Continuing with the strawberry theme and touching on one of my absolute favorite things to make at home, I tried making Strawberry Gelato for the first time last week. I used this recipe from Bon Appetit, which is actually for ice cream sandwich cookies which look absolutely divine. I intended to make the cookies, too, but once Adam and I started to eat the gelato, I knew we weren’t going to have enough left over to make the sandwiches! Next time I make this (tentatively scheduled for tomorrow!) I plan to make the sandwiches, and will post that here as well. Of course!
It all starts with gorgeous strawberries. Every time I buy strawberries, I always try to pick the package with the smallest strawberries — I know it seems counter-intuitive, since the huge strawberries you usually see dipped in chocolate seem so luxurious and special, but if you have the choice you should go for smaller strawberries. The smaller ones are almost always sweeter and they have less of of a hull so it feels like there’s less waste (I know I’m not alone in really hating to throw food out!). It does mean more prep though, so there’s a trade off! Totally worth it in my opinion.
Once the strawberries are chopped up, I put them in a bowl and used an immersion blender to puree them. The instructions call for using a food processor, but I think it’s easier to use my immersion blender and there are fewer things to wash later. You just want to be careful when you first start pureeing, if you don’t watch out you’ll be covered in strawberry guts! I find that short bursts and repeatedly lifting the blender and putting it on a new spot is the best way to puree without ending up wearing the fruit.
Sorry, back up one step: The first thing you have to do in this recipe is prepare the milk, cream, and cornstarch base. This is really simple and is done quickly on the stove, so I didn’t think it needed documentation. Once the base is cooked and cooled, and the strawberries are pureed, you strain the berries into the base:
Then you mix everything up and add the pomegranate juice (which I’m pretty sure is used only for the color):
Then you pop it in the fridge and wait a few hours, then into the ice cream maker it goes:
Have I told you yet how much I love my ice cream maker?
Mine’s actually an attachment that fits my Kitcheaid mixer, which is perfect for a NYC kitchen because it’s one less thing to have on the counter! My KA lives on my counter, so swapping the ice cream bowl in for the metal bowl is super easy and I don’t even have to clear off any room to fit it. I store the bowl in the freezer, that way I can make ice cream whenever the mood strikes (otherwise I’d have to plan ahead and freeze the bowl the day before, and honestly I’m just not that organized). It does take up a lot of room in my tiny freezer, but it’s worth the sacrifice! I do put stuff inside so that not all the space is wasted . . .
Anyway, after about 20 minutes in the ice cream maker it was at soft-serve texture and ready for the freezer. You should follow your own model’s instructions as far as time goes, I hear different ice cream makers are drastically different in terms of time. I’ve used mine so often that I don’t even check the time anymore, I just let it go until the consistency looks right. You’re looking for the texture to be thicker than pudding. I’ve found that it’s better for sorbets to go a few minutes past soft-serve texture in order to ensure it doesn’t freeze too hard, but for this gelato I stopped as soon as I got to soft-serve and it froze to the perfect consistency.
The texture of the finished gelato was absolutely perfect (when I scooped it for this glamor shot it was a bit too cold, that’s why you see those cracks). And the flavor was spot-on strawberry ice cream, which in my opinion is a different flavor than just “strawberry.” More like a strawberry milkshake than biting into a strawberry, if you know what I mean. The best compliment? My dad loved it!
It wasn’t as good as the stuff we had in Rome, but I don’t think that’s actually possible anyway . . . besides, I need the excuse to go back to Rome! Right?
