Zabaione gelato with Marsala

A rich egg-yolk custard with sweet Marsala wine. A grown-up dessert with notes of dried fruit.

Zabaione is a classic Italian custard of egg yolks, sugar and Marsala. The gelato version has more yolks than crema, and the wine goes into the chilled mix at the end so it keeps its aroma. Alcohol lowers the freezing point, so the gelato is softer — and not for children.

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

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 560 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 100 g whipping cream 33 %
  • 30 g skimmed milk powder
  • 120 g egg yolk (6 yolks)
  • 135 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 30 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 80 g Marsala (sweet dessert wine) (Marsala superiore dolce; substitute: sweet port)

Making the mix

  1. Heat the milk, cream and milk powder in a pan until almost boiling.
  2. Whisk the egg yolks with the granulated sugar and dextrose until pale and thick.
  3. Whisking constantly, pour about a third of the hot milk onto the yolks in a thin stream, then tip everything back into the pan.
  4. 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.
  5. Strain the custard into a bowl set in iced water and cool it below 5 °C, stirring now and then.
  6. Press cling film onto the surface and leave to age in the fridge for 4–12 hours.
  7. Just before churning, stir the Marsala into the aged custard.

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 35–45 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.

Alcohol slows freezing — allow for slightly longer churning.

Total time: 7 h 45 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
40 min
Hardening in the freezer
2 h
Total time
7 h 45 min

Serving and storage

Serve with butter biscuits or cantucci, or with fresh figs. The alcohol keeps it softer, so it needs less tempering. 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

  • The alcohol is not cooked off — the gelato contains about 1 % alcohol and is not suitable for children, during pregnancy or before driving.
  • Don’t add more Marsala: above 100 g the gelato stays sticky and freezes poorly.
  • Instead of Marsala, try Vin Santo or a Tokaji wine (a sweet wine from the Tokaj region of Slovakia and Hungary) — the quantities stay the same.

Why it works

Ethanol has about 7.4 times the anti-freezing power of sucrose. Here the Marsala raises the PAC by roughly 9 points (to about 32) — which is why the recipe uses less dextrose than crema. 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