Gelupo Gelato - Jacob Kenedy

One of my favourite kitchen gadgets is an ice cream maker - and if I had more space and cash I'd get myself a really decent one. The cheap (and not even so cheap) ones don't tend to last very well - I'm on number 4 as after a summer or so they've all ended up leaking. The current version was an Aldi special and freezes exceptionally badly, but it sort of does the job, and until I have space and the money at the same time, the sort where the bowl is the main event and is small enough to live on the freezer is more or less the only option.

I love them because I love ice cream, and if I don't necessarily think it's better than the sort you can buy, I do know what's in it, and I don't tend to get the massive sugar crash after the homemade sort. I'm not alone with the ice cream love either, more and more recipe collections are likely to include a handful of recipes (Diana Henry has some excellent ones) and there's an increasing number of dedicated ice cream and gelato books. Gelato is beyond doubt my favourite sort of ice cream, I learnt to love it at an early age in Edinburgh's Italian deli's and that was that.

Gelupo Gelato is this years title - and whilst I haven't made anything from it yet, its recipes are so significantly different from the last gelato book I bought that I'm putting a lot of faith in it (so much so that I've consigned the last book to the pile to clear out).

The difference between homemade and shop-bought ices is generally a textural one. What you gain in flavour you often lose in texture, and homemade doesn't keep well in my experience either. Which is fine, it means I only make it when I'm going to have company, and don't end up trying to live off it all summer. There are Rowntree's fruit pastille lollies for the rest of the time. 

The difference with Jacob Kenedy's recipes is that they specify 2 forms of sugar. He says that when it's being made professionally they might use 4 or 5 to get consistent consistency across the range. He also uses a stabiliser - these are the things that go into the base bianca which also needs to be made ahead of time so that it can be properly chilled. The good news is that it'll keep well in a fridge for up to 5 days so if you get through a lot of gelato you can make double quantities and have it ready to go. If you're making it for an occasion bits you can do in advance are a bonus, and if you want ice cream in a (relative) hurry there are other recipes around, including no-churn versions that will see you right.

The main sugar in the bianca recipe is plain old caster or granulated, the second is glucose (aka dextrose) which is fairly widely available - any big supermarket will normally have it in the baking section (although there are a lot of gaps at the moment - I'm hoping this is still true). If glucose is unavailable a light runny honey is suggested. The stabiliser is locust bean gum powder which is new to me, or you can use arrowroot or cornflour. He also uses powdered skimmed milk along with whole milk. 

Next time I'm in something bigger than a Tesco Metro I'll pick up all the necessaries and report back on the quality of the Gelato, semifreddo, and granita's in here. The flavour combinations are a decent mix of grown-up classics, definite crowd-pleasers, and the slightly unexpected (chocolate tea and biscuits sounds like a fun flavour). The theory behind what you're doing is explained and there are handy hints on flavour combining, tables to help you upsize quantities easily, a list of the vegan recipes, and the instructions seem admirably clear.

Altogether it's a properly inspiring little book that I hope is going to help me raise my gelato game to a whole new level. Whisky and Vanilla might be the first flavour I make.