet, and Apricot Gelato.

The study of frozen desserts and the ingredients that go into them can be a lifelong pursuit, but these basic principles can be put to immediate use toward the goal of enhancing frozen desserts in our own kitchens. Only with an understanding of these fundamentals can we then begin to expand within the percentages and proportions toward unique boundary-pushing recipes. For more inspiration and technical information, visit: https://www.my-vb.com/.

Red Prickly Pear Granite

By Michael Laiskonis, Culinary Director, Les vergers Boiron

Yield: 785 g

115 g granulated sugar
300 g water
1 sheet gelatin, hydrated (optional)
350 g Boiron Red Prickly Pear purée
15 g Boiron Lime purée

Combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil.
Remove from the heat and stir in the gelatin.
Add the purées.
Pour into shallow pans and begin to freeze, stirring every fifteen minutes.
Once the proper ice consistency is achieved, place the granité in covered containers and store in the freezer.

Red Rhubarb Sorbet

By Michael Laiskonis, Culinary Director, Les vergers Boiron

Yield: 2011 g

375 g granulated sugar, divided
6 sorbet stabilizer
485 g water
120 g glucose powder
25 g invert sugar
1000 g Boiron Red Rhubarb purée

Combine 50 g of the sugar with the stabilizer.
Heat the water to 120°F (50°C).
Whisk in the stabilizer mixture, then the remaining 325 g of sugar, along with the glucose and invert sugar.
Bring just to a boil.
Remove from heat and chill.
Transfer to the refrigerator and allow the mix to mature for at least 4 hours.
Combine the purée and the syrup and process in a batch freezer; extract the mix at 23°F (-5°C). Alternatively, transfer to PacoJet canisters and freeze; process as needed. Continue to harden the sorbet at 0°F (18°C) as necessary.

Apricot Sorbet

By Michael Laiskonis, Culinary Director, Les vergers Boiron

Yield: 1285 g

375 g whole milk
95 g heavy cream, 36% fat
75 g non-fat milk powder
115 g granulated sugar
50 g glucose powder
50 g invert sugar
6 g ice cream stabilizer
500 g Boiron Apricot purée

Place the milk and cream in a saucepan.
Whisk in the milk powder, sugar, glucose, invert sugar and stabilizer.
Cook over medium heat to 185°F (85°C), stirring continuously.
Remove from the heat and homogenize with an immersion blender.
Chill rapidly in an ice water bath.
Transfer to the refrigerator and allow the mix to mature for at least 12 hours.
Combine the purée and the base and process in a batch freezer; extract the mix at 23°F (-5°C).
Alternatively, transfer to PacoJet canisters and freeze; process as needed. Continue to harden the sorbet at 0°F (18°C) as necessary.

(This article appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)