Bacio — chocolate with hazelnuts

Dark chocolate and hazelnut paste with pieces of roasted hazelnuts. Darker and bolder than gianduia.

Bacio (“kiss”) is a gelato inspired by the famous chocolate pralines from Perugia. Unlike gianduia, dark chocolate and cocoa take the lead here, with hazelnuts in the background — both in the paste and as whole pieces. The result is dark, less sweet and crunchy.

Type: Italian gelato · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Moderate

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 640 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 20 g whipping cream 33 %
  • 30 g skimmed milk powder
  • 25 g cocoa powder (10–12 % fat)
  • 60 g dark chocolate 70 % (chopped)
  • 50 g hazelnut paste 100 %
  • 120 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 50 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 2 g locust bean gum (carob gum, E410) (or 3 g of ready-made gelato stabiliser)
  • 1 g guar gum (E412)
  • 50 g hazelnuts (roasted) (for topping or folding in at the end, roasted, roughly chopped — folded in at the end)

Making the mix

  1. Sift the cocoa and mix it with the sugars and stabiliser.
  2. Mix the locust bean gum and guar gum thoroughly with the dry sugars (granulated sugar and dextrose). On their own they would form lumps as soon as they get wet.
  3. Pour the milk, cream and milk powder into a pan and heat while whisking. When the mixture is lukewarm (about 40 °C), gradually add the sugars and whisk until they dissolve.
  4. Heat the mix to 85 °C (check with a thermometer) and hold it at that temperature for 1–2 minutes, stirring constantly. This pasteurises the mix and fully hydrates the stabiliser.
  5. Take the pan off the heat, add the chocolate and hazelnut paste, leave for a minute, then blend until smooth with a stick blender.
  6. Stand the pan in a bowl of iced water and cool the mix below 5 °C as quickly as possible, stirring now and then.
  7. Cover and leave the mix to age in the fridge for 4–12 hours, ideally overnight. Meanwhile the proteins and stabiliser bind water and the mix thickens.

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch the ice cream maker on 5–10 minutes in advance so the bowl can pre-chill.
  2. Give the aged mix a quick blitz with a stick blender and pour it into the bowl, no higher than the max line.
  3. Churn for about 30–40 minutes, until the gelato is thick and glossy and clings to the paddle. Then switch the machine off — churning any longer would only whip in unnecessary air.
  4. Add the chopped hazelnuts during the last minute of churning.
  5. Transfer to a chilled tub, press cling film onto the surface and leave to harden in the freezer for 1–2 hours.

Total time: 7 h 37 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Take the bowl, frozen for at least 24 hours, out of the freezer just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the well-chilled, freshly blended mix — filling the bowl no more than two-thirds full.
  3. Churn for 20–30 minutes, until the gelato thickens to a soft-serve consistency. There is no point going longer — by then the bowl has warmed up.
  4. During the last minute, with the machine running, add the chopped hazelnuts.
  5. Transfer to a chilled tub, press cling film onto the surface and leave to harden in the freezer for 2–3 hours.

A freezer bowl only partly freezes the mix, so the gelato needs longer to harden in the freezer and tends to be slightly less smooth than from a compressor machine. A well-chilled, properly aged mix helps.

Total time: 8 h 27 min

Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines

  1. Pour the aged mix into the CREAMi tub up to the MAX line, put the lid on and freeze on a level surface for 24 hours.
  2. Fit the tub into the machine and run the Gelato programme (if your model doesn’t have it, use Ice Cream).
  3. If the gelato is powdery or crumbly, run Re-spin, and a second time if needed (many users add 1–2 tablespoons of milk first).
  4. Make a well in the centre right down to the bottom, tip in the hazelnuts and run the Mix-in programme.
  5. Serve straight away. Level off whatever is left, refreeze it and process it again before the next serving.

Programme: Gelato

Total time: 29 h 7 min

Stages

Preparation
20 min
Cooking
12 min
Cooling
30 min
Ageing in the fridge
4 h
Churning
35 min
Hardening in the freezer
2 h
Total time
7 h 37 min

Serving and storage

Sprinkle with grated dark chocolate; wonderful alongside fior di latte in the same cup. Gelaterias keep it in the display case at −11 to −13 °C, while a home freezer runs at −18 °C — straight out of it, gelato is hard. So move the tub to the fridge 15–20 minutes before serving (or leave it at room temperature for 8–10 minutes) and work the gelato with a spatula before scooping, just as they do in a gelateria.

Artisan gelato is made to be eaten fresh: it is best on the day you make it and within 3–5 days. In a closed tub with cling film pressed onto the surface it will keep in the freezer for up to two weeks, but it gradually hardens and ice crystals build up. The nut pieces soften over time, so it is best within three days.

Tips

  • Roast the hazelnuts for folding in and let them cool completely — warm nuts would melt the gelato.
  • For even more of a “praline” feel, fold in 30 g of chopped dark chocolate along with the nuts.
  • You can replace the hazelnut paste with the same amount of homemade paste (see the nocciola recipe).

Why it works

Together, the cocoa, chocolate and nut paste add a lot of solids that don’t freeze; total solids are around 42 % — the upper limit for gelato. That is why bacio is dense even with little cream; the fat comes to around 9 %. Anti-freezing power (PAC) tells you how much water stays unfrozen at a given temperature — the higher it is, the softer the gelato. Dextrose has almost twice the anti-freezing power of granulated sugar but is about a third less sweet, which is why gelaterias combine the two sugars.

Sources