Gelato (the Italian word for ice cream) is made with milk and no
cream, so it is slightly lower in fat than American?style ice cream and you can make it without an ice?cream maker. So bowl everyone over on sunny spring days by serving cones of your made?from?scratch gelato.
Fill a large bowl with iced water. Using a knife, scrape the seeds out of the inside of the vanilla pod. Place the seeds and vanilla pod along with the milk in a medium heavy based saucepan over a medium low heat and cover. Check and stir occasionally and remove from the heat when it is just simmering. Pour the milk into a bowl and place the bowl in the iced water bath for a few minutes until it cools to room temperature. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a mixer or using a balloon whisk until the mixture is thick, pale and glossy and holds a ribbon for 2 seconds.
Step 2
Remove the vanilla pod from the milk and gradually whisk the milk into the egg mixture until it is well combined. Rinse out the saucepan and pour in the milk mixture. Cook over a medium?low heat, stirring constantly, for 15?20 minutes or until it is think enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon. Once it from the heat immediately. Cook it on a lower rather than higher heat to avoid the custard curdling.
Step 3
Strain the custard into a bowl and return to the ice bath for a few minutes until it has cooled to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Pour the custard into a shallow 1 litre capacity tupperware or freezer proof container. Replace the lid or cover with foil and refrigerate for 3 hours. Transfer to the freezer for 4 hours or until frozen. Remove from the freezer and break the gelato into chunks with a spoon. Spoon into a food processor and process until smooth but not melted. Pour the mixture back in to the freezer proof dish and freeze for another two hours and then process again. Repeat this once more. Allow to stand out of the freezer for 15 minutes before serving.
