Hazelnut gelato (nocciola)

A Piedmontese classic made from roasted hazelnuts: a deep nutty, caramel flavour, dense and smooth.

Nocciola (Italian for hazelnut) is one of the best-selling flavours in Italian gelaterias. What matters is the quality and roast of the nuts — the most prized are Piedmont hazelnuts (Nocciola Piemonte IGP). All you need is pure unsweetened hazelnut paste, milk and sugars; hazelnuts are over 60 % fat, so only a touch of cream is needed.

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

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 680 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 40 g whipping cream 33 %
  • 40 g skimmed milk powder
  • 90 g hazelnut paste 100 % (100 % roasted hazelnuts)
  • 125 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)
  • 30 g hazelnuts (roasted) (for topping or folding in at the end, chopped, for sprinkling)

Making the mix

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Take the pan off the heat, add the hazelnut paste and blend until smooth with a stick blender.
  5. Stand the pan in a bowl of iced water and cool the mix below 5 °C as quickly as possible, stirring now and then.
  6. 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. 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 30 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 20 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

Stages

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

Serving and storage

Sprinkle with chopped roasted hazelnuts. It goes well with chocolate, coffee gelato or a hot espresso. 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

  • Homemade paste: roast 150 g of hazelnuts for 12–15 minutes at 160 °C, rub off the skins in a tea towel and blend for 8–10 minutes until the paste is runny.
  • A darker roast = a stronger, more caramel flavour. Burnt nuts turn bitter, though — keep an eye on them.
  • Nutella and other sweetened spreads won’t work: they contain sugar and vegetable fat, and the mix would be far too sweet.
  • You can buy locust bean gum (carob gum, E410) and guar gum in health food shops. To do without a stabiliser, stir 15–20 g of cornflour (cornstarch) into a little cold milk, whisk it into the mix and simmer for 2 minutes — that is the Sicilian way. The gelato will be slightly denser.

Why it works

The hazelnut paste adds about 5.5 % fat; together with the cream and milk the fat comes to around 9 % — the upper half of the gelato range. Nut fat is harder than milk fat at freezer temperature, so nocciola is worth tempering well. 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