Ice Cream – The Italian Connection. Ice Cream Desserts Italian Style. Gelato is the Italian word for ice cream. Italians use the word gelato to mean a sweet treat that is served frozen. Use of the word sorbetto is a common affectation in the United States. Gelato is the Italian form of ice cream. While it is very similar to American ice cream, there are a few differences. Italian Gelato ice cream is also much denser than commercial ice cream because it has much less air whipped into it. Even the colors are extremely vibrant and make the ice cream dessert a treat for the eye as well as the stomach. In homemade gelato the sugar content , as in traditional ice cream, is balanced with the water content to act as an anti-freeze to prevent it from freezing solid. Gelato, requires a stabilizing base and egg yolks are used in yellow custard-based gelato flavors, including zabaione and creme caramel. Non-fat milk solids are also added to gelato to stabilize the base so that making gelato is quite similar to making ice cream. The mixture uses a hot process first so that the sugars dissolve. Then there is paseurization using white heat to 85 degrees centigrade. The hot process to make chocolate gelato is essentially the same for conventional ice cream, and depending on recipes, it is usually flavored with cocoa butter and cocoa powder Gelato is typically frozen very quickly in individual small batches while the conventional ice cream is frozen with a continuous assembly line freezer. Air is incorporated during the freezing process making the mix lighter. The added air is called overrun normally 20-35% resulting in a more expensive, denser product and with more intense flavors.. Gelato is typically first flavored with cocoa, fresh fruit purees, and/or nut pastes. If other ingredients such as chocolate flakes, nuts, small confections, cookies, or biscuits are added, after the gelato is frozen. Gelato made with fresh fruit, sugar, and water and without dairy ingredients is sorbet or sorbetto. Sorbetto is a common affectation in the United States Historically speaking, milk-based gelato was common in Northern Italy while the fruit-and-water based sorbetto was common in the warmer climes of Southern Italy. Gelato is not homogenized as in other forms of ice cream. This means that it melts far quicker than regular ice cream. The origins of Italian ice cream are obscure. One story is that Marco Polo brought back ice cream from his adventures to China. There is however some doubt whether China had any ice cream at all during those times. It is generally assumed that ancient Persia and China were amongst the first nations to develop desserts made from fruits in the form of shaved ice or snow. In fact this discovery could have taken place simultaneously in many cultures.
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Although the role of Marco Polo in introducing ice cream to the Italians is unclear one thing that can be said for sure is that the Italians had a huge role to play in introducing the rest of Europe to ice cream desserts.
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