Here are the facts! Did you know that all the ingredients you need to make gelato are probably already inyour own kitchen? Gelato is made with ingredients that are all found in nature making itboth a healthy and natural dessert. To better understand what makes the delicious,creamy Italian ice cream you have to understand the gelato facts. Here’s the list of the ingredients for making that truly tasty gelato:
Gelato Facts #1: Milk
Depending on whether you want to make a cream flavour (such as chocolate or vanilla)or a fruit flavour (such as strawberry or mango), you need either water or milk. The besttype of milk for the cream flavours of gelato is whole milk (3.5%) as opposed to heavycream (35%). The milk helps the gelato obtain a creamy and smooth texture, but it alsoincreases its resistance to melting so you can take your time to enjoy it on a hot day. Milk used in gelato is a great way to not only add protein to your diet, but to get an extraserving of calcium.
Gelato Facts #2: Water
If you want to make a fruit flavor of gelato (also known as sorbetto), we use filteredwater. While tap water will work just fine, the quality and consistency of tap water canvary from place to place so the best sorbetto is made with filtered water. Try drinking aglass of tap water and a glass of filtered water (or bottled water) and see if you cantaste a difference. If you can, that means your sorbetto will taste differently as well,depending on which one you use! Because water freezes, this ingredient helps thesorbet to keep its frozen quality. Water also helps to hydrate and disperse the otheringredients.
Gelato Facts #3: Sugar
Is anything sweeter than our next ingredient? We add sugar to bring sweetness to themix, but also to help decrease the freezing point and increase the viscosity. We learnedthat the water in gelato will freeze, but adding sugar to the mix will allow it to maintain asoft but not melted texture. There are many different types of sugar that can be used,each bringing a different level of sweetness. Some of the types include: sucrose (canesugar), dextrose, lactose (natural sugar from milk) and fructose (natural sugar fromfruit).
Gelato Facts #4: MSNF
Another ingredient that is used to make gelato is milk-solids-non-fat (MSNF), whichconsists of protein, lactose and trace minerals found in dairy products. We can addskim milk powder, milk or cream to the product for the benefits of MSNF. This is anotheringredient that increases the percentage of proteins and improved the texture of thegelato at the same time. Too little MSNF might make the gelato icy, while too muchcould make the texture grainy. Just the right amount of MSNF makes the gelatodelicious!
Gelato Facts #5: Stabilizers and Emulsifiers
To keep that gelato in a perfect swirl on top of your cone, we often add food additives,in the forms of stabilizers and emulsifiers. These food additives preserve flavour andimprove taste and appearance. Stabilizers act as thickening agents to give gelato afirmer texture. Emulsifiers allow water and oils to remain mixed together so the gelatomix is consistent from the first scoop to the last. Both of these additives come fromnatural substances and are used in very small amounts. We do not use eggs, but anegg is a good example of an inexpensive emulsifier and stabilizer used in the householdkitchen to hold things together and is a common ingredient in ice-cream book recipes(note that ice-creams made with eggs are really types of custards). We used purifiedemulsifiers that contain no egg.
Gelato Facts #6: Flavour
What’s your favorite gelato flavour?There is no limit to possible flavours! It would behard to argue with the common assumption that flavour is one of the most importantcharacteristics of gelato. Two important things to remember when talking about flavourare type and intensity. Flavours can come in the form of pastes (chocolate/hazelnut) orconcentrated syrups (mint) or fruit compotes combined with fresh or frozen fruit(strawberry/mango) and from low to high intensity. But above all, the best type is ahigh-quality flavour that will be consistent. This means that every time you pick yourfavourite flavour, it will taste exactly like you remember it (unless the fruit is in season andlocal which will take your tastebuds on a magical mystery tour!).
Gelato Facts #7: Fruit
Fruit is a great addition to any fruit-flavored gelato (known as sorbetto). Fruit can beadded as fresh, frozen, juice or fruit puree. The natural acidity in the fruit helps tocharacterize the flavour and the natural sugar sweetens the mix. While fresh fruit makesfor a really intense gelato, frozen or fruit puree is a great way to enjoy your favourite fruitout of season. Strawberries, when in season, are used to raise our strawberry gelato andsorbetto from very good too magnificent! Unfortunately, the season is short.
Gelato Facts #8: Air
Not to be overlooked, air is an important ingredient too! As gelato is being frozen, theliquid mix is whipped with air to increase the volume of the product and smooth out thetexture. “Overrun” is the term typically used for the amount of air whipped into theproduct. Because milk-based gelato is denser than water-based sorbetto, it has moreoverrun. It’s important to remember that the air used to make gelato should is from ameticulously clean environment so there’s no affect on the taste of your gelato.
Get your delicious scoop of gelato at The Perfect Scoop, Port Perry, Ontario.
