Gelato Introduction

(unedited)

In this introduction, I’ll tell you several things that are common to making all gelati and sorbetti.

Gelato vs. Ice Cream

Gelato and ice cream are really two different things. This table illustrates the main differences:

Feature	Gelato	Ice Cream
Fat Content	Contains 5-7% fat.	Must legally contain at least 10% fat.
Heavy Cream Content	Contains much less heavy cream. Some gelati don’t even have any heavy cream.	Contains much more heavy cream.
Air Content	25-30% air. Churned at a lower speed. Gelato is denser than ice cream.	As much as 50% air. Churned at a higher speed.
Stored At	-13C to -11C (9F to 12F)	-20C to -18C (-4F to 0F)
Served At	-12C to -6C (10F to 21F)	-15C to -12C (5F to 10F)

I’ve thought about buying a small freezer that is made especially for storing ice cream. Amazon sells some that can be programmed to the correct temperature for gelato.

However, a better and cheaper idea is to simply make only as much as you need and store the remaining mixture in the refrigerator until the next day when you can make it again.

Gelato vs. Sorbetto

Sorbetto is made in basically the same way as gelato, except that it contains water rather than milk and cream. Further, the mixture doesn’t need to mature as long in the refrigerator.

Gelato Machine

If you can afford it, I highly recommend one of the Musso Lello machines that are all-steel and contain a built-in refrigeration unit. I have the Musso Lello 4080 1.5-Quart (aka the Mini), which is the smaller of the two. Search for it on Amazon. It has a non-removable bowl that is built into the machine, which is better for freezing. The machine churns at 80 RPM and gets the gelato to the proper consistency (usually in 20 minutes) so that you can eat it right out of the machine, which makes a huge difference to the experience and taste. There is no need to put it in the freezer to harden it up a little, as lesser machines might require, which is particularly important since our freezers are way colder than the optimal storage temperature.

Isn’t she beautiful? If I had to choose between this machine and my wife (who is gorgeous), I would need to pause for at least a few seconds.

The Basic Procedure

The basic procedure for making any gelato or sorbetto is as follows:

1. Weigh ingredients separately. Pre-mix the dry ingredients using a whisk.

2. Slowly heat the whole milk, cream, and egg yolk, whichever are present. Stir continuously with a whisk.

3. Once the milk mixture gets warm, slowly stir in the pre-mixed dry ingredients (sugars, etc.). Stir continuously with a whisk.

4. Continue heating the mixture on medium heat until it gets to 65C or 85C (if it contains egg yolk). Stir continuously with a whisk.

5. Remove the mixture from the heat and continue stirring for a minute. Some ingredients such as nut pastes are added at this point and mixed thoroughly using an immersion blender for 2-3 minutes.

6. Transfer the pot into an ice-water bath in a larger bowl and stir continuously until the temperature gets back to close to room temperature. This is standard practice for pasteurization.

7. If the mixture could contain any small clumps (say, with nut pastes), strain the mixture.

8. Cover the mixture tightly with plastic wrap and store overnight in the refrigerator. This allows the flavor to mature. It may remain in the refrigerator for up to 72 hours.

9. When it’s time to churn the mixture, turn on the chill part of the gelato machine to get it a little cold for 3 minutes.

10. Turn on the churner and slowly pour the mixture into the built-in bowl of the gelato machine. Replace plastic top.

11. Most gelati and sorbetti are ready to eat after 20 minutes in the Musso Lello 4080. Fior di Latte requires at least 30 minutes. Turn off the chiller 30 seconds before completing the churning process. If the gelato machine shows signs of struggling to turn, it’s past done. Other gelato machines may never get it hard enough to eat and may require that you put it in the freezer for some amount of time.

12. Serve gelato in small bowls that were pre-cooled in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

13. Store uneaten gelato in the freezer. To get it soft enough to eat later, you may need to put it into your refrigerator for up to 1.5 hours. But keep in mind that the consistency won’t be as good as it was right out of the machine. In any case, the best option is to make only as much as you need and store the remaining mixture in the refrigerator until the next day when you can make it again, but keep in mind that you will need to churn it for much less time.

Adjusting Sweetness and Softness

The sugars control sweetness and softness of the gelato. If you remove sugars to reduce sweetness, the gelato may come out too icy. Similarly, if you add sugar to make it softer, it may come out too sweet.

But there’s a trick using the right combination of table sugar (sucrose) vs. dextrose. Dextrose is 0.75x as sweet as sucrose, but 1.9x more anti-freezing. This table shows adjustments you can make to achieve certain changes in sweetness OR softness:

Problem	Adjustment
Too sweet	Replace 10g of sucrose with 7g of dextrose. We are effectively removing 5g of sucrose sweetness without changing the softness.
Not sweet enough	Opposite: Replace 7g of dextrose with 10g of sucrose.
Too soft	Replace 15g of dextrose with 10g of sucrose. The sweetness level will not change.
Not soft enough	Opposite: Replace 10g of sucrose with 15g of dextrose.

Quality of Milk and Cream

The quality of the milk and cream can make a big difference. Our favorite local artisan ice cream store (Maple View Farm) used to harvest and sell its own milk, but they decided to get out of the milk business and focus exclusively on the ice cream. However, in their ice cream store, they resell the milk and cream they currently use in the ice cream (source: Simply Natural Creamery, Ayden, NC). I drive to the store to get it because it’s much better than anything I can find at local organic stores like Whole Foods.

The best way I’ve found to measure the richness (i.e., fat content) of the milk and cream is to make homemade Ricotta. The yield tells you everything.

By the way, after you make gelato, you will inevitably have some milk and cream left over, possibly quite a bit. One good use of that is to make ricotta that could be used for pizza napoletana (white pizza version) or gnocchi di ricotta.

Grinding Hazelnuts and Pistachios

Grinding nuts fine enough for gelato is very difficult. I’ve tried and failed several times, and I have a great Vitamix blender and other spice grinders. The gelato always came out too granular/sandy, particularly with the hazelnut (nocciola). Further, I found myself adding a little sunflower oil to get the paste liquidly enough, but this oil negatively affected the flavor. The whole process is also very time-consuming.

It’s much easier to buy paste that has been ground finely by a proper machine. I buy hazelnut paste from the Piemonte region of Italy. I am not happy with the pistachio paste I tried from California, so will be trying the paste from Bronte, Sicily next. Refer to the Ingredients page for more discussion.

Other Ingredients

The gelato recipes on this website contain a couple other non-flavor-related ingredients.

Nonfat dry milk is used to soak up some of the water in the milk to render it less icy and thus smoother.

Tara gum powder or carob powder is used as an emulsifier. Note that egg yolks also act as an emulsifier. An emulsifier keeps the water and fats from separating.

What are Our Favorite Flavors?

Gelato alla Crema or Gelato alla Crema Aromatizzata (they’re both great in different ways)

Gelato al Bacio (the combination of Cioccolato and Nocciola)

Where to Learn More

I took a course from a gelato expert, Ciro Fraddanno (CHEE-roh). Ciro really knows what he’s doing in all desserts frozen. Some of his YouTube videos are in English, but the course is in Italian (not sure if there are English subtitles).