Hantverk & Receptur
Short answer: raise the dry matter with milk powder, cream and egg yolk instead of glucose syrup or inulin. You get the creamy texture, together with richness and flavor.
There are many ways to build a gelato recipe. You can use glucose syrup, inulin and other ingredients to raise the dry matter and get the texture you want. But that is a cheap trick, we’ve chosen not to do it that way.
What we use instead
Milk powder, mainly. Not in place of fresh milk, but as a way to get more milk solids and more milk protein into the base without adding more water at the same time.
Milk protein helps with body, structure, and how the gelato yields when you scoop it. To me this is a more natural way to build a gelato, because we’re simply concentrating something that’s already in the milk.
The rest is straightforward. Fresh grass-fed milk from local farms here in Österlen, Sweden. Sometimes we also use goat milk from our own goats. Cream is used for fat and richness. Egg yolk for flavor, richness and to emulsify, i.e. combining liquids that normally separate into a smooth mixture. We refrain from using pre-pasteurized liquid egg yolk, instead we crack every egg by hand. No powdered bases, no synthetic pastes, no coloring, no chemical stabilizers.
Why our gelato is around 12 to 13 percent fat
That’s fairly high for gelato, and it’s exactly how we want it.
We make gelato alla crema, the Italian cream-based style. It differs from the lighter gelato al latte that many people now associate with Italian gelato. You get the richness of a cream-based ice cream together with the density and flavor intensity of gelato, which comes from churning slowly instead of whipping air into it.
If it’s pistachio, it should taste like pistachio
For me it isn’t enough that a gelato has perfect texture. It has to taste like the flavor name, a lot. That’s really what’s behind most of the choices we make.
“Wow, this raspberry ice cream tastes so much of raspberries!“ — Heard from a customer at the gelato cart.
If we make chocolate, it should taste of plenty of chocolate. We use French chocolate from Michel Cluizel because they are known for their strict quality standards. The chocolate is free of soy lecithin, artificial additives and preservatives. If we make pistachio, we want a proper amount of pistachio, in our case 12% Sicilian pistachio paste and a pinch of sea salt. If we make raspberry, the flavor should come from real raspberries, ours from Grevlunda Bär, guaranteed free from chemicals, here on Österlen, Sweden.
FAQ
Is milk powder an additive?
It’s milk with the water removed. Using it means using more of what milk already is, which is different from an artificial stabilizer that only changes the consistency but carries no flavor or nutrients.
What’s the difference between gelato alla crema and gelato al latte?
Alla crema is built on cream and egg yolk and is richer. Al latte is milk-based and lighter.
About the author
Oskar Edwall makes gelato alla crema at Oskars Gelato, on a farm outside Smedstorp in Österlen. Oskar began his gelato experiments in 2023 and the next year started selling from a cart in Kiviks hamn and at events around Skåne. This is part of a series on authentic artisan gelato craftsmanship.