To many there’s one
festival that outshines all others. Cue
the accordion and mandolin music. That being the Gelato Festival, which is on
tour just in time for the summer heat, stopping in 12 Italian cities between
now and October.
Gelato
pilgrims will be able to watch gelato makers at work, taste and vote for their
favorite flavors, and sample a special flavor in each city, including Nutella
and a mango-kiwi-strawberry combination. There will also be opportunities to
learn how gelato is produced and participate in gelato-making classes.
Locations include Rome, Naples, Florence, and Torino.
Note:
Dates have not been confirmed; please check the official event website for
updates. http://www.gelatofestival.it/en
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It all started with Bernardo Buontalenti (1531-1608), who invented ice cream in Florence, Italy. Why hasn't this man been canonized? |
WHAT IS GELATO?
Gelato is the Italian
word for ice cream made in an Italian style. Gelato is made with a base of
milk, cream, and sugar, and flavored with fruit and nut purees and other
flavorings. To grasp the true meaning of
Gelato, this blog has gone to great lengths to define Gelato by reaching out to
a recognized world expert in deliciousness: the Morelli Gelato family, which
has been making Gelato since 1907. Five
generations after being founded (in England) by Italian immigrant Guiseppe
Morelli, the Morelli’s have expanded with locations in London, Dubai, Bahrain,
Manila, Dammam, Kuala Lumpur, Broadstairs (Kent, UK), Tbilisi, Monaco, Kuwait,
Dallas and Libreville (Gabon).
SO, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GELATO AND ICE CREAM?
.
SO, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GELATO AND ICE CREAM?
GUEST BLOG / By
Morelli’s Gelato--What
is the difference between gelato and ice cream?
Gelato
is the Italian word for ice cream, so you could argue that gelato and ice cream
are the same. However we all know that there’s a big difference between the
soft, smooth texture and clean taste of gelato compared to American-style ice
cream's heavier, richer texture? So why the difference? It comes down to these
factors: fat, sugar, air and serving temperature.
Firstly,
let us explain how all ice cream/gelato is made. All ice cream is mostly water,
and as we all know as water freezes it forms hard, crunchy ice crystals. The
goal of ice cream making is keeping those crystals as small as possible through
added ingredients and technique (and of course creating great flavour!). Ice
cream makers manage this crystallisation in the following ways:
Fat
- If fat (ie milk or cream) is emulsified into the base mix it becomes mixed in
between the water molecules and literally gets in the way of ice as it freezes.
Sugar
- This also forms a physical barrier to the crystallisation process. When sugar
is dissolved into water it forms a syrup which has a lower freezing point than
plain water and the higher the concentration of sugar the lower the freezing
point becomes. As water starts to freeze in a syrup the unfrozen water becomes
a more concentrated syrup. With reducing temperatures this process continues
until eventually you have small ice crystals in a syrup so concentrated it will
never freeze
Air
- This is incorporated into ice cream during the churning process. A more
aerated ice cream has a fluffier, less dense texture.
The
temperature ice cream is stored at also has effect: colder ice creams are
harder and more solid, while warmer ones are softer, with a looser texture.
We’ll talk about this more later on.
There
are some other tricks to keep ice cream soft, such as alcohol, starch, protein
(in egg and milk), and natural stabilisers like guar gum and carageenan, but
the top four above are the main factors for all ice creams.
The
difference between ice cream and gelato Compared to today's American-style ice
cream gelato has less fat in the base and less air churned into it during the
freezing process.
American-style
ice creams are generally heavy on cream, and have a fat content of at least 10%
(which can be considerably higher in most homemade and many premium versions).
Gelato
uses more milk than cream, so it doesn't have nearly as much fat.
American-style
ice creams are churned quickly to whip in plenty of air (called overrun) which
is helped by the high proportion of cream in the base. Most luxury ice creams
have an overrun of around 25% which means they've increased the mix in volume
by 25%. Cheaper commercial versions can run from 50% to over 90%, which gives
them a light, thin, fast-melting texture with less flavour as in reality you
are eating mostly air!
Gelato
is churned at a much slower speed, which introduces less air into the base. So,
you get more pleasure per mouthful with gelato!
All
these differences give gelato a dense, milky texture that's less creamy than
the fat heavy American-style ice creams.
Gelato
has a more intense flavour than ice cream, since it has less cold fat that
coats the tongue and gets in the way of tasting things. Gelato's flavours come
through directly and quickly then melt away, leaving a clean mouth.
Serving
Temperature So if gelato has less fat and air than ice cream, you may wonder
why it isn’t hard? It's because of the last big factor; temperature.
Gelato
is best served at a slightly higher temperature than ice cream. If you freeze
gelato really cold, it will become very hard. However, when it is ‘warmer’ it
has a perfect soft consistency. If you stored ice cream at the same warmer
temperature, it would melt and become watery as the high fat in water emulsion
would melt too fast.
That’s
why we recommend that our gelato is best eaten in store, as it is freshly made
and held and served at the correct temperature. If you do wish to take away a
litre of our ice cream to enjoy at home, we suggest you let the gelato stand
for 30 minutes after removing from the freezer in order for it to ‘warm up’ to
the correct serving temperature.
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