Fun with Guar or Experiments with Frozen Desserts

July 6, 2003

Being kinda of new here, I'd never heard of Guar Gum until looking

over the recipe files. I'm a bit of kitchen mad scientist so this

substance immediately got my attention. I rushed out to the health

food store to aquire some of this powder. I read the warning about

large quantities (how much is too much BTW?) and decided to start

small. Made a simple pudding and was impressed by the thickening

power. The texture, IMO, leaves a little to be desired but it's very

workable. I'm always looking for a way to reproduce what I consider

the " holy grail " of food temptations, ice cream. So I thought to

myself, " TO THE LAB! "

First experiment was simply water, guar, instant milk, Splenda and

Kool-aid (odd, I know, but I find I use it alot as a flavoring). The

result was so-so, I only used 1 tsp of gum so the slippery texture

was not noticable. It had a very light and airy texture and I

considered it a good start.

Next day, time for another go around. Seemed like a good day for

chocolate so I got out the cocoa powder. Replacing cocoa for Kool-

aid did not quite turn out as I would have hoped. I believe I had

too much water in that batch. Alas, back to the drawing board [aka]

the dark recesses of my mind =)

'Nother day, 'nother batch. Pina colada? Why not. Here is the

method I used:

Started with 1 3/4 cup of water (from frig depenser) and about a cup

of crushed ice placed in a blender. Blended until ice was melted and

was left with very cold water. Mixed in about 10 packets of Splenda.

Put the blender on low and slowly sifted in 1 tsp of guar gum. As

the visocity increased I increased the speed. In the end, it was

about as thick as a simple syrup.

I next added 1/3 of a frozen banana, 1/2 cup of yogurt along with a

splash of pineapple, coconut and rum flavorings to the blender.

Mixed this on " warp speed " until the banana chunks were

incorporated. I was left with a slightly foamy, creamy mixture.

I froze this mixture in my ice cream maker and I must say it was the

best result yet. No, it didn't have a super-creamy texture but was

very sorbet-like. After freezing, it made a quart and a half of pina

colada sorbet (four good-sized servings at around 30 calories a pop).

I welcome ideas for improvement and will continue to tinker with it

on my own.

PM1K

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