Homemade Gelato

When I received an ice cream maker for Christmas, I was unsure that I would get much use out of it. The instructions seemed complicated and my first few batches left me frustrated when they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I also had the preconceived notion that all you had to do was add the ingredients to the machine and just like that you would have ice cream in 20 minutes; which I discovered is not exactly the case. But after using it 4-5 times now, I feel more confident and the recipes aren't quite as daunting. Yesterday I had some free time on my hands so I decided to make some strawberry gelato. I used the raspberry gelato recipe in the instruction manual that came with my ice cream maker. It can be found on page 9 here. Here are the steps I went through:


Pureed strawberries in my food processor (I used thawed frozen strawberries).


Egg, cream, sugar mixture thickened to a custard sauce (I used light cream throughout instead of half and half and heavy cream).


All mixed up and ready to refrigerate for 6 hours.


I added the mixture to the ice cream maker and let it do its thing for 20-30 minutes.


All ready to eat or freeze for a firmer consistency. Garnished with fresh garden strawberries.