Italian · Dessert · Medium
Gelato Vanilla
Dense, silky vanilla gelato with the intense flavor and smooth texture that only comes from real vanilla beans and slow churning. Nothing like it in a carton.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Gelato Vanilla, in 5 ideas
- Steeping the vanilla beans in warm milk extracts far more flavor than extract stirred in at the end.
- Chilling the custard base overnight dramatically improves the final texture and scoopability.
- Gelato is churned slowly with less air than ice cream, so don't expect it to double in volume; dense is correct.
- A chilled container in the freezer helps the gelato firm up quickly without forming ice crystals.
- Two hours of firming time after churning gives you that perfect gelato scoop rather than soft serve.
What you need
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 6 large egg yolks
- 2 vanilla beans, split and scraped (or 2 tsp pure vanilla extract)
- 1/4 tsp salt
How to make it
Directions
- In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, cream, and half the sugar with the vanilla bean seeds and pods until steaming, not boiling. Remove from heat, cover, and steep 20 minutes.
- In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until pale and slightly thickened.
- Slowly pour about a cup of the hot milk into the yolks, whisking constantly, then pour the tempered mixture back into the saucepan.
- Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon and reaches 170F, about 6 to 8 minutes. Do not boil.
- Strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl, remove the vanilla pods, and stir in the salt. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions, about 25 minutes, until thick and creamy. Transfer to a freezer container and freeze 2 hours to firm up before scooping.
Save the scraped vanilla pods, rinse and dry them, then bury them in a jar of sugar for homemade vanilla sugar that flavors coffee and baked goods for months.