Gelato al Fior di Latte (Milk Gelato)

This recipe comes from one of my absolute favourite cook books, Cook Italy by Katie Caldesi. Katie and her husband, Giancarlo Caldesi run an Italian cookery school, and a fantastic Italian Restaurant in London. I actually saw them do a cooking demo at the Oxford Foodie Festival in the summer of 2011, which I was absolutely thrilled about, because I already was a big fan of their books.

Cook Italy is a large volume of authentic recipes from all the different regions of Italy. There are over 400 recipes and techniques in the book, so if you are looking to get well-acquainted with real Italian food, this is a great book to buy. It has recipes for basically anything Italian, from Focaccia to Risotto to Stuffed Quail to Tiramisu and home made Ice Cream.

This is where this  recipe's story begins, I guess. My roommate has a fabulous Ice Cream maker, and we have been making ice cream on and off since we moved in in September, and this has become my go-to recipe for vanilla ice cream. It has a light and creamy texture with a good dose of vanilla. It is actually Milk Ice Cream, so it uses equal parts milk and cream, rather than mostly cream and just a half cup or so of milk, like many other recipes call for. And I have found, because I do not use vanilla beans (I use vanilla bean paste instead, and if I am out, I just use extract), I do not even have to heat the mixture and chill it first - I just whisk the four ingredients together in a bowl, pour it into the ice cream maker and let it do its thing. Anyway, I am posting this recipe because it is simple and delicious, I just had to share!




Gelato al Fior di Latte - Milk Ice Cream
Adapted from Cook Italy

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste, or vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Directions:
1. Get your ice cream maker set up and ready to churn the ice cream.
2. Remove the milk and heavy cream from the fridge and whisk all four ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl.
3. Pour the ice cream mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the machine's directions.
4. Once the ice cream is churned, transfer it to a resealable container and freeze for 1-2 hours until completely firm. I add this part because I have found the ice cream is not quite firm enough yet when it comes out of the ice cream maker. If you prefer your ice cream softer, you can eat it whenever you like.

Enjoy!