LoveGelato - Learn all you need to know about Gelato making

Learn

“There’s many ways of making your own, here’s how…”

Ingredients

“These are the typical ingredients and why…”

Equipment

“Gelato making equipment, their uses and why…”

Complete Concepts

“Now you’ve made it, you need to sell it…”

We lovegelato, we want you to love it too…

Our mission at lovegelato is to remove the perceived mystery that shrouds the gelato and ice cream making business. Our aim is to show you that anyone can learn to make their own amazing gelato with a little training and the right equipment…

Yes, it’s true that to become a master you first must make a mess. We’ll help you work through the mess…

Our ‘How to’ section explains some of the typical options available to you. From using ‘ready made’ off the shelf products, right the way through to creating your own gelato recipe from scratch.

The ‘Ingredients’ section explains what the typical ingredients used in making your own gelato, why they’re in the recipe and what they bring to the party.

Our ‘Equipment’ section will walk you through all of the different pieces of equipment, whether they’re essential or ‘a nice luxury’ and the principles of their operation.

Once you’ve made your own great gelato, you need to sell it. Whether it’s in tubs for wholesale, in a standalone display as an ‘add on’ to your business, or you choose to build your own ice cream parlour, our ‘Concepts’ page can show you some options.

Ice Cream or Gelato?

What’s the difference?

Gelato’s just Italian ice cream, right? Well sort of but not really…

Gelato prides itself on being healthier than regular ice cream. In terms of calorie content this is a little misleading as they’re quite similar. But, from an ingredients perspective, gelato is usually made from fewer, higher quality ingredients making gelato arguably healthier than commercial ice creams. For example, ice cream can be made with a variety of different fats including refined vegetable and palm oils (amongst other things), which are used in combination with dairy fats, whereas the fat content in gelato comes from the dairy products used; whole milk, cream and sometimes egg yolks.

The philosophy of using the best possible ingredients and the fewest number of ‘other unnecessary ingredients’, is what makes Gelato a better, more healthier option for both body and soul…

There are a few technical differences as well...

Fat Content...

Compared to ‘American-style’ ice creams and custards, gelato has less fat in the base mix and American ice creams are heavy on cream and have a much higher fat content of at least 10% (this is considerably higher in most homemade and many premium versions). Gelato, by comparison, uses more milk than cream, and as a result it doesn’t have nearly as much fat, typically around 8%.

Air or overrun percentage...

Commercial ice creams are churned very quickly to whip in plenty of air (called overrun), which is aided by the high proportion of milk proteins in the base mix. High-end ice creams have an overrun of 25% or so, which means they’ve increased in volume by 25%. Cheaper commercial versions can run from 50% to over 90%, which gives them a light, thin, fast-melting texture that isn’t very flavoursome as half of the product is air. Gelato is churned at a slower speed, which introduces less air into the base mix which is why it tastes and feels denser than ice cream, it usually is. Overrun in gelato is usually no more than 30-35%.

These differences give gelato a more dense and milky texture that’s less creamy than ice cream. It’s not thin, but it lacks the plush, buttery fullness of its American cousin. Some say that gelato has a more intense flavour than ice cream, since it has less of the tongue-coating cold fat that gets in the way of tasting things. But we think it’s more accurate to say that gelato’s flavours come through direct, hard, and fast, then melt away clean.