Chocolate Gelato

By idocakes

Ingredients

• Ingredients
• 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup whole milk (I often use skim, because that’s what I have on hand, but it’s better with whole milk)
• 2 3.5-oz high-quality chocolate bars
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup half-and-half or whipping cream (your choice – I prefer whipping cream)
• 1-2 capfuls vodka, using the vodka bottle’s cap to measure (optional)
• 1/4 tsp essential oil (optional)

Details

Adapted from italylogue.com

Preparation

Step 1

Put the beaten egg yolks, sugar, and milk into a small saucepan, and then turn the heat onto a relatively low setting. Cook this mixture, stirring regularly (it’s not necessary to stir constantly) until it’s slightly thickened and it coats the back of a spoon. I find that the eggs don’t tend to dissolve completely unless I use a small wisk in the beginning as the mixture is melting together. And if you’re using a wooden spoon and you can’t really see it coating the back, another indication that it’s getting thick enough is when it starts to coat the sides of the pan as you stir. (You can also test it with a metal spoon!)

You can see the mixture coating the back of this spoon; I ran my finger down the center of the spoon to show the custard thickening.
As the milk/sugar/egg mixture is heating up, break up the chocolate bars into pieces and put the pieces in a microwave-safe dish. Melt slowly in the microwave on a medium power setting, stirring frequently, until the chocolate is melted (take care to not let it burn!). I tend to do this in 20-30 second increments on about power level 5-6, and when there are only a few smaller lumps left I can usually make them melt by just stirring them into the already-melted chocolate.

Chocolate pieces ready for melting

Left: Not quite smooth… Right: Completely melted
If you’re adding a flavor via essential oil to your chocolate, this is when to do it. Give the melted chocolate a taste-test, and if it’s not flavored enough with the oils that are already in the chocolate bar (or if you’re using plain chocolate and want to give it a new flavor), then add the essential oil to the melted chocolate. Start slow, with 1/4 tsp of the oil, and stir it all together. Then you can taste it and decide whether to add more oil. A little essential oil goes a long way, so proceed carefully!
Whether or not you’re adding a essential oil to the chocolate, you should add the vanilla to the melted chocolate and mix it in completely.
When the milk/sugar/egg mixture has thickened to the right consistency, remove it from the heat.
Pour the whipping cream (or half-and-half, whichever you’re using) and the melted chocolate into the saucepan with the milk/sugar/egg mixture and mix thoroughly until well-blended.
This is when I add the vodka – I usually use 1-2 capfuls (using the vodka bottle cap), and it’s not there to impart flavor. It’s only there to help make the gelato more easily scoop-able without letting it sit on the counter for 15 minutes. (I’m impatient.) You can experiment with flavored liquor here as well, if you’d like (peppermint schnapps would be a lovely addition to chocolate-mint gelato, for instance), and of course you can leave the alcohol out altogether.
Pour the mixture into a container (I like ones that have a spout for easy pouring later) and cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic actually touches the liquid – this keeps it from forming an icky “skin” in the cooling process. Put the container in the fridge.

You don’t have to use bright pink plastic wrap.
Cool the mixture to at least room temperature (I often leave it in the fridge overnight) and then freeze it according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Store the finished product in an air-tight container. It’ll likely need to set in the freezer for a couple of hours before it’s really ready, but if you like soft-serve (or just can’t wait that long) you can always sample it straight from the machine!

Gelato mixture just after it’s been poured into the ice cream maker

Gelato thickening nicely

This is about when I’d consider the gelato “done,” in that it can be removed from the ice cream maker and retired to the freezer for further setting.
If you’re using alcohol in your gelato, you should be able to take it out of the freezer right when you want to eat it. If you’re skipping the alcohol, you may need to let it sit on the counter for 10-15 minutes before it’s easy to scoop.
For the gelato I made in these photos, I used two bars of orange-flavored chocolate, but when I melted the chocolate the orange flavor wasn’t prominent enough. So I did end up adding about a 1/4 tsp of orange oil to the melted chocolate along with the vanilla.

A few recipe notes:
When I made my recipe, I was using ingredients that had just come out of the fridge – so the milk, cream, and eggs were cold. When the melted chocolate mixed with the then-cold cream, I think the cold of the cream solidified some of the chocolate – when I ate it, there was an ever-so-slightly grainy texture to it that was like tiny little chocolate pieces. So I’d recommend that either you let your cold ingredients come up to room temperature before you use them, or you mix the cream and melted chocolate and microwave that a bit to make sure the chocolate remains completely melted before churning.
Despite my inclusion of vodka, the gelato was still a little firm when I pulled it directly out of the freezer. I’m attributing this to the pudding-like texture it had before it went into the ice cream maker (thicker than most gelato recipes). This is part of what makes it so deliciously rich (see the point below), but I’d recommend letting it sit for 5 minutes or so before you scoop and serve it. It won’t require the same 15 minute rest on the counter if you’re using vodka in your recipe, but it does require a little time to think about softening first.
This gelato is seriously rich, so don’t let your eyes be bigger than your stomach. I had two scoops after dinner the night I made it, and getting through that second scoop almost killed me. Eating gelato should never be a torturous experience. Enjoy this one in moderation, people.
One other note, which I offer as a cautionary tale to those of you who don’t want to lose an ounce of this precious gelato. When you’re stirring everything together, take care not to get too excited about how absolutely delicious the chocolate tasted when you added the orange oil, or how divinely smooth the mixture is coming together… Because your enthusiasm could lead to over-stirring, which could lead to spillage like this:

I really don’t want to think about how much gelato that liquid would have turned into later.
Gelato purists may note that real Italian gelato doesn’t use whipping cream or half-and-half, and that’s true. But this is the best way to re-create it at home with the kind of ice cream makers most people can afford to have in their own kitchens. If I could justify the cost of a $500+ ice cream maker, I could get away with using only whole milk – those machines are much better at mixing the gelato in such a way that the extra oomph of the whipping cream isn’t necessary. But until I open my own gelateria, I’m content to manipulate the recipe for authentic Italian gelato a bit so I can still enjoy my own homemade chocolate gelato.