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Gelato Siciliano (second try)
July 10, 2003 | by Heidi | Filed under
From my own long running quest to find an authentic gelato recipe that works. I am shooting for a great vanilla gelato base that I can drizzle melted chocolate into for a real-deal stracciatella (chocolate chip gelato).
I made a few slight changes from yesterdays failed attempt, and ended up with a wonderfully creamy, damn near perfect quart of gelato. Here's how I made it.
I simmered 3 cups of whole milk in a small saucepan with a vanilla bean. I pulled the vanilla bean out of a batch of homemade vanilla extract that has been brewing for well over a year now (just because that is all I had on hand, and I used all my vanilla beans way back to make extract). The bean was nice and supple with lots of little vanilla bean flecks waiting to be squeezed out into the pot of milk.
In a big glass measuring cup I poured one more cup of milk, and then added 1 cup of sugar, and 3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons of corn starch, and mixed that all up. Yesterday I only used 3T. of cornstarch, and I don't think the mixture thickened up enough.
As my milk started to simmer, I took it off the heat, and poured my cornstarch mix into the saucepan with the milk and vanilla bean (stirring the whole time). Placed it back on the low-med heat, and stirred, and stirred, and stirred, until things started thickening up, about 10-12 minutes. It ended up being thicker than say, a runny milkshake---but thinner than a super frosty one.
I poured it though a strainer into a mixing bowl, let it cool off on the counter for 20 minutes or so, and then into the fridge for a couple hours, or until completely chilled. Don't skimp here, this is another place I suspect I ran into trouble yesterday.
The other culprit was the ice-cream maker itself. Make sure it has been in the freezer for as long as possible, at least over night.
For the chocolate 'chips'....I threw a few chunks of bittersweet chocolate into a small saucepan over low heat---just until the chocolate starts to melt. Kept stirring it. Turned of the heat, and let it cool a bit. I then drizzled it into the churning ice-cream maker after the gelato really started to thicken up. Do it right, and you'll get nice chunks of chocolate all throughout your gelato.
I also can't resist dipping my chocolate covered spatula into the ice-cream maker while it is on. I can't recommend this, in fact Im sure somehow it may be dangerous, but it sure tastes good.
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