I haven't felt very inspired with my cooking lately, but this gelato wound up being quite nice. No pictures this week since the combination of poor photography skills and brown ice cream really doesn't make for good viewing.
Before we start, a couple of things I have found about gelato making: fat is good - the higher fat content in the base, the more creamy the end product. I tried making a couple batches of ice cream early on with low-fat and skim milks, but they came out more like an Italian ice with a pretty noticeable crystalline texture. Low fat will result in faster melting time and may cause problems with thickening and consistency in the freezing process.
Most ice cream and even gelato recipes are custard based, that is, they incorporate egg yolk into the base to create a thicker, creamy mixture that is then frozen and aerated in an ice cream maker. I was told that true gelato is not custard based which results in denser product when frozen. Without an expert to consult on this point, I've simply been adding yogurt to the base as a thickening agent at the ratio of 2 tsp yogurt for each egg yolk called for. The results have been quite nice. Eventually, I'll try making a gelato without a thickener and will report back.
In this recipe, I used a combination of milk and dark chocolates in a 3:1 ratio. It is certainly easy enough to change the types and amounts of chocolate to suit your tastes. The end product in this recipe was not overly sweet, but very rich with the dark chocolate adding more of an undertone than real body to the ice cream.
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups half and half (you can use whole milk if you like, but half and half works well enough and cuts down significantly on fat and saturated fat content.)
50g dark chocolate
150g milk chocolate
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract.
2 Tbsp butter.
8 tsp plain yogurt or 4 egg yolks (I like plain yogurt because it takes the edge off the sweetness of the base, but feel free to use vanilla if you want.)
1/2 cup chopped peppermint patties (optional)
Yields about 3 pints.
Extra equipment:
ice cream machine
double boiler
candy thermometer
Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler until smooth, stirring constantly to avoid scorching. Add the milks to the chocolate and blend over low heat. Add sugar and increase the heat to medium/low and stir to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved and the base is smooth, remove from heat and let cool slightly. In a large separate bowl, whisk the vanilla extract and yogurt/eggs until well blended. Slowly add the still warm base to the yogurt/eggs. This is done to prevent the any curdling or scrambling that would occur if adding the yogurt/eggs directly to the very warm base. Mix well.
Pour the mixture back into the sauce pan and stir over medium heat until the mixture is 170 degrees. Little bubbles will begin forming around the edges and the mixture will thickly coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Refrigerate for several hours or over night. Freeze in ice cream maker according to instructions, adding any the peppermint patty pieces after the ice cream begins to firm up.
Before freezing, I've found that sticking the mixture in the freeze for an hour or two helps in getting the ice cream to a nice thick density. This is especially true if you are using an ice cream maker that does not have a built-in compressor. Freeze in an air tight container for several hours before serving if you want it to be firmer.
As I said, this is may be closer to an American-style ice cream than a true Italian gelato given the use of a thickener and custard-style base, but in any event, it is delicious, rich, creamy, and a great cure for chocolate cravings.
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