Crema — egg-yolk gelato with lemon zest

Italian “crema”: egg yolks, milk and a delicate scent of lemon zest. Lighter than French vanilla ice cream, with a pronounced eggy flavour.

Gelato alla crema is the Italian take on a custard base (crème anglaise), but with far less cream. It is traditionally flavoured with strips of lemon zest rather than vanilla — the zest lifts the yolks and adds freshness. The yolks thicken and emulsify the mix, so no stabiliser is needed.

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

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 640 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 100 g whipping cream 33 %
  • 30 g skimmed milk powder
  • 100 g egg yolk (5 yolks)
  • 140 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 50 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 3 g grated lemon zest (2–3 strips of zest from an unwaxed lemon)

Making the mix

  1. Heat the milk, cream and milk powder in a pan until almost boiling.
  2. Add the strips of lemon zest to the milk (pared with a peeler, without the white pith), take off the heat and leave to infuse for 15 minutes.
  3. Whisk the egg yolks with the granulated sugar and dextrose until pale and thick.
  4. Whisking constantly, pour about a third of the hot milk onto the yolks in a thin stream, then tip everything back into the pan.
  5. Stir over a low heat with a wooden spoon until the custard reaches 82–84 °C and coats the back of the spoon (a line drawn with your finger stays clean). Do not let it boil — the yolks would curdle.
  6. Strain the custard into a bowl set in iced water and cool it below 5 °C, stirring now and then.
  7. Press cling film onto the surface and leave to age in the fridge for 4–12 hours.

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. 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 40 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. 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 30 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. Serve straight away. Level off whatever is left, refreeze it and process it again before the next serving.

Programme: Gelato

Total time: 29 h 10 min

Stages

Preparation
20 min
Cooking
15 min
Cooling
30 min
Ageing in the fridge
4 h
Churning
35 min
Hardening in the freezer
2 h
Total time
7 h 40 min

Serving and storage

On its own, with berries, or as the base of a sundae with amarena cherries. 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.

Tips

  • Take only the yellow part of the zest — the white pith is bitter.
  • Freeze the leftover egg whites; they are good for sorbet or meringues.
  • If you don’t have a thermometer, the custard is ready when it coats the spoon and a line drawn with your finger stays clean. At the first sign of lumps, strain it straight away.

Why it works

The yolks (10 % of the mix) bring lecithin, which emulsifies the fat, and proteins that partly set at 82–84 °C and thicken the mix. The fat is around 7.5 %, half that of French-style ice cream. 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