Reviewing Fior Di Latte Gelato Recipes Until I Find or Create the Perfect One
Part I: What I Learned From Making Four Fior di Latte Recipes
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I am not seeing an enormous amount of discourse online regarding one of my all time favorite gelato flavors, Fior di Latte or milk gelato. So I thought it might be helpful to share some of the things I learned in my journey of trying to find a recipe/formula and method that will produce the creamiest, milkiest, silkiest, perfectly sweet, dense, and slightly stretchy, fior di latte gelato, in a home kitchen.
There is also a richer version, which I love, called Fior di Panna or Cream Gelato. These are distinct from one another, and for now, we will focus on the milk version.
In today’s post, I will go over the 4 fior di latte recipes I have tried so far. I will share what I enjoyed about each as well as things I personally didn’t like along with any other major takeaways I think might be helpful to anyone attempting these in their own quest for fior di latte gelato perfection.
List of Recipes:
Fior di Latte Gelato Recipe by Emiko Davies from her Torta della Nonna (out of print) 2021 cookbook
You can find a version of the book’s recipe on her website/blog here.
Fior di Latte Gelato Recipe by Stella Parks for Serious Eats
Gelato Fiordilatte by Sergio Dondoli
Fior di Latte Recipe by Nick Palumbo from his Gelato Messina: The Recipes (out of print) 2013 cookbook
You can find the book’s fior di latte recipe here.
I tried to list these recipes and their methods from easiest and most accessible to the hardest and most time consuming.
In my own quest for the perfect homemade fior di latte, ease, accessibility, and time commitment aren’t important factors but I know these things are for many.
1.
Let’s start with Emiko Davies’ recipe and method. Emiko only asks for three ingredients; milk, cream, and sugar. That’s it. No skim milk powder, no stabilizers, no alternative sugars, just three core ingredients of this now classic gelato flavor. In theory, that’s all you need to make this milk flavor gelato. And from today’s list of recipes, Emiko’s is definitely the closest to how gelato was made pre-industrialization; making this a great option for anyone looking for the most “traditional,” or maybe the better word is old school, recipe/method for making fior di latte.
Unfortunately, in practice, the actual results of this purest approach will never be able to achieve the level of creaminess, silkiness, and body that one would find in a modern day gelateria (or the type of gelato I am personally looking for).
Even freshly churned, this recipe produced results that were too cold and overly icy making it unpalatable and hard to enjoy. There was also the issue of the freshly churned gelato melting super fast leading to further iciness once the gelato had time to harden in my home-freezer after a couple of hours. Without the addition of any alternative sugars, skim milk powder, stabilizers, or emulsifiers, the final texture of the gelato was too hard. There was simply no way to scoop the gelato straight from the freezer. As a way to manage the overt hardness of the gelato, Emiko suggests that you leave the gelato at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving, helping it become more scoopable and enjoyable.
In her recipe, Emiko strongly encourages you to seek out the best quality milk (non-homogenized) and cream. Following her recommendation, I did get my hands on non-homogenized milk from a nearby dairy farm, Baker’s Golden Dairy. But even with the richest milk and best quality cream, the final product didn’t have the level of creaminess and scoopability I wanted.
If you are excited to go this traditional route, I strongly advise that you experiment with the fattiest possible milk you can get; including fun options like water buffalo milk.
The method Emiko employs is super straightforward, you heat up the milk and sugar (until the sugar is dissolved) and tiny bubbles start to form but without bringing the mixture to a boil, take it off heat, let it come to room temperature and then add the (cold) cream at that stage. At this point, she says the base is ready to churn, (meaning without aging or chilling the base further in the fridge).
My advice is to pop the gelato base into the fridge until it reaches 40F before churning if you are going to churn in a home ice cream machine such as a KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment.
2.
Now let’s talk about Stella Park’s recipe that she developed for Serious Eats. The list of ingredients is a little longer for this recipe. Stella asks for cornstarch as the stabilizer (thickener to increase the viscosity of the base) for the recipe, a little bit of kosher salt, and instead of using regular granulated sugar, she wants you to use lightly toasted granulated sugar.
I always like to start with the positives. This gelato had great overrun. Ideal overrun for gelato is somewhere between 20% and 30%. I did want to remind anyone new here that I am using a KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment which produces higher overrun than the majority of homemade ice cream machines because of its powerful motor. But remember, we don’t want to incorporate too much air as we are making gelato, not American style ice cream.
In addition to having great overrun, Stella’s base also produced creamier and silkier results. The final texture of the gelato was shockingly creamy. I truly did enjoy the creaminess of this version.
