Gelato vs ice cream? If you have not taken gelato and ice cream you may think these two are the same. Is gelato ice cream? No, gelato is not ice cream. Gelato is quite different from ice cream. I also thought they were the same till I tasted them.
The only way you can distinguish between ice cream and gelato is by having a taste of them. While ice cream is made up of more cream and less milk, a gelato consists of more milk than cream.
What comes to the mind of most people when they hear “gelato”, is that it is ice cream.
Are you among those who think gelato is ice cream? Let’s take a closer look at these two delicious sweetness
What exactly is gelato?
Gelato is a frozen Italian dessert. It is known as “the Italian ice cream” by most people. Gelato is a frozen dairy dessert made from three major ingredients; milk, cream, and sugar although it consists of more milk than cream.
What is ice cream?
Ice Cream as the name implies is a frozen cream dessert. It is American in origin although there are no records of who exactly made ice cream.
How Gelato vs ice cream differs
These two desserts have similar ingredients, Gelato is quite different from ice cream. Asides that the taste, here are other ways they differ;
Ingredients
Milk, cream, and sugar are the major ingredients for making these two desserts. The only difference is that they are not in the same proportion. To make ice cream and gelato, these three ingredients are combined and mixed evenly.
Gelato is made with more milk than cream, unlike ice cream which as the name implies is made with more cream than milk.
However, the Italian dessert is made with more sugar than ice cream. In most cases, egg yolks are used when making ice cream but they are not used in making gelato.
During production, ice cream is churned fast and lots of air folds in which makes the quantity increase as it is being made. Whereas gelato is churned slowly and so little or no air folds in. Therefore, ice cream contains more air than gelato.
Do you love more milk than cream? Maybe you should go for gelato when you are asked to pick between the two.
Texture
If you have a closer look at these two delicious treats, you will notice that one is silkier than the other.
Gelato is more silken in texture than ice cream because it has low fat.
In addition, it is a bit denser than ice cream. Ice cream is soft and lighter because it contains more air.
Moreover, Gelato is smoother and creamier when compared with ice cream.
Flavor and fat
Even though there are different flavors of both Ice Cream and gelato. You can tell from taking both that gelato has more flavor than ice cream.
The reason is that egg yolks and more creams are used in making ice cream and they contain a lot of fat(10 – 25%). Gelato on the other hand contains about 4 – 9% of fat.
However, this high content of fat ice cream makes it difficult to taste the flavor immediately after it is taken, unlike when you take gelato.
Temperature
Ice cream can be frozen at a high temperature of about -20F or colder while gelato is usually stored and served at a warm temperature of about 0 – 10F.
Serving ice cream at that temp makes your tongue numb to taste the flavor unlike in gelato.
Serving method
Asides from serving them at two distinct temperatures, a spatula is often used to serve the Italian dessert but a scoop is used for ice cream.
Is gelato sweeter than ice cream?
Well, since there are different flavors of ice cream and gelato, we can’t say for sure which is sweeter.
As earlier mentioned, gelato has more flavor which can be tasted when taken because it has less fat, it is denser and it is not so frozen.
You can have a taste of these two frozen desserts at the same time to know which tastes better for you.
Gelato vs ice cream which is healthier?
It is no news that too much sugar and calories can increase your chances of heart disease and lead to diabetes.
So, both gelato and ice cream are not healthy for the body, therefore they should be taken occasionally.
However, ice cream is less healthy than gelato since it can be made with egg yolk, it is more creamy and hence contains more fat when compared to gelato.
Which should you take?
If you are given the option of choosing between gelato and ice cream, it is up to you to choose.
You can pick gelato if you want a silkier and more tasty flavor. If you are a lover of ice cream then you should go for it.
Meanwhile, most people would prefer to take ice cream when they are hot because it is usually frozen, unlike gelato which is served cold.
The bottom line
Gelato and ice cream are two popular desserts. Although they are thought to be the same by most people, they are not the same.
Gelato is tastier, silkier, and milkier, ice cream is creamy, contains more air, and can be served frozen.
So, now you know the difference between an ice cream and a gelato, which do you think you will prefer?
If you have taken both, kindly drop a comment on which of them you like taking.