Super Gelato

Gelato, or the plural gelati, is Italy's regional variant of ice cream. As such, gelato is made with some of the same ingredients as most ice-creams around the world; milk (and cream), sugar (and other sweeteners), flavorings (fruits, nuts, essences, etc.) and air are the main ingredients. Unlike many types of ice cream, gelato often does not contain eggs. Other ingredients that stabilize or emulsify may be used to improve the shelf life of the product. Gelato can be made using the hot process, which includes pasteurization, or the cold process, which doesn't require pasteurization. Both processes require a gelato batch freezer, which makes the end product by mixing the ingredients and incorporating air. Like high-end ice cream, gelato generally has less than 55% air, resulting in a denser product.

Gelato is typically made with fresh fruit or other ingredients such as chocolate (pure chocolate, flakes, chips, etc.), nuts, small confectionsor cookies, or biscuits. Gelato made with water and without dairy ingredients is known as sorbetto (also known as sorbet). Traditionally, milk-based gelato originated in northern Italy, while the fruit and water-based sorbetto came from the warmer parts of southern Italy.

Dairy gelato is made with cow's milk (whole or skim) and contains less butterfat depending on the ingredients (nuts, milk, or cream increase the fat content). North American-style ice creams contain more butterfat than gelato does, ranging from 10% to 18%, since cream is used. Gelato is usually made with whole milk, which is 3 to 4% butterfat. Unlike other ice cream, dairy gelato ingredients are not homogenized, which results in a product that melts faster. Gelato tends to be stickier than ice cream once it melts.

Some gelato recipes call for eggs, although, with the homogenization of the gelato culture and mixes and stabilisers readily available and in use, eggs are being phased out as emulsifiers.

Some people have the misconception that the word "gelato" is related to "gelatin" and that the latter is an ingredient, chasing away vegetarians and other people wishing to avoid gelatin. Traditional gelato recipes do not call for it and most gelato is not made with gelatin. In Italian, "gelato" literally means "frozen." Similarly, water or cream-based confections served at elegant collations in the 1800s were called ices, as described in Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management (sections 1510, 1555ff) .

In the UK, gelato is served from a different freezer from American-style ice cream — aforced-air freezer—which is usually held at about -15°C (5°F). This allows the gelato to be served immediately after being extruded from the gelato machine — the "forced air" blowing around holds the product at a consistent temperature. In Italy, gelato is typically served with a spoon out of a special freezing tray, ensuring a thicker, more flavorful consistency. Much of the gelato experience lies in its semi-frozen consistency; therefore, you might serve ice cream from a gelato freezer but you would not serve gelato from an ice-cream freezer as the gelato would become too frozen.

Other countries make ice creams similar to gelato. In Argentina, helado is made much the same way. In France (though usually slightly higher in fat) glace is a very similar product and, in fact, was introduced to France by Catherine de' Medici (of Florence).

Ice Cream

Ice cream or ice-cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners. In some cases, artificial flavourings and colorings are used in addition to (or in replacement of) the natural ingredients. This mixture is stirred slowly while cooling to prevent large icecrystals from forming; the result is a smoothly textured ice cream.

The meaning of the term ice cream varies from one country to another. Terms like frozen custard, frozen yogurt, sorbet, gelato and others are used to distinguish different varieties and styles. In some countries, like the USA, the term ice cream applies only to a specific variety, and their governments regulate the commercial use of all these terms based on quantities of ingredients. In others, like Italy and Argentina, one word is used for all the variants. Alternatives made from soy milk, rice milk, and goat milk are available to those who are unable to tolerate traditional ice cream due to lactose intolerance or allergy to dairy protein.

The Origin of Chocolates

Chocolate, a drink so sacred that only persons of the most exalted rank could partake of it - such is the magnificent origin of the common cocoa and chocolate.

The cocoa tree was cultivated for centuries before the New World was discovered, by the Maya Indians, the Incas of Peru and the Aztecs of Mexico, and chocolate, the drink prepared from its seeds was the national drink of the Aztecs. The Emperor Montezuma liked it flavored with vanilla but the majority of people added spices of many kinds.

When Cortez conquered Mexico in 1519 chocolate soon became a favorite drink with the Spaniards, and as a result it was introduced into Spain and eventually, in the 17th century, to the rest of Europe.

It was, however, an extremely expensive drink, costing from ten to fifteen shillings a pound, an exceptionally high price in those days.

The reason for its costliness is not far to seek. The cocoa tree is very particular as to where it will grow and even today, with all the scientific resources that a man has to hand, it still grows only in a narrow belt within ten degrees of the equator. Another reason is that each tree bears only a few pods; in fact the average annual yield is only two pounds of dried beans, equivalent to a pound of cocoa powder.

So it was that when the first chocolate drinking house was opened in London, in 1657, it was frequented in the main by people of wealth and fashion.

The drinking chocolate popular in the days of Queen Anne was very different from the refined and palatable beverage we know today. It was thick and rich, and either spiced or very sweet, and made from the whole bean with its full butter content.

By the early nineteenth century cocoa butter was balanced by farinaceous additives such as arrowroot, and made in handy blocks from which the required portion could be scraped into the cup or saucepan.

It was not until Van Houten of Holland, introduced in 1828 a method of pressing the cocoa butter out of the cocoa bean that anything resembling present day cocoa could be prepared. In fact it was not until Cadbury's brought out their Cocoa Essence in 1866 that a pure cocoa was available.

As to the introduction of eating chocolate, it is only assumed that as chocolate was sold in blocks no doubt cooks - and others - formed the habit of nibbling a bit while they were scraping it into cups !

For some years, however, after Van houten had introduced his mew method of preparing chocolate, most manufacturers still continued to make it in the old way that is by adding a quantity of arrowroot or some such substance to counterbalance the fattiness of the cocoa butter.

In 1824 a young Quaker, John Cadbury, opened a shop in Bull Street, Birmingham, for the sale of tea and coffee. He nevertheless experimented in the cellar of his shop with cocoa beans and was soon selling his own cocoa and chocolate.

This venture was so successful that in 1831 he rented a small factory to enlarge his manufacturing capacity and, in 1847, he took his brother into partnership and thus was founded the world-famous firm of Cadbury Brothers.

Formerly the chocolate centers were covered by the "bowlandfork" method. The centre was taken on a light, pronged fork, dipped into a bowl of liquid two-chocolate and withdrawn.

A few of the most expensive chocolates are still covered this way, but practically all-popular assortments are covered by machines called enrobers.

The enrobing machine consists of a conveyor mesh on which the chocolate centers travel through a cascade of liquid chocolate after which any identification marking or decorations are added, when they are then ready for packing.