Vegan Mango Gelato

The fruit leads and coconut answers underneath, on a body that melts slowly and never announces itself as the version without any milk in it.

Taking the dairy out of a mango gelato costs less than most people expect and more than nothing at all. Coconut milk supplies the fat the fruit has none of, cashew paste covers the protein, and the mix closes at 10.45% fat, so the body is genuinely creamy rather than icy. The loss is that coconut is not neutral the way milk is: you taste it beside the fruit instead of behind it. Sweetness is the other constraint, since ripe fruit arrives sweet already and POD closes at 185.71 against a 195 ceiling for a plant base, which is why sucrose sits at its floor of 80 g and glucose powder carries solids that sugar would otherwise have to bring.

That single number explains the sugar split. Sucrose sits at 80 g, its floor here, because every extra gram of sucrose spends POD the recipe does not have. Glucose powder at 40 g and dextrose at 35 g do the rest, adding solids and PAC without adding much perceived sweetness. PAC lands at 255.17 in a 210 to 300 band, so the mix stays workable at domestic freezer temperature.

Mango carries almost no fat and about 1 percent protein, so both have to come from elsewhere. Coconut milk at 319 g is the fat, and the pairing is not decoration: it is what puts fat at 10.45 in an 8 to 13 band while making a flavour combination that already works. Cashew paste at 70 g brings protein to 2.35 percent against a 1.5 floor. Lemon juice at 6 g is small and load bearing, because a ripe mango with no perceived acidity reads cloying.

Ingredients

Makes 1000 g of finished base.

Method

White base cooked and chilled first, raw mango puree folded in cold, tray frozen and forked

1. 1Whisk every dry ingredient together first: sugars, milk powder, stabiliser and salt. Dry-blending them stops the stabiliser clumping when it meets liquid.
2. 2Warm the liquids to 40 C (104 F), then rain the dry mix in while whisking hard.
3. 3Heat to 82 C (180 F) and hold for 2 minutes so the stabiliser hydrates.
4. 4Off the heat, whisk in the paste, then blend 60 seconds so the fat emulsifies instead of separating.
5. 5Chill in an ice bath to under 5 C (41 F) within 2 hours. Slow cooling is where bacteria and coarse crystals both start.
6. 6Age 6 to 12 hours in the fridge under 5 C (41 F). This is when the stabiliser and the milk protein take up water.
7. 7Fold the fruit in cold, after ageing. Heating it costs you the fresh aroma and nothing is gained.
8. 8Freeze in a shallow metal pan 2 to 3 cm deep, breaking the crystals with a fork every 30 to 40 minutes, 4 to 6 times.
9. 9Freeze firm, then temper 10 to 15 minutes in the fridge before scooping.

The balance

All six against the professional range for Vegan Base.

POD 185.71 and fat 10.45 govern this sheet. POD is close to its 195 ceiling because 310 g of mango arrives already sweet, so the sugar system had to be built out of glucose powder and dextrose rather than sucrose, and sucrose stayed pinned at 80 g. That is why the gelato reads as fruit and not as syrup even at 21.2 percent total sugars. Fat at 10.45 is the second one, and none of it comes from the mango: 319 g of coconut milk, 70 g of cashew paste and a single gram of coconut oil is the entire fat system. Protein 2.35 in a 1.5 to 3.5 band is almost all cashew, since mango contributes about 1 percent. Water at 61.4 percent sits mid band, which matters on a fruit sheet, because fruit is mostly water and it is easy to end up over the 65 percent limit with ice you can feel.

If it goes wrong

Allergens: gluten, milk, tree nuts

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