I honestly might have even stopped here in my quest if it wasn’t for two major drawbacks. Unfortunately, the gelato was incredibly sweet. It was so sweet that for me personally it took away from the enjoyment of eating it. I did attempt a modified version by substituting a portion, I think around 18% of granulated sugar with dextrose, to try and reduce the sweetness, and that did help mitigate the overt sweetness of the first batch. I did want to point out that lightly toasting granulated sugar will reduce the sweetness but for me even with this sweetness reduction method the final gelato was still too sweet. The cornstarch does give this gelato base quite a bit of viscosity which helps produce that creamy and dense final product.
Onto the second con, and that is the use of cornstarch. I’m one of those people who always notices and tastes the presence of cornstarch, yes, even if it is cooked and prepared properly. I have always had this problem with pastry cream recipes that use cornstarch and now I have the same experience with cornstarch based gelatos.
I do want to stress that cornstarch is a common ingredient in gelato making so that’s not at all my issue here. My issue is the off-flavor that comes with using it. If you personally can’t detect the taste of cornstarch you should definitely give this recipe a go, especially if you love very sweet desserts, this might just be the perfect recipe for you. And for anyone who thinks I haven’t been cooking or boiling the cornstarch long enough, let me assure that I absolutely have! I have experimented with unconventionally long cornstarch cooking methods, and I can still always taste it in the final gelato (custards, curds etc.). The moral of the story is if you have a sensitivity to cornstarch this recipe is probably not for you.
3.
Sergio’s formula is where we get closer to what one would label as modern or the more accurate word is probably contemporary commercial gelato making. From what I can see, this recipe was developed with chefs and professional gelato makers in mind.
This is also the first recipe that calls for more advanced stabilizers and emulsifiers; locust bean gum, guar gum, and the hardest of the three to find here in the US, citrus fiber. I will share a little more about this mysterious but apparently commonly used ingredient in Italian gelato making in Italy in future posts.
In addition to the stabilizers and emulsifiers, you also need skim milk powder and dextrose. These two ingredients are relatively easy to find in the majority of US grocery stores and health food stores.
This is just a reminder that skim milk powder enhaces the milky flavor in gelato, hence why I especially love to use it in fior di latte gelato. To learn more about the benefits of using skim milk powder in both gelato and ice cream pleasee see my previous post.
One thing that immediately jumps out to me about Sergio’s formula is the reduction in sugar when compared to Stella’s recipe. Having said that, the sweetness of this gelato was still quite pronounced! The majority of Italian gelato according to commercial conventions tends to be quite high in sugar. From what I have read, Italian gelato formulas tend to have a higher percentage of sugar than American style ice cream formulas. In addition to that, gelato recipes designed for home cooks tend to be even sweeter since sugar is heavily used to improve the final texture and scoopability of the gelato as a way to compensate for the lack of commercial equipment and stabilizers/emulsifiers.
This is why in my own quest for gelato perfection I prefer to incorporate the use of stabilizers and emulsifiers instead of relying on high quantities of sugar. This might not be the case for other home gelato makers.
Sergio’s process for making his gelato is pretty straightforward. You slowly bring the milk and cream to 185 F or 85C while gradually adding the dry ingredients at various stages of the heating, what he and other gelato makers refer to as the pasteurization process.
In the YouTube video, Sergio uses a commercial gelato maker. Those machines can pasteurize as well as cool down the gelato base very quickly, which then allows him to churn the gelato base immediately.
I do want to point out that if you are making Sergio’s recipe in a home kitchen with a home style ice cream machine, it is best to let your base cure in the fridge for at least 4 hours but somewhere between 6 to 12 seems to be even better because it gives the stabilizers enough time to properly hydrate before churning the gelato.
In other words, once the mixture reaches 185 F or 85C you want to cool it as quickly as possible, usually over an ice bath, put it in the fridge, let it reach 40 F or 4 C, and let the base cure from 4 to 12 hours. The questions of how long to let you base cure and when is it diminishing return is one I am thinking about.
Another step that I have incorporated into my own gelato making process, that I thought would be helpful to share with you, is using an immersion blender to blitz the base for about 1 minute right after I remove it from heat and once more immediately before churning the gelato. Doing these two extra small steps gives me a smoother and silkier gelato, and it also does a great job of properly incorporating the stabilizers/emulsifiers in the base.
