March 11, 2019

Forget Fellini, he’s small fry.  (See a prior post).

This past week was Gelato Week.

We started out gently on Sunday the 3rd, belying what was to come next.  We had a free morning then had lunch of Risotto followed by Rolled Stuffed Pork with Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli followed by an Orange Marmalade Crostata (from marmalade we made during conserves week) in individual butter crusts that Ryan spent the better part of a day making.

In the afternoon we went to three gelaterie (plural of gelateria) to taste and critique gelati.  Chef Juan suggested that we sample the same gelati at each shop so we had a consistent point of comparison.  He further suggested that the two gelati be Fiordilatte and Nocciola (hazelnut).

Fiordilatte is absolute simplicity, consisting of milk, cream, and sugar.  There’s not even any vanilla.  There’s no hiding poor quality when making Fiordilatte.  In addition, Fiordilatte is the base for many different gelati so tasting that one gives a strong clue to the quality of many others, including many fruit gelati.

Nocciola is flavored with hazelnut paste—a very expensive nut paste if it’s made well.  Nut-based gelati are very popular in southern Italy and cost almost twice as much to make as Fiordilatte due to the cost of the nut paste.  Tasting a nut-based gelato is a good way to see if a gelateria is cutting corners, either in quantity or quality of nut paste.

We were, in fact, allowed to order as many different gelati at each shop as we wanted.  Most of us just ordered two, with one or two people also ordering an extra pistachio gelato to share.

We got back to school late afternoon and had a few free hours before dinner.

Monday started with several hours of lecture about gelato, including topics like serving temperature; ideal qualities (sweetness, creaminess, fluffiness, yumminess, and stability); ideal ranges for each of the major compounds in gelato (fat, sugar, protein, solids, etc.); anti-freezing power of different ingredients in gelato; basic gelato equipment; major indicators of poor quality gelato; gelato “pre-mixes” (the gelato equivalent of a boxed cake mix…you can guess how Chef feels about these!); and the differences between sorbetto, cremolata, and gelato.

Around 11 AM we had a brief pause for a “grilled cheese” sandwich of house-made Porchetta and Fontal cheese on house-made rolls, cooked in truffle butter!  Truffle butter here is made from whole fresh truffles smooshed with butter—none of the (fake) “truffle” oil.  This was just to tide us over until lunch at 1 PM which consisted of a caprese salad and focaccia followed by pasta e fagioli.

The afternoon was taken up by the production of a number of different gelato bases that were pasteurized and then refrigerated.  The texture and flavor of the gelato improves if the mixture (called the base) is refrigerated for 24 hours before gelling.  The following bases were made:

1. Fiordilatte (milk, cream, sugar, dextrose, skim milk powder [needed for extra protein] and guar gum and locust bean gum [as stabilizers])
2. Caramel
3. Nut base (to be mixed with various nut pastes for an array of gelati)
4. Strawberry Sorbetto (a sorbetto is a gelato without dairy products)
5. Lemon Sorbetto
6. Savory Peanut Gelato
7. Orange Cream Gelato
8. Coffee Gelato
9. Rum Gelato

Don’t freak out about the guar gum and locust bean gum.  Both are really agricultural products that have been eaten for hundreds of years.  The alternative is using egg yolks, which are used in some gelati and which are more common in northern Italian, rather than southern Italian, gelati.  The disadvantage is that egg yolks introduce an eggy taste.

On Tuesday chef made the base for a chocolate sorbetto.  Remember, sorbetto has no dairy products.  When it was frozen it was absolutely delicious.  If you didn’t know, you would never imagine in your lifetime that it had no milk or cream!

Chef also made a “Yellow Base” using egg yolks and mascarpone, which was ultimately turned into Vanilla Gelato, as well as a Strawberry Coulis that was later swiped into a simple Fiordilatte gelato.

As the day progressed, many of the gelato bases from the previous day were frozen and then, of course, eaten.  When I say many, I mean MANY.

Since Tuesday was Fat Tuesday, and this being Italy, we ate well.  In between various gelati, lunch consisted of several meatball creations.  One was meatballs put onto a very large ring-shaped bread with lots of tomato ragu and cheese.  The next were meatballs cooked with sweet peppers and also made into sandwiches.  The third was meatballs and sauce on ciabatta.

Most of the afternoon was devoted to making gelato bases.  We each were tasked with coming up with a flavor of gelato, with swipe-ins and toppings if desired, and executing it.  Executing gelato means math.  There are ideal proportions for each chemical component of gelato and we had to create our formulas to achieve these proportions.  For example, milk is not just milk, it is water, sugar, fat and protein.

