Vegan Vanilla Coconut Gelato
Warm, faintly nutty richness stands in for cream, firm and cold on the spoon, with the flowery side of the pod arriving on top and lasting into the finish.
Everything holding this one together comes from the tropics, and specifically from a fat that behaves like no other plant fat: highly saturated, so it firms at display temperature much the way milk fat does. That is why the coconut milk goes in at 300 g per kilo, high enough to be the body of the recipe rather than something thinned into the background, and it closes the fat at 10.48 percent, mid band for a vegan base. What coconut cannot supply is protein, which is where 88 g of pure cashew paste comes in, neutral enough not to argue with the flavouring. The vanilla is doubled, bean and extract together, precisely because it has coconut to speak over.
What coconut does not bring is protein, and the vegan base asks for 1.5 to 3.5 percent. That job goes to 88 g of 100 percent cashew paste, which closes protein at 2.23 percent and is neutral enough not to argue with vanilla. The 376 g of water is there so the coconut is dosed on purpose rather than by dilution: the sheet lands at 61.6 percent water against a 58 to 65 band, and 38.4 percent solids.
The sugar side is where this base is genuinely awkward. The vegan POD ceiling is 195, lower than the 200 a milk gelato gets, while the sugar band runs higher at 18 to 24 percent. Sucrose alone cannot fit into that gap. Here 80 g sucrose, 55 g dextrose, 65 g glucose powder at POD 44 and 19 g of chicory inulin at POD 10 close at 20.91 percent sugars with POD only 162.05, and PAC 252.75. Vanilla runs at full dose, 6 g of bean plus 6 g of pure extract, because coconut fat has a flavour of its own that has to be answered.
Ingredients
Makes 1000 g of finished base.
| Ingredient | Grams | Home measure |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 376 | 1 2/3 cups |
| Coconut Milk | 300 | 1 1/4 cups |
| Cashew Paste 100% | 88 | |
| Sugar (Sucrose) | 80 | 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon |
| Glucose Powder | 65 | 1/3 cup |
| Dextrose (Glucose) | 55 | 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon |
| Inulin (Native Chicory) | 19 | |
| Vanilla Bean | 6 | |
| Vanilla Extract (Pure) | 6 | |
| Carob Seed Flour | 4 | |
| Salt | 1 |
Method
Bean infused in hot coconut milk, base sheared hot, aged 12 hours, 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.
- 7Freeze 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.
- 8Freeze firm, then temper 10 to 15 minutes in the fridge before scooping.
The balance
All six against the professional range for Vegan Base.
The tight spot on a vegan base is between POD and sugars. This band tolerates 18 to 24 percent sugars but caps sweetening power at 195, so sucrose runs out of room long before the solids arrive. Glucose powder at POD 44 and inulin at POD 10 are the two levers that open it, and they are why this sheet reads 20.91 percent sugars at only POD 162.05. PAC 252.75 in a 210 to 300 band is the second anchor, and it matters more here than usual: coconut fat melts over a narrow range, so a mix that sets too hard reads waxy rather than dense. Fat at 10.48 percent and protein at 2.23 percent explain the split between 300 g of coconut milk and 88 g of cashew paste. One carries the structure, the other carries the protein coconut cannot supply.
Coconut milk separates. The fat phase rises, the water phase drops, and once separated it does not come back with a spoon. Heat the base to 80 to 85 C to hydrate the carob seed flour and then shear it with a stick blender for at least a minute before chilling. The lecithin in the cashew helps, but the emulsion has to be made mechanically. Infuse the 6 g of vanilla bean in the hot coconut milk and not in water, because vanillin is fat soluble and the coconut is the fat available. The 6 g of extract goes into the cold base so the alcohol does not carry the volatiles off with it. Coconut fat has a narrow melting range close to mouth temperature, so serve between minus 11 and minus 13 C; colder than that and it turns waxy. Twelve hours of ageing is not optional here, the saturated fat needs that time to crystallise properly.
If it goes wrong
Served too cold, or the 12 hour rest was cut short and the coconut fat crystallised late and coarse.
Serve between minus 11 and minus 13 C, and give the base the full 12 hours at fridge temperature before freezing.
The emulsion was never actually made. Coconut milk separates on standing and hand stirring does not rebuild it.
Blend the base with a stick blender for at least one minute while it is at 80 to 85 C, then chill it fast.
The bean was infused in the water fraction instead of the fat, or the extract was added while the base was still hot.
Infuse the 6 g of bean in the hot coconut milk, and add the 6 g of extract only once the base is cold.
Allergens: milk, tree nuts
- https://foodnouveau.com/how-to-make-vegan-gelato/
- https://www.cucina.li/en/how-to-make-vegan-ice-cream-from-ingredient-selection-to-balancing/
- https://under-belly.org/vegan-ice-cream-it-can-actually-be-good/
- https://nielsenmassey.com/recipes/vanilla-bean-gelato/
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