White Chocolate

Sorry it have been a few days since my last post. I've actually make a few different batches since. I've tried a new blueberry, strawberry, and white chocolate mixtures. I won't bore you with the details of the strawberry and blueberry. In general both had too much crystallization because I decreased the sugar and stabiliser amounts. There is such a fine line, too much sugar and stabiliser and you have frozen pudding and too much you have a popsicle. The other challenge with the fruit flavors or soberts is that each fruit has a different sweetness level. Because of this you may need less or more sugar depending on the fruit.

Back to the milk based gelatos. I've had some success with these and am ready to move on to more advanced combinations or flavors. A few days ago I whipped up a batch of white chocolate based on the mixture levels I use for regulat chocolate. Of course I can't add cocoa otherwise I would have regula chocolate. For my white chocolate mixture I used whole milk, sugar, white chocolate chips, stabiliser, and a touch of cream. I've attached some photos to this post. First I have what the mixture looked like as it came out of the ice cream maker and went into the freezer. The second photo is from the next day. I decided to go artistic with this photo and used a gelato cup Erin had and a cookie =D

WD-40 and Strawberry Gelato

So what do these two things have in common? Well, the inventor of WD-40 or water dispersant formula 40 attempted 39 different formulas before inventing WD-40. Well strawberry gelato will not stop creaks or metal from rusting but once I find the right combination of ingredients there will be world peace. Why you ask? Because the strawberry flavors will be so spectacular and awe inspiring that people will forget about hate, greed, or lust. Evil will be vanquished from the earth and everyone will have a smile on their face. Okay, maybe might be a little extreme but I feel like a inventor sometimes when playing with my ingredients. Chemists and true inventors will scoff but the finding the right taste, texture, and color is a complex process.

My first attempts at gelato were simply web searching for recipes and then trying them out. Now I'm more or less beginning the phase of tweaking mixtures to find the taste, texture, and color that are ideal in my opinion. Yes this is a biased process but I like to believe my palate is that of the everyday persons. I enjoy a smooth texture, rich color, and vibrant taste in my gelato.

So, my latest attempt at strawberry or fragola is dubbed WD-3. My third attempt at the flavor but second attempt with a water-based mixture. Basic ingredients, strawberries, water, sugar, salt, lemon, lime, and stabiliser. The fun is tweaking these ingredients and how they are processed to find the right mix. As you can see from the picture below the color and texture are off. I used less sugar and stabiliser than normal and as a result the gelato is not smooth and creamy but crystallized and chunky. Thanks to the stabiliser it does not freeze all the way and can be scooped easily. I'm also not a fan of the color. It's a little too pink thank I would like. The pink color makes me think there is cream or milk even though I know there is not.

For WD-4 fragola I'm going to use more sugar and stabiliser. I'm also going to try an idea I have regarding the strawberry preparation and see what happens. I'll keep you posted =D

Blueberry Goodness

Tonight I decided to run a quick batch of gelato before packing for an upcoming trip. I modified the water-based lemon recipe. My gelato mix included frozen blueberries, some blueberry jam, salt, water, sugar, water, and stabiliser. The color was perfect, I'm really happy with the fruit base I have figured out. I think the balance will now be modifying the sugar content based on the type of fruit to get the correct level of sweetness. Specifically the blueberry jam and amount of sugar created too sweet of a taste. The texture and color were perfect though. The photo to the right might not be the most artistic but it's the best I can do since I'm storing gelato in old yogurt containers =D

I'm thinking watermelon or honey-cinnamon apple might be the next attempt when I get back from my trip.

Chocolate Gelato Part 2

After finding the benefits of using stabilisers in my water-based lemon gelato, I decided to try and repeat success with chocolate gelato. My first attempt showed that the reduced amount of cream and sugar led to a gelato mixture susceptible to crystallizing into a dense frozen mass. Because I am using a stabiliser this time, I decided to cut cream completely out of my mixture. I also switched to whole milk instead of almond milk to see how the texture would be affected.

So in todays mixture I used whole milk, sugar, egg yolks, cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate and a stabiliser. As far as flavor, I think it could have used more bittersweet chocolate, maybe double the amount. The texture of the gelato out of the ice cream maker was ideal. The stabiliser prevented crystallized chunks so I think once it's given a nice freeze the texture will be smooth like Italian gelato. In the next weeks I plan to try one more attack at a chocolate gelato flavor but either substitute half of the milk for water or almond milk.

Water-based Lemon Gelato

In the true spirit of Italian fruit flavored gelato, I wanted to make a lemon flavored gelato with no eggs, cream, or milk added. For my mixture I used water, sugar, lemon juice and a stabiliser. This is the first time I've used a stabiliser in cooking so needless to say there was some trial and error. Specifically it took me three attempts at the water-based lemon gelato to determine how much stabiliser is required to get the consistency of gelato and not pudding or dough! Yes, my first attempt with too much stabiliser came out like a frozen dough. For those of you who are not familiar with stabilisers there are many types made from many different beans or roots. Stabilisers are most commonly used in gluten-free cooking to bind, thicken and emulsify gluten-free ingredients. These stabilisers are also used in many fruit flavored gelato mixtures to prevent crystallization during the freezing process. That being said I'm very satisfied with the ratio I used, I might even cut it back a little more to reduce the creaminess of the gelato.

Burberry I mean Blueberry

Well tonight I was ambitious and made a blueberry mixture after my lemon mixture was locked up in the refrigerator. Besides ambition I also had a wife wanting some gelato to cleanse her pallet after dinner. My ingredients for the blueberry gelato included fresh blueberries, water, salt, sugar, egg yolks, milk, and lemon juice. I boiled the water, blueberries, and salt. The next step scared me a little as I poured boiling hot water into our Blendtec blender. The blender can turn vegetables and water into hot soup so I figured the plastic could handle the heated blueberries and water. While the blueberries were whipped into a liquid oblivion I separated egg yolks and combined them with the sugar. Next I added the pale mixture of egg yolks and sugar to heated almond milk. I cooled my custard and added the blueberry puree and lemon juice.