Sergio finishes his recipe with the use of a blast chiller to harden the gelato as quickly as possible. Using a blast chiller guarantees your gelato maintains its perfectly creamy texture after the hardening process and throughout long term storage. Obviously, as we saw in my previous post, most home cooks don’t have access to a blast chiller so the closest you can get is by building your own using dry ice.
So what’s my verdict? This recipe is a great starting place for those experimenting in their home kitchens trying to achieve gelateria quality gelato!
And this is where I am. Specifically, I am trying to figure out the perfect ratio and combination of stabilizer/emulsifier for this formula. Sergio recommends a blend of three ingredients at the following ratio, 5:3:2 (citrus fiber, parts locust bean gum, and guar gum).
I made my own blend following those ratios and used the recommended 5 grams in the recipe. The final texture of the gelato was spectacular! And not just freshly churned, the texture remained unchanged after hardening in my home freezer, and even after a week in my home freezer.
The only drawback and it is kind of a major one for me was in the taste. Following the recipe’s exact ratios and measurements for the stabilizer/emulsifier blend and the quantity to be used in the recipe, the gelato had a slight bitterness, and I definitely do not want a bitter off-flavor in my dreamy milky gelato. After doing some digging around, it turns out that this bitter aftertaste is indicative of using too much citrus fiber. Who knew! I am a total newb here! All of these stabilizers and emulsifiers are brand new ingredients to me.
Anyway, I just wanted to share with you that too much citrus fiber can lead to a bitter taste in gelato. So if you are using this ingredient for the first time, consider this my warning. Read this article if you want to learn more about the use of fiber in ice cream! I am going to follow Ruben’s advice and try .5% in my next batch!
Like I just said, I am brand new to this world. Additionally, I wasn’t able to get my hands on the exact type of citrus fiber, Sergio and other Italian gelato makers use in their gelato. There are different grades and strengths of this ingredient.
In the end, do I think Sergio’s recipe is worth trying exactly as written? I guess my answer would have to be no. Mainly because of how difficult and expensive it was to secure all three stabilizers and emulsifiers. And the bitter taste was also a turnoff.
I do think for those of you who are seriously committed to nailing this and other gelato flavors, experimenting with stabilizers and emulsifiers is nonnegotiable.
But for the average home gelato maker this is probably a level of commitment that is incongruent with their goals.
Lastly, even after getting your hands on these ingredients, you will need to dedicate time to experimenting and adjusting the ratios of the stabilizer blend to achieve your perfect gelato.
I will continue to report back on my own findings and experiments with this formula and I definitely would love to hear from others who are in pursuit of their own gelato perfection. Tell me in the comments how it is going!
4.
Last but not least. Let’s look at Nick’s fiordilatte recipe from his 2013 Gelato Messina: The Recipes book.
Nick’s process is by far the most hands-on and time consuming. While Nick’s formula isn’t drastically different from Sergio’s, they both use the same ingredients (besides the stabilizer blend) and similar ratios of each ingredient as well.
As with the previous recipe, you will need skim milk powder, dextrose, and some type of stabilizer and emulsifier blend.
For this one, let’s start by talking about the stabilizers and emulsifiers. In the linked article, it simply says to use 5 grams of (gelato) stabilizer.
In the book, Nick does spend a couple pages talking about the types of stabilizers and emulsifiers commonly used in professional gelato making as well as mentioning the approximate industry standard breakdown of their ratios. In other words, most gelato stabilizer blends are a combination of 2 grams stabilizer and 3 grams of emulsifier, so a total of 5 grams per 1 liter of gelato base. Unfortunately, he does not specifically say, which I personally find a bit frustrating, which exact stabilizer blend or individual ingredients he used when developing the gelato recipes for this book. He simply states that the best thing to do is to buy a premixed stabilizer/emulsifier blend directly from a company that specializes in gelato making and gelato making ingredients.
From what I have seen in the stabilizer/emulsifier market here in the US, a lot of stabilizer blends don’t specify their exact ratios (that info is considered proprietary). I personally haven’t been able to get my hands on any Italian manufactured blends. If anyone has some insight on how or where to get those, please let us know in the comments or send me a message!
In full transparency, after a bad experience with an ice cream stabilizer/emulsifier blend, I personally haven’t tried any existing US easily available gelato blends. I was thinking of testing the Perfect Pantry Perfect Gelato blend but after my experience with their ice cream blend I am a bit skeptical. I would love to hear from anyone who has tried the above or any other US gelato blends! Are you happy with the results? Do let us know in the comments.
So if I am not using a gelato premix blend for this recipe, what am I using? I have made this recipe with 2 grams of locust bean gum. And the results have been great.
