Gaggia Gelatiere 1 month on

Having been fortunate enough to have been given this wonderful machine, I thought I would give you an update of how I am getting on with it and how I am finding the end results of what I make.

My OH would tell you by far the nicest I have made is the horlicks ice-cream , but this is a full cream, dairy ice-cream but he just loves the flavour as he is a horlicks fanatic.It has been made a couple of times a week since we first did it, and it doesnt last long!!

I have tended to find the non-dairy ice-creams that have been made with coconut cream fair better in the freezer after 4 or 5 days than the others that despite the fact that the ice-cream are lovely, smooth and a great consistency when they are made and if you are making them to eat at the time they have been made then they were fabulous. Once a lot of the others have been in the freezer for a few days then they tend to go icy and when leaving them out the freezer to soften them up they tend to melt and go icy rather than ice-creamy and pleasant.

The sorbets fair very well, especially the fresh fruit ones, and they stay pleasant, enjoyable and very edible. The only tip I can give you is if you are using fresh fruit and you intend to store the sorbet or ice-cream then make sure it is pureed well as when stored in the freezer any small pieces of fruit go very icy, but if using it right away then leave a few slightly larger pieces as they add pleasantly to the texture of the finished product.

I have also been using the okara in my ice-cream to use it up and to add protein into  the ice-cream, it gives a slightly grainy texture, but not unpleasant.

But Gaggia were kind enough to send me a book called the vegan scoop, 150 recipes for dairy free ice-cream, it used a totally different recipe method for making dairy free than normal ice-cream. It involves a more complicated process than my method, but certainly leads to a better long term result.

The vegan scoop basic recipe is

1 cup soya milk ( works just as well with oat and rice) and I make my own
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
2 cups soya creamer - (havent worked out how to make this so need to buy it. )
3/4 cup sugar

combine approx 1/4 milk with the arrowroot.
put soya creamer, sugar and the remaining 3/4 milk into a pan and bring to the boil.
Remove from heat and add the first 1/4 milk with arrowroot in, the mixture thickens.
Refrigerate for 2-3 hrs minimum then use mixture in your recipe just by adding flavouring.

I made this 2 days ago with some blackberries I picked locally, cooked and puréed, added 5 oz of blackberries and it was delicious, both freshly made and again tonight. I served it with some blackberries spooned over the top.

Definitely well worth the extra work, and as I make my own milk its costing me approx £1.80 to make 1/2 litre, would cost me about £4 to buy it, if I could find it.



Overall Verdict

This item is well worth having, is be a great investment for anybody for either dairy or dairy free, is so quick and easy to use and produces great results, with nothing artificial added at all. I have seen me make the thickened milk the day before I am going to use it so it can be made and eaten there and then without a problem.