Chocolate Gelato 

This is the first time we have ever made gelato. Gelato is the Italian word for ice cream, and we have made ice cream many times but this is different in the sense that there is very little cream and it has 4 egg yolks. So this is more like a frozen custard.

Usually there are noticable ice crystals in the ice cream we make simply from cream, milk, sugar and vanilla. We have made ice cream using eggs as a base, which is quite excellent, although it is not really gelato. But at least there are very small ice crystals so it does seem extremely smooth.

But this chocolate gelato is even smoother and richer. Some of this is because of the 4 egg yolks instead of the two whole eggs in the traditional egg-based ice cream. 

Method

On the stovetop we heated the milk, cream and a ½ cup of sugar in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan, just until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is simmering. The add the cocoa powder and chocolate pieces and whisk until smooth. It is like an extremely rich hot chocolate at this point. Reduce the heat and let sit while you deal with the eggs.

Add the 4 egg yolks and ¼ cup of sugar to a work bowl and whisk until the it becomes a pale yellow and really thick. This takes about 3 - 5 minutes. 

In that same bowl you will want to temper the egg mixer by slowly adding and whisking a ½ cup of the hot chocolate mix. Whisk thoroughly and then add it back into the hot sauce pan over a medium heat. Use a fry thermometer and make sure it does not get over 180° F, whisk the whole time until it reaches that temp and becomes thicker.

Once is becomes thick pour the mix into a work bowl and add the vanilla, salt and whiskey. Whisk a little bit and then chill in the fridge. You can also chill the bowl in an ice bath for quicker results.

Once is it been chilled you can add it into your ice cream machine.

Freeze for a few hours and serve. 

• 2 eggs
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar)

Update: September 11, 2011

Having just weathered a few days of heat here in the Northwest we needed to give Italian Ice another try. This time I wanted to do it even quicker and with less mess than last time.

So first I made a simple syrup with 1/2 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water. Brought it to a boil and left it until it went clear. I then turned the heat off, waited about 2 minutes and added in whole chuncks 8 ounces of chocolate. I did not chop them at all. Just place them all in there and wait another minute or two and then gently stir. As the chocolate melts whisk everything together and it turns into an excellent rich sauce. I whisked for a few more minutes and added about 1 ounce of whiskey, and it loosened up the sauce a bit more.

Then I just added the sauce to a blender with 2 1/2 cups of ice and blended until smooth. Then it went right in the ice cream maker for 25 minutes.

This is the quickest way I have found yet to make anything like ice cream. The whole thing took 10 minutes.

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Italian Ice is a dessert, served as far as we know only in New York and surrounding areas. We just created this recipe from scratch based on what we remembered it tasted like, seemed quick, and ingredients we had around.

We looked on the web and found recipes that use cocoa powder, water and sugar. But we wanted to use real dark chocolate because the fat in the chocolate would make the ice smoother and the flavor would be richer.

The result was excellent, this is an extremely rich, chocolately dessert that was very quick to make. Anytime you make ice cream with eggs you need to heat the mix together, and then wait for everything to chill. To bypass that step we just used a little less water and then used ice to chill everything fast.

Makes 1 quart of Chocolate Italian Ice

Method

Add the chocolate, sugar and corn syrup to a sauce pan and gently heat, just enough to slightly melt the chocolate mix. If you use too much heat you will burn the chocolate.

Note: you could also use a microwave, using short high-heat bursts.

As it is melting add 1/4 cup of the water until mixed. Then add another 1/4 cup of water and mix again.

Note: adding water to fat-based mixes is difficult so do it in batches slowly.

Then add enough ice, about 2-3 cups to quickly chill the mix and melt the ice for the additional water.

Place the chilled mix, with the ice in a blender and run for 30 seconds or so. If you have any large pieces of ice left just remove them.

Place the blended mix in your ice cream maker for 20-30 minutes, depending on the instructions.

Place the freezer for a few hours until hard.