Whether it’s a pasta dish or chocolate chip cookies, everyone agrees food tastes better made at home with love! Think how much more meaningful it feels to receive a plate of homemade cookies rather than a store bought package. We all appreciate good food made in good hands! When it comes to gelato, the first taste alone will tell you the difference between gelato made the authentic, artisan and true Italian method versus a faster easier method. We’ve recently seen a blast of commercials from the big name supermarket ice cream producers expounding on the romance of their “gelaaaaato”. Other shops will claim authenticity but settle for a pre-mixed powder they blend with milk and freeze. Even the fro-yo craze has now jumped to a “soft serve” gelato in an attempt to stay relevant and fresh. Even though each of these producers call their offerings “gelato”, the differences are obvious, and the authentic gelato is the artisan gelato!
The Real Deal
Authentic hand crafted gelato goes through a series of steps beginning with only the freshest ingredients. The base ingredients of farm fresh milk, cream, natural emulsifiers and sugars are mixed, heated, cooled and aged in a technique known as “hot treatment” process. The mixture is then cooled and aged producing a base from which all gelato flavors originate. The process of heating, cooling and aging allows for a bonding of the separate ingredients into one and produces a gelato with a perfect consistency.
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We now combine our base with real fruits, espresso or spice infusions or natural pastes and flavors, depending on the desired flavor. The blended ingredients are now poured into a carefully calibrated freezer that turns the soupy mixture into a dense, smooth, and creamy concoction. Because true authentic gelato is made in small batches, each step of the artisan gelato making process must be carefully executed, making an end product that is both beautiful to look at and bursting with flavor. The other benefit of making small batch artisan gelato is that the consumer is guaranteed to receive a fresh product and a variety of changing flavors!
What’s in there?
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Before you even taste, your eyes can often tell you the difference between authentic artisan gelato and a lesser quality product. Is it wavy and dense looking? It’s the real stuff. Shiny, neon colors tell you it’s a commercial mix, which is much easier and faster, but the result is not nearly as tasty, fresh and satisfying as authentic gelato. The powdered mix contains food additives such as artificial colors and flavors. Does the fruit taste like a banana or a peach or a blueberry or does it have a candy-like taste to it? Authentic gelato contains only real fruit and the difference will be clear in the first bite. Pre-mixed gelato may be decorated with bright colors and placed in a fancy display, but the taste, which is what really matters, will leave you disappointed and wishing you had some authentic gelato from scratch. Even worse are the soft serve varieties cropping up (yellow cake gelato?) which not only are dependent on artificial flavoring for their taste but are also filled with air, the opposite of what authentic gelato should be.
If you want a real “Italian inspired” gelato experience, forget the premixes, supermarket brands and soft serves and go for the real stuff! Our favorite foods are usually homemade, and gelato is no exception. Pazzo Gelato Cafe offers the real deal, and you won’t be disappointed with your authentic, delicious gelato, made by us and only us!
Pazzo Gelato Café is located at 99 Turnpike Street, North Andover in Eaglewood Shops Plaza across from the Eagle-Tribune. Please visit www.pazzogelatocafe.com for more detail
