Pidapipo Chocolate Gelato

Pidapipo Chocolate Gelato

Lisa Valmorbida owner of Pidapipo shares her recipe for her chocolate gelato with us. She says "This recipe was the hardest to get right and took me the longest of any of the flavours. I made so much chocolate gelato to get to this one it was crazy. My mum was the tester and she's really tough so I was happy when she finally approved this one. The biggest secret? Make sure to use the best chocolate you can find, never just cocoa powder. We use chocolate from Hunted+Gathered. They make the chocolate from scratch, from the beans and use no dairy. I've never tasted chocolate as good as theirs. It's strong, intense and not sweet, meaning you can really taste the bean."

Ingredients

  • 95g caster sugar
  • 55g dextrose
  • 15g skim milk powder
  • 40g dark muscovado sugar
  • 55g Dutch cocoa powder
  • 3g carob bean powder
  • 460g milk 115ml pouring (single/light) cream
  • 155g filtered water
  • 50g Dominican Republic 70% Buttons

Method

1. Put the caster sugar, dextrose, skim milk powder, dark muscovado sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl and mix to combine.
2. Put the carob bean powder in a separate bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the sugar mixture and mix together well.3. Pour the milk, cream and water into a large heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Whisk in the carob bean powder mixture and continue to heat, whisking in the sugar mixture as you go, until it hits 85°C (185°F). Remove from the heat, add the chocolate and whisk together until the chocolate has melted into the mixture and everything is well combined. 
4. Pour into a suitable lidded container and leave to cool in the freezer for 1 hour, or until the mixture drops to 4° C (39°F). 
5. Turn on your gelato maker so it begins the freezing process.
6. Pour the mixture into your gelato maker. Once the mixture reaches -4°C (25°F) or is the consistency of soft-serve ice cream (this should take about 30 45 minutes) detach the canister or scoop the gelato into a pre-cooled lidded container.
7. Transfer to the freezer and leave for at least 1 hour to harden before serving.