Pop's gelato

Chocolate fondant & honey gelato

By: Nick Palumbo
From: Gelato Messina
Makes: 1 kg
Photographer: Billy Law

The inspiration for this flavour came from my father, who passed away early in 2013. He grew up in Messina, in northern Sicily, and always said that his two favourite flavours were torrone e chocolato.

At Messina, we make Italian Nougat gelato, which is our version of torrone; it’s a honeybased gelato with cracked hazelnut and almond nougat folded through it. The chocolato gelato in Sicily refers to a rich dark chocolate; we call our gelato Chocolate Fondant.

So, for my father’s wake, we decided to combine the two flavours and call it Pop’s. It’s an interesting recipe because it’s a dark chocolate gelato but we replace the sugar with honey. We then make our own nougat and fold it through. Making nougat is really difficult, but the fact we break it up and mix it through the gelato makes it a little more forgiving. If you’ve never made nougat before or if you don’t have time, I’d recommend that you just buy some good quality hard nougat and use that instead.

A tip: Chop up some extra nougat and scatter some nuts over the top of the gelato before you serve it.

Domestic

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
615g	milk
100g	cream
15g	skim milk powder
50g	dextrose
5g	stabiliser
40g	dark cocoa powder
30g	cocoa mass, chopped, (see note)
145g	honey
	Nougat

Method

Mixing

Put the milk and cream in a double boiler over a medium heat.
Put all the powders, including the cocoa powder, in a bowl and mix until combined. When the milk and cream hit 40°C, whisk in the powders and bring the mixture up to 85°C. Keep the mixture at 85°C for 1 minute, whisking constantly.
Transfer to a stainless steel bowl and place in an ice bath; chill to 70°C, then whisk in the cocoa mass and honey; cool to 40°C. Cover and put in the freezer, stirring every 10 minutes or so until the mixture drops to 4°C, then place in the fridge and let it age for 4 hours.
Churning

Turn on your gelato maker so it begins the freezing process.
Using a stick blender, blend the mixture for 1 minute, then pour into the gelato maker.
Once the mixture reaches –4°C, scoop out the gelato and transfer to a pre-cooled stainless steel bowl; as you do this, fold the chunks of nougat into the gelato. Cover tightly and immediately place in the freezer.
Serving

The gelato should be served within 2 to 3 hours after placing it in the freezer, or when it reaches –12°C. If it goes below –15°C or is left in the freezer overnight, the texture will be compromised.

Professional

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
	as above

Method

Mixing

Put the milk and cream in a pasteuriser and select Chocolate or high pasteurisation.
Put all the powders, including the cocoa powder, in a bowl and dry mix. When the milk and cream hit 40°C, whisk in the powders; the pasteuriser will take the entire mix to 90°C, then will switch to cooling phase. As the temperature of the mix comes down to 70°C, add the cocoa mass and honey.
Once the pasteuriser runs its cycle and gets down to 4°C, let the mixture age for 4 hours at 4°C.
Churning

Measure an appropriate amount of mix into a measuring jug and place in a batch freezer. Within 10 to 12 minutes, your mix should be ready for extraction. As the gelato comes out of the churner, fold in the chunks of nougat.
For long-term storage, up to 2 weeks: Place the gelato in a blast freezer for 30 minutes, then store at –18°C. For short-term storage, 2 to 3 days: Place the gelato in a storage freezer at –18°C.
Serving

The serving temperature of the gelato should be around –11°C to –13°C.