What is Gelato?

Posted : 1st Apr 2011
Author : Kassandra McCalla

Ingredients
Enjoyed by Italian Ice-Cream lovers, Gelato is the healthier, tastier, and more flavoursome treat to conventional Ice-Cream. Unlike Ice-Cream, Gelato has a significantly lower fat content and uses fresh and high quality ingredients, as opposed to ice-cream, where preservatives and artificial ingredients are normally used. Gelato recipes use more milk and surprising no cream! Due to the fresh ingredients of Gelato, it is best consumed within a day or two, so it tends to be made in smaller batches more often. The lower fat content of Gelato means that you get more unique flavours, allowing more creativity to experiment with flavours which ice-cream can limit. The result is fun and exotic flavours such as Beer or Stracciatella.

Taste
Gelato comes from the Italian word frozen and has been satisfying Italian taste buds for 100s of years. Not only is it a healthier option then ice-cream but the soft creamy consistency of Gelato means it is abundant in rich flavours. Because Gelato has less butterfat it melts faster in your mouth giving customers a burst of subtle and unique flavours immediately.

Production
So how can Gelato taste so creamy but have less fat in it? Well, the magic is in the production process. Gelato is churned at a much slower speed with the goal of introducing as little air as possible into the mix. Gelato is therefore allowed to retain its creamy, rich density that it is renowned for.

Serving
To maintain its soft and smooth texture, Gelato is stored at a slightly warmer temperature (-14°C) compared to industrial Ice-Cream. In Southern Italy, the Ice-Cream Displays are all programmed colder than in the North. This is because they have a sweeter tooth and the sugar content affects the freezing point. The end result is soft and smooth Gelato which is scooped out of serving trays for all customers to enjoy.