Type Ice cream Serving temperature Cold | Place of origin Sicily, Italy Origin Italy | |
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Main ingredients Milk, cream, sugar, flavoring ingredient (e.g. – fruit or nut puree) Similar Sorbet, Dessert, Soft serve, Tiramisu, Italian ice | ||
Gelato ([dʒeˈlaːto]; plural: gelati [dʒeˈlaːti], from the Italian word gelato meaning "frozen") is an English term 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. It is generally lower in fat, but higher in sugar, than other styles of ice cream. Gelato typically contains less air and more flavoring than other kinds of frozen desserts, giving it a density and richness that distinguishes it from other ice creams.
Contents
In Italy, by law, gelato must have at least 3.5% butterfat. In the United States, there is no legal standard of definition for gelato as there is for ice cream, which must contain at least 10% butterfat.
This dessert bar blowtorches their chocolate covered gelato
History
The history of gelato is rife with myths and very little evidence to substantiate them. Some say it dates back to frozen desserts in Sicily, ancient Rome and Egypt made from snow and ice brought down from mountaintops and preserved below ground. Later, in 1686 the Sicilian fisherman Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli perfected the first ice cream machine. However, the popularity of gelato among larger shares of the population only increased in the 1920s–1930s in the northern Italian city of Varese, where the first gelato cart was developed. Italy is the only country where the market share of artisanal gelato versus mass-produced gelato is over 55%. Today, more than 5,000 modern Italian ice cream parlors employ over 15,000 people.
Production
The mixture for gelato is typically prepared using a hot process first, where the sugars need to dissolve. White base is heated to 85 °C (185 °F) completing a pasteurization program. The hot process to make chocolate gelato varies, though typically it is flavored with cocoa powder.
As with other ice creams, the sugar in gelato prevents it from freezing solid. American commercial gelati are typically sweetened with sucrose, dextrose, or inverted sugar, and include a stabilizer such as guar gum.