The optimum proportions of each ingredient, according to Chef are:

1. 6-12% fat (less than ice cream)
2. 16-22% sugar, of which glucose is not more than 20% (more than ice cream)
3. 8-12% skim milk solids
4. 58-68% water
5. 32-42% dry residual

This adds up to more than 100% because the dry residual is not a separate category but is the combination of anything in the gelato mix that remains behind if it is dried out, e.g. milk solids, sugar, etc.

Coming up with a new gelato formula, then, means determining which ingredients in which proportions will produce a mix of the desired qualities.  Of course, this is only the beginning.  The gelato has to taste yummy, too.  But getting the numbers correct is a step in the right direction.

I chose to make Tiramisu gelato for which I needed to come up with a Mascarpone gelato base.  I then needed to make tiny, tiny cakes flavored with espresso that were baked, dried and re-baked until crisp before being soaked in rum syrup and dropped into the gelato while it was being extruded.  On top was a drizzle of chocolate mixed with oil so it would not get too hard.

Wednesday started with an explanation of how to make Brioss (dialect for Brioche).  These are similar to French Brioche.  They are used for gelato sandwiches.  Unlike American “ice cream sandwiches,” these are truly sandwiches:  fluffy, slightly sweet brioche filled with different flavors of gelato, often three of them.

Chef gelled some of the Fiordilatte base from the previous day and made Stracciatella (ragged) gelato.  Stracciatello gelato  is basically Fiordilatte on top of which is drizzled wisps of melted chocolate which are broken up and worked into the gelato when it is served.    Chef also made Frutta di Bosco (fruit of the forest) gelato (mixed berry gelato) after which Chef Juan made Masa Chablon (a chocolate coating) using white chocolate.

Chef then made his knock-off of Nutella, which he had made previously.  It is simply a mixture of about 2 parts melted, high-quality milk chocolate and 1 part hazelnut paste with a pinch of sugar.  Without a doubt I could sit and just eat tubs of this stuff.

Nut pastes in Italy are truly amazing—and very expensive.  They are basically nuts, and nuts only, ground under heavy rollers until they produce the most ethereal and wildly flavorful creamy pastes.

I had a revelatory moment when Chef made white chocolate crumble.  This is truly amazing.  Just take a big bar of exceedingly high-quality white chocolate and put it in the oven at 180°C until it turns light brown all over and the entire thing caramelizes.  Let it cool, crumble it, and drizzle with a bit of salt.  You will have no idea it is white chocolate and it is the most sublime crunchy crumble for an enormous array of desserts.

In the afternoon we started gelling the gelati we mixed up the day before.  As they were made, they were dished out for the entire class.  Here’s the rundown of what we ate:

1. White Chocolate Gelato with Caramelized White Chocolate Crumbles (see the previous paragraph)
2. Coffee Gelato with a Toasted Walnut Swipe
3. Almond Milk Tea Gelato
4. Almond Gelato with Milk Chocolate Stracciatella
5. Chocolate Sorbetto
6. Spicy Chocolate Gelato (made with the addition of pepperoncino syrup)
7. Amaretto Gelato with Chocolate and Chopped Almonds
8. Tiramisu Gelato with Rum-Infused Coffee-Flavored Cake and Chocolate Drizzle (mine)
9. Strawberry Gelato with Zabaglione
10. Savory Peanut Gelato with Italian Meringue Toasted “Marshmallows”
11. Orange Gelato with Chocolate-Dipped Candied Orange Peel
12. Pineapple, Ginger, Turmeric, and Basil Gelato with a Honey Drizzle
13. Red Wine Gelato with a Pecorino Cream Swipe and Candied Pancetta

We stopped there and continued the next day with:

1.  Vanilla Gelato topped with cubes of Pandoro (a sweet bread like Panettone without the fruit)
2. Earl Grey Tea Gelato with a Dried Fig Swipe
3. Gorgonzola Gelato with a Pear Coulis and Chopped Walnuts

We didn’t make it to the last one:  Bourbon Brown Sugar Gelato which we had the next night after dinner.  It was wonderful.  It was just a Fiordilatte base with Bourbon poured in.  I am definitely going to make this one!!  I offered, multiple times, to store it in my freezer but so far that hasn’t happened.

On Friday, the last day of Gelato week, we had an extended lecture about setting up a gelato business including necessary equipment, layout of an ideal gelato kitchen (or gelato lab, as it’s called here), pricing models for gelato, showcasing and storage of gelato, and some business ideas.

Gelato week wrapped up with a pizza party—just a party this time, no contest—in the Pizzeria with the wood-burning pizza oven.  It was a relaxing end to a very educational, but exhausting, and overly caloric week.

Saturday was a free day.  Sunday started Pastry Week, for which three new students joined us.  Stay tuned…