Gelato alla Crema Aromatizzata

(Unedited)

Please read the Gelato Introduction if you haven’t already. This is like the previous Gelato alla Crema, but the milk and heavy cream are first marinaded in several yummy flavors. Aromatizzata means flavored. The result has quite a special taste that is hard to describe. We can’t decide which of the two crema gelati we like more – both are great in different ways.

The only negative is that it requires an extra day up-front for the marinade. However, you can cheat here: start the marinade early on day 1, then cook the mixture early on day 2. So the marinade will have a full 24 hours, but the maturation will be shortened by half day. That is fine. Alternatively, you could cook the mixture late on day 1, particularly if you are serving it earlier on day 2.

500g fresh WHOLE milk, preferably sourced locally

170g fresh heavy cream, preferably sourced locally

1 pod vanilla bean, with bean extracted manually

1/3 zested lemon peel

1/3 zested orange peel (from a clementine or small orange)

8 whole coffee beans

2 small pieces of cinnamon stick

40g acacia honey (or other honey)

120g egg yolk

135g sugar

35g nonfat dry milk powder

1. On the first day:

a. Use the flat edge of a small knife to flatten the vanilla pod, then slice it vertically and remove all bean from inside.

b. Put the milk, heavy cream, vanilla bean, empty vanilla pods, lemon zest, orange zest, coffee beans, and cinnamon sticks in a bowl. Note that the honey does not go in at this point. Cover tightly with plastic wrap.

c. Let the mixture marinade overnight in the refrigerator.

2. On the second day (usually 24 hours later, but you can cheat here as discussed in the introduction), we continue the normal gelato process as usual…

3. Add honey and egg yolks to the mixture. Do not filter the mixture yet. Leave all the flavorings in there for now.

4. Slowly heat the mixture. Stir continuously with a whisk.

5. Once the mixture gets warm, slowly stir in the pre-mixed dry ingredients. Stir continuously with a whisk.

6. Continue heating the mixture on medium heat until it gets to 85C. Stir continuously with a whisk.

7. Remove the mixture from the heat and continue stirring for a minute.

8. 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.

9. Filter the mixture using a strainer.

10. 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.

11. 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.

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

13. It should be ready to eat in 20 minutes with the Musso Lello 4080. 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.

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

15. 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.