Alan wanted gelato. Any flavor gelato as long as its vanilla. Of course.
So I found a recipe for Sicilian gelato that met most of my basic requirements and then I made some changes to fine tune it to our specific tastes and preferences. The result was pure heaven. Below is the exact final recipe that I used to make gelato last night. I think its perfect and hope you try it and agree.
Ingredients:
2 cups/ 500 ml whole milk*
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup/ 250 ml double/heavy cream
pinch salt
2 T cornstarch (cornflour) dissolved in a few spoonfuls of milk
*Pls note I used full cream, pure Jersey milk (5%) which is quite wonderful and very different from supermarket "whole milk" which is 3.8 - 4% at best. If you are in the UK, my favorite brand is Grahams Gold smooth which I buy at Sainsburys.
Method:
In a medium saucepan, bring 1 cup of the milk almost to a simmer with the sugar - heat it, whisking, until the sugar dissolves.
Add the cornstarch dissolved in a bit of milk and stir till it starts to thicken. Bring just to a simmer when the first bubbles show. Immediately remove from the heat, pour into a bowl. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla (or vanilla seeds, etc) and whisk to start cooling it down. Allow to stand and cool for an hour covered by a disk of parchment or cling wrap to prevent a skin forming.
When the base has cooled down, remove the parchment disk (You'll want to scrape off any custard sticking to the paper back into the bowl. Every drop is precious.) Pour in the rest of the milk, the cream and a pinch of salt. Whisk briefly to combine and pour into ice cream machine.
Freeze in the bowl of an ice cream machine. It took me 55 minutes to get the gelato to soft eating consistency, your machine may vary. The rest I put in a container in the freezer to firm up more for eating later.
This makes 2 plastic storage containers full, about 1 quart total.
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This gelato has a wonderfully clean, fresh, delicate taste. It's also a perfect base to add fruit, nuts, flaked chocolate, syrups, endless mix-ins to create the custom flavor of your choice. My next batch I plan to add cinnamon stick to the milk/sugar mix and let that infuse.
Did Alan like it you ask? Yes, he actually liked the taste and texture fresh made. He had issues with it after it sat in our freezer overnight. He claimed he could taste a few ice crystals. I couldn't but Alan is our "Princess and the Pea" tester. I say just take it out of the freezer 10 - 15 min before serving and it will be perfect. Or eat it fresh made and enjoy the best of the best.
