Nicky glasses

Coffee & salted caramel gelato

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

Yes, this gelato is named after me (I wear glasses), and it’s also the nickname of Nicholas Marangello, one of the mafia guys in the cult movie Donnie Brasco.

It was actually my coffee addiction that led to the discovery of this flavour. One of the guys in the kitchen was churning salted caramel gelato and I had a taste of it fresh from the machine. I had just finished my third ristretto for the day (that’s a small shot of espresso coffee), so I still had the taste of coffee in my mouth … and it was surreal — the combination of our salted caramel gelato with coffee. And to think it was there right in front of us all this time, just waiting to be discovered.

Donato (my business partner and head chef) had to go one better, so he added whipped coffee-flavoured cream … and improved it!

Domestic

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
575g	milk
145g	cream
45g	espresso, ristretto strength, (see note)
145g	sugar
50g	skim milk powder
35g	dextrose
5g	stabiliser
4g	salt
	Whipped coffee cream

Method

Mixing

Put the milk, cream and coffee in a double boiler over a medium heat.
Put the sugar in a heavy-based saucepan and stir in 30 g water to make a slurry. Put the pan on the stove over a medium–high heat and let the sugar caramelise. There’s no need to stir, just let it do its thing. The sugar will start to bubble after 5 minutes or so and then 2 or 3 minutes later it will start to colour. When the caramel is a dark toffee brown, remove the pan from the stove — the sugar will be around 160°C to 180°C.
Meanwhile, put the remaining powders in a bowl and mix until combined. When the milk and cream mixture hits 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.
When the caramel is ready, slowly, SLOWLY pour the caramel into your hot milk mixture. Make sure that the mixture in your double boiler is above 65°C, as the hotter the mixture, the less the temperature differential between the mix and the caramel, reducing the chance of getting splashed with hot caramel. Under no circumstances should you combine the caramel with cold mixture. You can add the caramel at any time while your mixture is sitting at above 65°C for the required 30 minutes. When you have added all the caramel, give it a good mix with a stick blender.
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; as you do this, ladle in the whipped coffee cream, ensuring you have distinct layers of gelato and cream. 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, cream and coffee in a pasteuriser and select high pasteurisation.
Put the sugar in a heavy-based saucepan and stir in 30 g water to make a slurry. Put the pan on the stove over a medium–high heat and let the sugar caramelise. There’s no need to stir, just let it do its thing. The sugar will start to bubble after 5 minutes or so and then 2 or 3 minutes later it will start to colour. When the caramel is a dark toffee brown, remove the pan from the stove — the sugar will be around 160°C to 180°C.
Meanwhile, put the remaining powders in a bowl and dry mix. When the milk and cream mixture hits 40°C, whisk in the powders.
When the caramel is ready, slowly, SLOWLY pour the caramel into your pasteuriser. Make sure the pasteuriser is above 65°C, as the hotter the mixture, the less the temperature differential between the mix and the caramel, reducing the chance of getting splashed with hot caramel. Under no circumstances should you combine the caramel with cold mixture.
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 mixture into a measuring jug and put in a batch freezer. Within 10 to 12 minutes, your mix should be ready for extraction. As the gelato comes out of the churner, ladle in the whipped coffee cream, ensuring you have distinct layers of gelato and cream.
For long-term storage, up to 2 weeks: Put the gelato in a blast freezer for 30 minutes, then store at –18°C. For short-term storage, 2 to 3 days: Put the gelato in a storage freezer at –18°C.
Serving

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

Note

If you have an espresso machine, make the ristretto using 8 g finely ground coffee packed tight, with 15 g hot water passing through; you need to do this three times. Alternatively, use 10 g of instant coffee diluted in 35 g hot water.