OMG, this tonsilectomy thing is way more painful and disruptive than I imagined. It took me a lot of piecing together moments of lucidity, but, alas, here it FINALLY freaking is!!!...
I've tried several online Paleo ice cream recipes and hadn't found what I was looking for. What I found tasted pretty good, but the texture just wasn't what I wanted. I like ice cream, but for me, it has to be creamy. I don't like to feel that icy crunch in my teeth when I eat it. When I started making full dairy ice cream from scratch years ago, I liked it but I was always looking for that super creamy result. I discovered homemade gelato when I was 19 and that was that; it had to be gelato. Don't get me wrong, I also loved the occasional bowl of Amy's Ice Cream or a cup of Marble Slab Creamery up until a few years ago, when I had to drop the weight and gain muscle. Staring at the big 4-0, I resolved to only eat dairy ice cream at birthdays in the form of a slice of Dairy Queen ice cream cake. I'm from Texas, y'all, it's what we do and they are FABULOUS! No frozen cake waste of space, all ice cream with a thick vein of chocolate cookie crumble and gooey caramel dividing the vanilla and chocolate ice cream and that frozen whipped icing for the borders, the only place that "stuff" belongs. Practically everyone in my family gets them on their birthday. It's definitely a tradition. It's a tradition I now plan to make Paleo! I am working on the gooey river of chocolate crunch and caramel goodness soon, but today I will share with you my base recipe that will give me my I birthday cake next year!!
The difference between ice cream and gelato is fat content. When you eat ice cream you feel it's creaminess mostly on your tongue, that is sometimes and if at all, but gelato you feel on your tongue, the roof of your mouth, your teeth, the back of your throat...everywhere. Ice creams are made with skim or whole milks and eggs generally. Some folks use a little half and half, thus getting into gelato territory. Gelato is made with full fat whipping cream, sometimes thinned with half and half and lots of yolks.
As the former Pastry Chef at a high end Italian restaurant some 18 years ago, I've definitely made my fair share of granita and gelato. Making a creamy ice cream in a Paleo fashion seemed like a waste of time to me, because I figured there was no way to get that gelato texture using almond or coconut milk. I am new to alternative Paleo ingredients and hadn't realized you could separate the full fat coconut milk and basically get full fat cream. A-ha! I just add a portion of the separated coconut cream to canned unseparated coconut milk to give it the extra creamy feel. That, along with tempering and then actually cooking your egg yolks into the cream, is what gives you GELATO! (Angels voices and harps can be inserted here...)
So, now that I'm all done with the wordy crap, here's the recipe:
Paleo Gelato Coconut Base:
-see flavoring ideas and instructions below recipe.
2 cans full fat coconut milk
1/3c coconut cream*
1/3-1/2c honey or sweetener of your choice (maple syrup and bacon crush-ins make a wicked flavor)
1t vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean split open
6 large egg yolks
1. In a medium sauce pot pour in the cans of coconut milk, the 1/3c coconut cream, honey and the vanilla extract or the split bean pod. Stir with a large heat resistant rubber spatula. Place over medium heat and stir occasionally, until steam rises from the pot. Turn off heat.
2. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks until combined and smooth.
3. If you have a nonskid materiel, place it under your bowl. Using a ladle in one hand and whisking the yolks continually with the other, slowly drizzle the hot cream to your yolks. This is called tempering. Drizzle in around 1 cup of the hot cream. Put your whisk away and using your rubber spatula, slowly pour in the tempered yolks to your pot of cream whilst stirring.
4. Turn heat back on to medium/medium high heat and stir constantly, painting the entire surface of the bottom of your pan with the large rubber spatula. Work from one side to the other and back again, making sure to scrape every inch of the bottom. This will keep your yolks and cream from separating while cooking. Switch arms if you get tired, as you need to do this for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture steams while still on the heat. Turn off heat.
5. Move your gelato to a container to chill in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.
6. When gelato is chilled through, run it through your choice of ice cream maker and follow that machine's directions.
*make coconut cream by placing a can of coconut milk upside down in the refrigerator for a few hours or more. Careful not to shake or disturb contents too much. Very gently turn over the can and use a picture can opener to make two small holes and then invert can again to drain out the liquid from the can. Use the blade can opener and open can and scoop out the cream from the bottom half. This method seems to retain the most cream from each can and is a bit quicker than trying to fish out chunks of cream bobbing around in the coconut water. Save coconut water for smoothies or sauces or to drink.
Gelato Flavoring:
There are two types of flavors: dry and wet. To achieve the gelato texture of this recipe, you back w to account for anything additional that you add to flavor it. If you are adding a dry flavor, such as nuts, chocolate or candy chunks, herbs or spices, instant coffee or even swirling in thick ingredients, like caramel or fudge just as your ice cream machine is finishing up, there is no reason to worry about your gelato being creamy enough: carry on. If you want to add a flavor that requires adding a wet ingredient, i.e. water content, then you need to consider what you are adding and what you need to change. I am talking about fruit (except banana) or berry purées, liquor, wine or anything else liquidy in nature that you'd feel like adding. If you change nothing, you will likely end up with an iciness to your texture or a crunch between your teeth. With fruit and berries, you have the option of cooking them down and adding a thickening agent. You will need to add them cooled to room temperature to the cream when you are gearing it up or you can swirl it in at the end of the machine cycle. You can also add the. Raw and pureed, but be resigned to the fact that your gelato just wont be as quite as creamy and you will need to reduce some of the canned coconut milk in the base recipe. With liquor, there is no thickening or cooking out the liquid. You will need to reduce some of the canned coconut milk in the base recipe to account for the amount you are adding in flavoring and, again, expect a thinner gelato, but still creamy. Coffee is by far my fav, but pistachio is killer and so is caramel. For chocolate, just use some natural cocoa powder to taste and away you go! You can use a Paleo chocolate sauce or hot fudge recipe to make a richer chocolate. Add it to the cold cream before you heat it for the first time.
I hope these notes help. Please let me know what worked and what didn't. I am still learning here and hope to keep these recipes always moving in a yummier direction...
Cheers!
