Italian Ice Cream At Home: Gelato And Semifredo Recipes With Photos

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Exotic at home: making real Italian ice cream

Italy is a wonderful country, which is famous not only for its hot climate, excellent conditions for tourist holidays, but also for its excellent cuisine. And not the last place is occupied by desserts, and most importantly - ice cream. Several recipes for an Italian dessert have long been known to the whole world and are well-deservedly popular. But you and I can easily implement it at home.

Gelato: a step-by-step recipe

One of the most popular types of Italian ice cream is gelato. Its preparation is not at all difficult, despite the seeming exoticism of the dessert.

For it you will need:

• 250 ml of milk 3.5%;
• 250 ml cream 33%;
• 160 g Sahara;
• 4 yolks;
• 1 tsp vanilla extract.

You can use only milk for making gelato, but since the classic recipe suggests that this is a very fatty ice cream, it is better to add cream. In addition, you can change the ratio of cream to milk as you like. But it will take time and experience to "fill your hand" and as a result of these experiments to get really good ice cream. Therefore, I advise: if you are going to prepare gelato for the first time, take milk and cream of the desired fat content in equal proportions.

1. Pour the milk and cream into a suitable container, add half the sugar. Place over medium heat and bring mixture to a boil, but do not let it boil. As soon as bubbles appear on the surface, immediately turn off the heat. As the boil starts, add the vanilla extract and stir.

   

   Don't bring the mixture to a boil, it should just be very hot.

2. Break apart the yolks and whites. Add the remaining sugar to the yolks. Beat with a mixer until the sugar is completely dissolved. Combine with a mixture of cream and milk, beat again until a rich foam forms.

   

   Whisk the yolks with sugar until smooth and light in color

3. Pour the resulting mixture into a saucepan and put in a water bath over low heat. Cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. The cream must not be allowed to boil. If you see that things are heading towards this, remove the mixture from the water bath for half a minute, and then return it back. After the mixture thickens, place the saucepan in cold water and stir for 2-3 minutes until cooled.

4. Use a container suitable for freezing. Pour the prepared mixture into it. Place in the freezer of the refrigerator for 4-6 hours. For the first hour and a half, do not touch the future ice cream, and then stir every half hour with a spatula. You can beat with a mixer to make the ice cream very airy.

   

   Freeze the mixture by beating it with a mixer

Gelato-chocolate

This dessert became very popular in the 80s of the last century, when the Italian singer Pupo sang the song "Gelato-Chocolato" about it. The cooking process is not very different from the one presented in the previous recipe.

Gelato-Chocolato recipe became popular all over the world thanks to the famous singer Pupo

Take these products:

• 250 g fresh cream;
• 150 g of milk;
• 150 g dark chocolate;
• 150 g sugar;
• 3 egg yolks;
• a pinch of vanilla or vanilla essence.

You will also need a thick-walled saucepan, a couple of bowls, and a mixer.

1. Put the chocolate, broken into pieces into a saucepan, melt, pouring in milk and cream. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and egg yolks until smooth. The mass should become light.
2. Pour the beaten eggs into the mixture of chocolate, milk and cream, put on low heat. Stir thoroughly until the mixture heats up well, but does not boil, otherwise the yolks will curl. After that, remove the pan from the stove, add vanillin to the contents and stir well again.
3. Pour the gelato ice cream blank into a suitable form, put in the refrigerator. After 4-5 hours, remove and beat with a mixer at low speed for 20 minutes. Now you can serve gelato on the table.

Video recipe: gelato-chocolato at home

Italian ice cream semifredo with berry puree

This dessert is a bit like gelato, but it is prepared using fruits and berries: pureed strawberries, currants, raspberries, strawberries, apples, apricots, pears.

Semifredo uses mint and puree of berries or fruits

For this recipe you will need:

• 300 g of strawberries or any other berries (fruits);
• 3 egg yolks;
• 120 g sugar;
• 200 ml heavy cream;
• a few mint leaves to taste.

Cooking process.

1. Chop berries or fruits in mashed potatoes with a blender. Combine them with sugar and yolks, mix thoroughly with a whisk or fork.

   

   Combine sugar, egg yolks and berry puree

2. Put the prepared mixture in a water bath and bring to a hot state, but not boiling. The optimum temperature is 72–75 ° C. It can be measured with a special culinary thermometer.

3. Place the container in which the mixture was prepared in a bowl of cold water. Beat with a mixer until cool. In a separate bowl, beat the cream until fluffy.

   

   Whisk the mixture until smooth and fluffy.

4. Mix all the masses together, add the chopped mint. Place the mixture in a mold and place in the freezer for 3-4 hours.

   

   Freeze the semifredo for a few hours and serve.

Berry Semifredo video recipe

It is not at all difficult to prepare Italian ice cream on your own, the products for it are quite affordable for us. We hope our recipes will help you diversify your dessert table and will be loved by your family and friends. Enjoy your meal!