At this point I had quite a lot of blueberry mixture and decided to only put half of the mixture into the ice cream maker. Viola, sometimes roadblocks lead to better paths. With less mixture in my Cusinart ICE-20 the mixture was frozen into a fluffy moldable mass. Going forward I am going to freeze less mixture at a time which will give me much better results. To think I was about to spend a few hundred dollars on buying a proper gelato maker =D

While the texture was great the flavor was not what I expected from the blueberries. Erin said it best, the flavor reminds her of taro root ice cream or taro root cookies. Personally the mixture needs more of a concentrated blueberry flavor and no almond milk. I think the creamier chocolate and vanilla flavored gelatos can use almond milk but fruit flavors need 2% milk or water bases. Anyone want some taro root flavored gelato =)

Lemon Gelato

Mmmm, lemon gelato time. This was another favorite of ours while on our honeymoon. Actually, the best lemon gelato we had was in Paris as well. The recipe I used called for milk, sugar, egg yolks, grated lemon peel, fresh lemon juice, and heavy cream. As with my other gelato attempts I substituted milk with almond milk. Also, because our freezer is starting to fill up with gelato I decided to half the ingredients and make less gelato. Unfortunately I need to let me mixture sit overnight so the flavors can blend and compliment each other. Based on the liquid taste test, the mixture does not have the sour face zing I expect from a lemon flavored gelato. I also want more of a clear/white color instead of the yellow/creamy color. Nevertheless I need to give the mixture a fair test by freezing, tasting, and reporting back tomorrow.

Taste test update. The texture was perfect. Even after freezing the gelato was very dense but pliable. As suspected though the taste was too creamy for an Italian lemon gelato. The mixture of milk, cream, and eggs would be perfect for a creamy gelato such as chocolate, nuttella, vanilla, etc. I might return to the balance of ingredients used here for when I attempt another chocolate or white chocolate gelato.

No milk or cream fragola!

Sometimes I think I'm lactose intolerant. I know my brother and sister are sometimes bothered by dairy products so it would only logical that I may be lactose intolerant as well. Hence, round two of fragola is a dairy free version made with sugar, water, fresh strawberries, lemon juice, and egg whites. The color of the mixture is a deep red and looks like the gelato I remember years ago. I tried a little of the mixture before throwing it in the ice cream maker and it definitely has more flavor then my first attempt. No milk or cream also means less fat =D

My fault, I never posted my taste results. The fragola gelato did not really slam me with fruit flavor. I a combination of more strawberries and lemon juice may have helped with the fruit flavors. Also, the texture gelato was off. I think a little heavy cream would have helped.

Chocolate Love

Another day and another recipe. Today's flavor chocolate. Again, a good test for chocolate is have great cocoa flavor without a chalky taste. The recipe I used called for bittersweet chocolate, unsweetened cocoa powder, egg yokes, whole milk, sugar, and heavy cream. Based on reviews I halved the cocoa power and doubled the chocolate mix. I also substituted almond with for the whole milk. A couple things I found "fun" with this recipe: 1) removing egg yolks from the yolk 2) combining the chocolate mixture and egg yolks without heating past 170 degrees. I have little to no experience baking so the two aforementioned items were a new experience for me.

Overall the taste of the custard was delicious. Erin likened it to that of chocolate baking mix. I found it very smooth but a little sweet. The ice cream maker I'm using could not fully freeze the mixture again. I think it may be time to search craiglists for a higher grade ice cream or gelato maker =D

Fragola: The first test

In the summer of 2005 I made my first trip to Italy. Specifically I spent a few days in Rome and Venice. This summer was my first encounter with gelato, the tasty Italy frozen treat. Gelato is more dense and flavorful than your typical ice cream. Also there is less butterfat content because less heavy cream is used in its creation.

I have recently returned from a honeymoon in Europe where I was reunited with gelato. After marrying my now wife Erin, we spent two weeks in Paris, Rome, Venice, and Munich. I have to say of all the places the best gelato was in Paris. The fragola we had was out of this world and the raw flavor slammed my tastebuds with a sweet but tart mouthful of flavor. To me fragola or any fruit flavored gelato is the quickest way to test gelato. Yes, gelato from north Italy typically uses milks and creams but to me the more creamy gelato is the more it just tastes like ice cream.

Today was my first attempt at making gelato. My now mother-in-law gave me an ice cream maker that has never been used. It's a Cusinart ICE-20 model. Probably not the best machine to use to make gelato since it is designed to aerate the mixture. As you can tell my choice of flavor for this first attempt had to be fragola or strawberry. The recipe I found called for 3/4 pound of fresh strawberries, 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, 3/4 cup of water, 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, and 1/3 cup of heavy cream. The heavy cream concerned me but the was I see it I'll start with a recipe that has some cream and work my way down to no cream or a soy or almond milk alternative. I used my Blendtec and mixed the aforementioned ingredients to a nice puree. Unfortunately I failed to read the Cusinart ice cream maker instructions and am now waiting for my freezer bowl to freeze overnight. However, my hope is that the puree can bind nicely as it refrigerates overnight. I feel like a kid before Christmas anticipating my chance to freeze my gelato after work tomorrow!

Update: I ran the mixture through the ice cream maker this morning. The ice cream maker did not freeze the mixture well enough and I ended up putting it in the freezer. I tried it about 3 hours later and it was a perfect texture. Then about 7 hours later I tried it again and the taste is good but the texture and density is not right.