Mint gelato

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

When I think of infusions, the most obvious to me is mint.

I know it doesn’t seem to be the most exotic of flavours, but how many times have you eaten a mint gelato made with real mint and not with mint essence and green food colouring? Mint gelato should not be fluorescent green!

If you’ve never eaten mint gelato made with real mint, and without any artificial colours and flavours, I’d really recommend you give this recipe a go.

Tip: I haven’t included chocolate in this recipe, as I recommend you try the basic mint gelato first, but at Messina we often add some finely chopped dark chocolate to the mix as it’s coming out of the churner.

Domestic

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
1 bunch	mint, (15 stems with leaves)
650g	milk
120g	cream
145g	sugar
45g	skim milk powder
35g	dextrose
5g	stabiliser

Method

Infusing

Wash the mint and pick off the leaves. Put the leaves in a food processor with the milk and cream and blitz until the leaves are finely chopped, then transfer to an airtight container and place in the fridge overnight to allow the flavours to infuse.
Strain the milk, cream and blended mint mixture into a bowl, leaving some of the mint in for effect, but not too much. The milk mixture should have taken on a pale green colour.
Mixing

Put the mint-infused milk and cream in a double boiler over a medium heat.
Put all the powders 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 65°C. Keep the mixture at 65°C for 30 minutes, whisking every 5 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to a stainless steel bowl and place in an ice bath; chill to 40°C. Cover tightly with foil 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, 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

Infusing

Wash the mint and pick off the leaves. Put the leaves in a food processor with the milk and cream and blitz until the leaves are finely chopped, then transfer to an airtight container and place in the fridge overnight to allow the flavours to infuse.
Strain the milk, cream and blended mint mixture into a bowl, leaving some of the mint in for effect, but not too much. The milk mixture should have taken on a pale green colour.
Mixing

Put the mint-infused milk and cream in a pasteuriser and select high pasteurisation.
Put all the powders 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 85°C, then will switch to cooling phase.
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.
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.

Tags:: gelato; ice cream; ice-cream; icecream; Gelato; Messina; Nick; Palumbo

Mint gelato

Domestic

Ingredients

Method

Professional

Ingredients

Method

Recipes

Books

Authors

Collections

Store

The Feed