Creamy Berry Gelato
I didn’t waste any time after the delivery of my new ice cream churn to start experimenting. With great enthusiasm, I launched myself into inaugurating the sleek new toy. Without too much research and just a germ of an idea, I made a delicious tasting orange and passionfruit sherbet that had a wholly unsatisfactory texture and mouthfeel, creamy, but thin and icy at the same time.
My motives for buying a new ice cream maker are purely selfish. Since finding I was lactose intolerant 2 years ago, ice cream has not touched my lips, but the ready availability of lactose free dairy products made me think this was a situation I could change. Making my own frozen desserts would also give me the advantage of controlling the fat and sugar content and not put my health in jeopardy with my indulgence.
After the failed sherbet, I began at the beginning.
The ingredients used to make ice cream prevent the end result from freezing as hard as a rock, typically high fat dairy products, sugar, alcohol, thickeners and emulsifiers.
Lactose free cream in Australia has a fat content of 18 – 20%, while regular cream has 35%. Reluctant to add 6-8 egg yolks to a batch of ice cream to increase the fat content, even for their thickening qualities I began looking at other options.
First I read the recipe book that came with the machine. (I know, I know RTFM) The gelato section advocated the use of cornflour and liquid pectin, then digging around on line I discovered an encyclopaedic explanation to the use of xantham gum.
Briefly, it’s a natural product produced through fermentation of glucose and an enzyme sourced from cabbages. Best known for it’s use in gluten free baking, neutral flavoured xantham gum has thickening properties which increases viscosity and therefore improves mouthfeel, the perfect solution for creamy ice cream, in theory……
And in practice!
Berry Delicious Gelato
1 cup of frozen blueberries
1 cup of frozen raspberries
200 mls milk (I used lactose free)
600 mls cream (I used lactose free)
3/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 teaspoon xantham gum
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons creme de cassis
Defrost the berries. Puree the berries in the blender, then strain to remove the chopped up skins and raspberry pips. Set aside.
Combine the cream and milk in a medium saucepan.
Combine the sugar and the anthem gum in a small bowl.
Bring the milk and cream to the boil. Remove it from the heat then slowly add the sugar and gum whisking continuously with a balloon whisk.
Return the pan to the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar is dissolved. The xantham gum will thicken the milky mixture very quickly. If the gum clumps together, use an immersion blender to disperse it.
Remove the pan from the heat, then stir in the berries, the lemon juice and the liqueur.
Chill the ice cream for 4 hours before churning according to the manufacturers instructions.
Freeze until ready to serve. Transfer the gelato from the freezer to the fridge 30 minutes before serving for an anthentic Italian texture.
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19 comments on “Creamy Berry Gelato”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
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Thanks for the plug Deb, i’ve had a very hectic couple of weeks so not much activity on the ice cream front, but with the onset of hot weather I’m thinking about coffee slushies. We love strong espresso here so fingers crossed! I’ve been working on intuition up to this point! Cassis and berries work beautifully together, I’ll be revisiting that combination once the berry season is in full swing.
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The link to your chocolate cinnamon sorbet isn’t working…I love reading your recipes, even if I won’t be making them!
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Sorry Bunty, there was a scheduling error with the wordpress Ipad app. the chocolate cinnamon sorbet recipe will be posted soon. Glad you like reading my recipes, maybe one day you’ll be inspired to try something
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Very nice! Is the xantham also needed with regular cream?
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I really can’t answer that Stefan as I haven’t tried it to know, but without a cream anglaise ice cream base, I think you need a little extra something to create a good texture.
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Love the addition of cassis and what a great explanation of xantham gum. Now I have to buy that professional ice cream maker and discard the hand churning types gathering dust on my shelves.
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I love the flavour of cassis with any berries, it seems to intensify their flavour. An ice cream churn with a compressor is wonderful. Pour the chilled mixture, turn it on, then go about your business.
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This looks so very good and what a great way to christen your ice cream maker! I use my machine all of the time — even taking it with me when I visit Zia — but i needn’t worry about lactose. That certainly puts a new wrinkle on things. I give you credit for coming up with a great LF recipe. I bet it gets copied and passed around by quite a few people.
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Thanks John, I’m sure there will be a batch if ice cream or gelato every week.
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Yum!
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Thanks Ms J..
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Intetesting, not just for the lactose intoletant folks but also for those who don’t wish to use the weekly egg supply in a batch of icecream. It looks delcious. Is xantham gum readily available?
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It’s really delicious Francesca and all but gone. The big supermarkets have xantham gum in with the healthy stuff for people who are baking gluten free. It made such a difference to the texture of the ice cream. i was amazed!
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I bought, an ice cream maker two months ago. Always wanted one. Still haven’t used it.
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Haha, common story Mary, what’s holding you back? I made my third batch today, i just love to experiment…
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I’m waiting for my granddaughters to visit me from interstate. That’s my story.
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Reblogged this on Favourite Gluten Free Recipes.
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