Vegan Strawberry Gelato
It reads as fruit first, bright and a touch sour, before a coconut and cashew richness closes in behind and holds the berry long after the cold has gone.
You feel the fruit before you feel the fat, which is the whole trick in a dairy-free base. Three hundred and thirty grams of raw strawberry per kilo land first, bright and slightly sour with 8 g of lemon juice behind them, and for a moment it eats like a sorbetto. Then the fat catches up: coconut milk and cashew paste close in behind the berry, coat the palate and stretch the flavour out rather than letting it drop away as the cold fades. Fat finishes at 10.58 percent, which is what keeps the body dense instead of icy, and what stays at the end is coconut, faint and warm, under a berry note that lasts several seconds past the swallow.
That choice is also what fixes the fruit dose. Strawberry is 9 percent solids and 91 percent water, so every extra 100 g of fruit pushes 91 g of free water into the mix, and the vegan base only tolerates 58 to 65 percent water. At 330 g of strawberry per kilo the sheet closes at 61.77 percent water, near the middle of that band. Past roughly 350 g there is no room left to place fat, and the result freezes hard instead of scooping.
The fat comes from 285 g of coconut milk with 70 g of 100 percent cashew paste and 9 g of coconut oil behind it. The cashew is not there for flavour: strawberry brings about 0.7 percent protein, which is nothing, and the paste is what lifts protein to 2.19. On the sugar side, 80 g sucrose, 45 g dextrose, 55 g glucose powder and 14 g of inulin close at 20.66 percent sugars with POD 167.59 against a 195 ceiling, and PAC 248.27 in a 210 to 300 band.
Ingredients
Makes 1000 g of finished base.
| Ingredient | Grams | Home measure |
|---|---|---|
| Strawberry | 330 | |
| Coconut Milk | 285 | 1 1/4 cups |
| Oat Milk (Barista) | 100 | 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon |
| Sugar (Sucrose) | 80 | 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon |
| Cashew Paste 100% | 70 | |
| Glucose Powder | 55 | 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon |
| Dextrose (Glucose) | 45 | 1/4 cup |
| Inulin (Vegetable Fiber) | 14 | |
| Coconut Oil | 9 | |
| Lemon Juice | 8 | |
| Carob Seed Flour | 4 |
Method
White base pasteurised at 85 C, chilled under 10 C, raw puree folded in cold, tray frozen and forked
- 1Whisk every dry ingredient together first: sugars, milk powder, stabiliser and salt. Dry-blending them stops the stabiliser clumping when it meets liquid.
- 2Warm the liquids to 40 C (104 F), then rain the dry mix in while whisking hard.
- 3Heat to 82 C (180 F) and hold for 2 minutes so the stabiliser hydrates.
- 4Off the heat, whisk in the paste, then blend 60 seconds so the fat emulsifies instead of separating.
- 5Chill in an ice bath to under 5 C (41 F) within 2 hours. Slow cooling is where bacteria and coarse crystals both start.
- 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.
- 7Fold the fruit in cold, after ageing. Heating it costs you the fresh aroma and nothing is gained.
- 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.
- 9Freeze firm, then temper 10 to 15 minutes in the fridge before scooping.
The balance
All six against the professional range for Vegan Base.
Water at 61.77 percent in a 58 to 65 band is the ceiling that fixes strawberry at 330 g per kilo. The fruit is 91 percent water, so there is no way to raise the dose without spending an allowance that is already mostly spent. Fat at 10.58 percent in an 8 to 13 band is the second anchor, and it is why coconut milk sits at 285 g rather than being topped up with water: that fat is the difference between a gelato and a fruit ice. Protein at 2.19 percent explains the 70 g of cashew paste, since strawberry contributes almost none of its own. And POD 167.59 against the vegan ceiling of 195 is why 45 g of dextrose and 55 g of glucose powder sit alongside only 80 g of sucrose. The mix needs the freezing point depression that PAC 248.27 records without tasting any sweeter for it.
Strawberry never sees heat on this sheet. Pasteurise only the white base, meaning the plant milks, sugars, carob seed flour and fat, at 85 C, chill it below 10 C, and then fold in the raw puree. Above about 60 C strawberry loses its fresh top note and reads as jam. The second reason the fruit goes in last is pH: strawberry sits near 3.4 and the 8 g of lemon juice pulls it lower still, and that acid will break a vegetable fat emulsion that has not set yet. Age the white base alone for 4 to 6 hours so the carob hydrates, bring the fruit in at the end, and freeze immediately. This mix does not keep once the fruit is in. The lemon is not only acidity, it fixes the anthocyanin that gives strawberry its red.
If it goes wrong
The puree went into a warm base, or the base was cooked with the fruit already in it. Anthocyanin degrades with heat and the aroma is volatile.
Chill the white base below 10 C before the fruit goes in, and keep the 8 g of lemon juice, which is what stabilises the pigment.
Fruit dose above 330 g per kilo. Strawberry is 91 percent water, so extra fruit pushes the mix past the 65 percent water ceiling and there is no room left to place fat.
Weigh the fruit rather than counting berries, hold it at 330 g, and keep coconut milk at 285 g so fat stays near 10.58 percent.
Acid met an emulsion that had not formed. The lemon or the fruit went in while the base was still warm and loose.
Build and cool the emulsion first, blend it once more when cold, then add the acidified puree and freeze the same day.
Allergens: gluten, milk, tree nuts
- https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Strawberries%2C_raw_nutritional_value.html
- https://www.eccounpoco.com/blog/sugars-in-gelato
- https://www.icecreamscience.com/blog/vegan-ice-cream-selecting-a-non-dairy-fat
- https://under-belly.org/sugars-in-ice-cream/
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