My Italian mother-in-law gave me the recipe for this ice cream. You can build on this basic recipe with your preferred flavor combinations. Try including vanilla, chocolate shavings, or your preferred fruits. Play around with the desired flavors!
| Cook Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs |
| Servings: | 4 |
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 4 egg yolks
- ½ cup sugar
Instructions
- Mix milk and cream in a medium saucepan. Warm until foam forms around the edges. Remove from heat.
- Beat egg yolks and sugar until frothy in a large bowl. Gradually pour the warm milk into egg yolks and sugar, whisking constantly. Return mixture to saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture gels slightly and coats the back of the spoon. If small egg lumps begin to show, remove from heat immediately.
- Pour the mixture through a sieve or fine strainer into a bowl. Cover, and chill for several hours or overnight.
- Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to a sealed container, and freeze until firm. If the gelato is too firm, place it in the refrigerator until it reaches the desired consistency.
Reviews
Sounds really good, obviously this is just a base you’re going to add your own flavors to. I honestly can’t understand the comment about raw egg, if you follow all the steps the egg is definitely cooked. But possibly the flavor was more predominant because no other flavorings were added.
Made as outlined with the addition of 4oz of dark chocolate (as one reviewer suggested) into the warm custard. (I used 1 c. whole mild, 2 c. half and half which turns out to be the same ratios of milk to cream). I did strain through a fine sieve, but I’m not sure this was really necessary. I’m sure the base alone would taste fine by itself (it was sweet enough). The 4oz of chocolate turned this into a milky chocolate gelato, not a dark chocolate gelato as I would have preferred. Another reviewer said she added a CUP of powdered cocoa to hers – I plan to try that for batch #2, perhaps with some instant espresso. A single batch fit perfectly into my gelato maker. Glad I didn’t attempt to double this. It was ready to transfer to a freezer container after ~25 minutes of processing. For me, the texture wasn’t quite right. It was too airy creamy for my tastes, not “stretchy” as I’m accustomed to, and I have had gelato in Italy along with a ton of the other reviewers. I don’t think the addition of 4oz of chocolate caused the texture issue, more likely the 4 egg yolks. Will keep trying until I get this right!
I made the base gelato as written here and added vanilla and cinnamon for flavoring. It’s delightful! Very creamy and not too sweet at all. Looking forward to experimenting with other flavors.
it was perfect but I wish i didn’t take as long .
Very good! I added four large over ripe pureed mango to the recipe. Wow! So tastey!
it was really good, and my family agrees. we will most definitly make this again, and thank you
As far as I know, gelato contains no heavy cream and no eggs. This recipe is more of a homemade custard ice cream and not gelato
Thanks for the real authentic gelato recipe they are getting harder to find online. There are folks trying to undermine authentic recipes for profit and yours is a real recipe. Everyone should remember churning an ice cream mix slower doesn’t make it gelato the eggs do. as gelato traditionally is a frozen custard. You can tell the difference also by the facts that gelato flavors only last a few days before fading and its very hard to spoon at 32 degrees. Remember that you cannot buy packaged gelato in a store unless it was made and packaged there. Great real recipe thanks again
I’ve been using this recipe for years and everyone who has tasted it just raves. I most often use just a bit of vanilla but have tried toffee bits, fruit and ribbons of melted chocolate. My son in law’s favorite is tart frozen cherries and just enough of the juice to make the ice cream pink. I have a regular American ice cream maker so it might not pass a test should an Italian show up from Rome but my family goes crazy for it! Recently made 4 recipes and poured them into a lined springform pan and froze them solid for a huge and delicious gelato cake. It was wonderful!
I made this as my base and then I added ground pistachio nuts. Awesome. T Tonight I am making it with just a little vanilla and I plan to make lemon, coconut and chocolate versions this weekend. If you are tasting “raw egg” that means you have not stirred and cooked it long enough to properly coat the back of your spoon. Remember when you are adding the hot milk/cream mixture to the egg/sugar to constantly whisk the egg/sugar as you do (I do two people during this – one whisking and the other pouring little by little) – this step is slightly cooking the eggs so you want to keep that whisk moving! Then when you add it to the saucepan again to get some thickening going on, be sure to stir slowly and stop when it fully coats the back of your spoon.
This is my go-to gelato base recipe. I use the KitchenAid ice cream attachment. The gelato that this recipe makes is just wonderful. I prefer to eat the gelato as it’s completed here – freezing it afterwards changes the texture.
muah just perfecto and yummy just wow
Its really not too difficult to make I double the recipe. It doesn’t last long in the freezer!
When it first came out it was the BESTTTT. After freezing it was ok. After freezing for a few weeks it wasn’t that good anymore.
I made this one with some tea add to it. that make it taste great, I want cut down sugar little next time. too sweet with green tea taste.
Followed the recipe exactly and it came out good. Tried to double the recipe and we screwed it up. We are continuing to work with it in an effort to get enough and add flavors to it.
This was good. I expected a creamier texture but it was watery. I added a vanilla bean and nutmeg to keep in line with the original gelato alla crema.
Great recipe! Try the following flavouring…. 1) you can add a half cup of Nutella once the cream is hot before tempering the eggs (reduce sugar if you like). 2) You can add the zest of two lemons while the milk heats, then add 2/3 cups lemon juice after tempering the eggs and reheating the mix (in this case I’d use higher fat dairy to compensate for the wateriness of the lemon juice). 3) Add the zest of one orange to the fairy as it heats. Once heated, add 100g high quality dark chocolate and melt before continuing with tempering the eggs. Good luck!
I’m real focusing on texture. I’ve had a few good batches and will continue to work with this recipe. An Italian guy I work for says gelato should be made with no eggs, so I want to perfect it with no eggs, although eggs give it a nice texture.
No changes necessary, your Italian MIL was right on!
We made a cherry version of this by adding 18 large pitted diced cherries during the second heating and then adding another 12more large pitted diced cherries when it was placed in the ice cream maker.