Nick’s gelato book has two methods; one for domestic ice cream makers and another one for professionals. For the purposes of today’s review, we will focus on the domestic method.
I did want to call out one pretty cool thing I discovered. I know of at least one restaurant that uses Nick’s “domestic” method to make restaurant gelato.
chef Harrison shared his pistachio gelato recipe where he employs Nick’s double boiled method. I asked chef Harrison where he learned this method and he said that he learned this way of making gelato while working at Misi restaurant in NYC. Pretty cool!
Let’s take a closer look at this double boiler method. The double boiler technique relies on an extended period of evaporation, meaning you have to keep the mixture at a certain temperature, in this case 65°C (149°F), for a period of 30 minutes. You may be asking yourself, why? I have talked about this previously, but this domestic method of making ice cream is meant to mimic the pasteurization of commercial ice cream machines which help reduce and evaporate some of the water that is in the milk and concentrate the milk solids. Since gelato bases are largely made up of milk (with a smaller ration of cream), they inherently have more water that needs to be evaporated during the preparation process in a domestic environment or in the case of commercial gelato making, through the process of pasteurization that comes built in fancy commercial gelato machines.
What does that look like in practice? Well, we start with 997 grams of the base and by the end of the 30 minutes, we are left with approximately 878 grams. This is roughly a 12% loss in evaporation.
Maintaining a steady temperature of 149 F or 65 C for 30 minutes is definitely a more hands on process which requires you to be managing the source of heat constantly especially if you are using a gas stove, as well as needing to frequently whisk the base to prevent any scorching or film from forming on the top of the base.
As with the previous recipe, I recommend using an immersion blender to blitz the base once it is removed from heat and doing it one more time right before churning.
So how does this more hands-on method (with a higher evaporation rate) compare to the more traditional homestyle making version we saw in Sergio’s recipe? I’m not entirely sure this is a helpful question especially since Sergio’s formula uses a higher percentage of heavy cream and a lower percentage of milk (which kind of evens out the water content between the two). Having said that, the results were comparable and the differences in texture and creaminess weren’t obvious.
Another reason this comparison isn’t fruitful is because the main issue of what stabilizer and emulsifiers to use hasn’t been fully resolved for both of these.
You might be wondering why I even picked to test or make Nick’s recipe if I don’t have access to a professional Italian blend of gelato stabilizers, believe me, I asked myself that same thing.
But ultimately my fior di latte goal is this. I want to figure out my own perfect formula, process, and blend of stabilizers. So to me it was worth trying Nick’s method even with a slightly adjusted formula, which in this case, was the exclusion of 3 grams of emulsifiers and the use of 2 grams of locust bean gum in place of a generic gelato blend. Once I do have access to a quality gelato stabilizer blend, I will retest this recipe and method using the 5 grams of “stabilizer”.
So do I think this recipe and method is worth trying for the majority of folks who want to make fior di latte gelato at home? Probably not. Unless, you went ahead and bought an Italian gelato stabilizer blend. In that case, it is definitely worth trying Nick’s recipe.
To be honest, Sergio’s recipe is a lot easier, since all you need to do is bring the base slowly to 185 F or 85C, take it off heat, and not worry about maintaining any specific temperature for a prolonged period of time.
That’s it for today!
In Part II, I will share another round of fior di latte recipes I have attempted. Do share your favorite fior di latte recipes with us in the comments!
Eventually, I will share everything I have learned in a separate post and show you how I have started to apply that knowledge to making my own version.
Quick Summary of Key Takeaways from All 4 Recipes:
Reflect on your gelato making needs and make decisions based on how much time and money you want to spend.
Use the best quality whole milk you can get your hands on.
Use a scale to measure out all of your ingredients and a high precision scale to measure out stabilizers and emulsifiers.
Use the best quality heavy cream (ideally pasteurized not ultra pasteurized) between 35% and 40% fat.
Use some kind of stabilizer or emulsifier blend to achieve the creamiest results.
Consider starting with a generic gelato stabilizer blend.
I def. did this backwards, so don’t be like me and start with a million different stabilizer options unless you already have experience making gelato and ice cream.
Seriously consider using skim milk powder to improve the texture and body of your gelato!
Let you gelato base age in the fridge for at least 4 hours and until it reaches 40F.
Use an immersion blender or at least a whisk to blend or mix the gelato before churning!
Be patient.
Be prepared to experiment with different amounts and ratios of stabilizer and emulsifier.
Be prepared to fail.