Gelato

Frozen desserts are a family favourite whether they be homemade or store bought.  An ice cold treat just tastes so good on a hot summer day!  I can  still remember running down to the Tasty Freeze with my quarter held tightly in my hand to get a frozen yogurt cone.  Over the years there has been a variety of homemade ice creams, homemade popscicles, sherberts and freezer pies along with store bought versions.  We recently discovered another frozen treat, gelato.

I first heard about gelato on the food channel.  Gelato is Italy's version of ice cream so most of the ingredients found in ice cream will be found in gelato.  However, gelato has a considerably lower butterfat content of about 4-8% versus 14% for ice cream and a lower sugar content.   This results in gelato having less than half the calories of ice cream.  The Dorgel gelato vanilla (pictured) has 90 calories per half cup verses 230 calories Ben & Jerry's vanilla bean icecream.  The sugar content is balanced with the water content in gelato, acting as an anti-freeze to prevent the gelato from freezing solid.  The mixture used for gelato is made using a hot process, which includes pasteurization.  The mixture is then aged for several hours after pasteurization is complete then the gelato is frozen very quickly in individual small batches in a batch freezer that incorporates air or overage into the mix as it freezes.

As a result of the pasteurization and aging process the ice crystals in gelato are quite small giving a smooth, creamy texture.  Gelato has an overage of20% to 35% so is denser than ice cream with an
overage up to 50%.  It also has a more intense flavour than icecream. 

I served the gelato with mixed fresh berries in a light vanilla syrup made by sprinkling vanilla sugar over the fresh berries and letting them sit in the fridge for an hour.  This really was a lovely dessert with the berries providing a nice contrast to the rich, creamy gelato.