homemade fior di latte gelato
I have long held the philosophy that sugar isn't worth ingesting unless it is part of a homemade desert, and even then I tend to use much less sugar than the typical recipe of that type calls for. The one exception to this rule that I have made is to eat gelato when living in Italy, because 1) it is hot there and 2) it isn't as sweet as your typical store-bought ice cream, so it actually tastes pretty nice. My all-time favourite flavour of Itaian gelato is Fior di Latte (which means "flower of milk", where "flower" = "best of", and, indeed, it is).
It has been several years since we bought our ice cream maker, and I have made a variety of yummy ice creams over the years. Yet, for some reason, it took till last November before it occurred to me to ask google for a recipe for Fir di Latte gelato, and then it took till today before I remembered to try it. If I hadn't had some cream in the fridge that we bought on the weekend and then didn't use I may not have looked into the "recipes I haven't tried yet" folder on my phone, but I did, and I am glad that I did.
The version I wrote down back in November called for 2 cups of milk (or half and half) and one cup cream. However, the "ecological" cream available in the store here comes in 300 ml packages. Therefore I put the cream into a 4-cup Pyrex mixing bowl, and added milk to it till I had a total of two cups liquid. Then I put one more cup of milk into a sauce pan on the stove with half a cup of sugar (the original recipe called for 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar, so, of course, my first try is with the low end of the range) and heated it till the sugar dissolved.
Then I mixed it with the milk/cream and a pinch of salt, and let it cool a bit before putting it into the ice cream maker. After it was done I did what I always do--divide the batch into a dozen silicone muffin cups and pop it into the freezer to become firmer while I happily licked the spoon, ice cream maker insert thingie that stirs the cream, and, of course, the walls of the ice cream maker itself. Then I washed up and went back to the freezer and took out one of the not yet firm servings, and ate it. Then had a second, because, Yum! ...now I am contemplating if I want to give in to the desire to go get a third.
It has been several years since we bought our ice cream maker, and I have made a variety of yummy ice creams over the years. Yet, for some reason, it took till last November before it occurred to me to ask google for a recipe for Fir di Latte gelato, and then it took till today before I remembered to try it. If I hadn't had some cream in the fridge that we bought on the weekend and then didn't use I may not have looked into the "recipes I haven't tried yet" folder on my phone, but I did, and I am glad that I did.
The version I wrote down back in November called for 2 cups of milk (or half and half) and one cup cream. However, the "ecological" cream available in the store here comes in 300 ml packages. Therefore I put the cream into a 4-cup Pyrex mixing bowl, and added milk to it till I had a total of two cups liquid. Then I put one more cup of milk into a sauce pan on the stove with half a cup of sugar (the original recipe called for 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar, so, of course, my first try is with the low end of the range) and heated it till the sugar dissolved.
Then I mixed it with the milk/cream and a pinch of salt, and let it cool a bit before putting it into the ice cream maker. After it was done I did what I always do--divide the batch into a dozen silicone muffin cups and pop it into the freezer to become firmer while I happily licked the spoon, ice cream maker insert thingie that stirs the cream, and, of course, the walls of the ice cream maker itself. Then I washed up and went back to the freezer and took out one of the not yet firm servings, and ate it. Then had a second, because, Yum! ...now I am contemplating if I want to give in to the desire to go get a third.