Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Real Deal Gelato

I guess there is no point in having a gelato machine if you don't go all out and make the real deal gelato. I figured Giada's nutella gelato was a good place to start. Basically started with a custard base, then you can add any flavors you like. I decided to make mine half nutella and half pistachio. You start with 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cups milk and 1 cup of cream over low heat. Using room temperature eggs, beat 4 egg yolks with 1/4 cup of sugar until light in color and thick.
This takes about 5 minutes of beating. To temper the yolks before adding to the milk mixture, add a half-cup of the warm milk to the eggs before adding them to the mixture on the stove.
Cook for about 10 minutes until thickened. Insert a spoon in the mixture and make sure it coats the spoon. After cooking, strain the mixture through a sieve. I divided mine into two bowls to make the two flavors.
For the pistachio flavor, mix 1/4 cup raw pistachios with 2 tablespoons sugar in a food processor. Stir this into the gelato base.
For the chocolate-hazlenut flavor, add 1/4 cup nutella to the gelato base and whisk until incorporated.
Cool on the counter for 30 minutes and then chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the custard to prevent a skin forming on as it cools. Freeze the chilled custard in the ice cream maker for 30-40 minutes until frozen.
It was a little melty after just the ice cream freezer, but the second night it was BOSS. (Sorry, momentary channeling Juno moment.) Move over HagenDaaz - your spot in my freezer just got taken! The chocolate is that perfectly dense flavor, even Chris liked it! He's usually not a chocolate ice cream guy despite his tenure at Cold Stone! If you don't think you need an ice cream machine, you might want to rethink that... it's definitely worth it to make it yourself!

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