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Gelato Messina: The Recipes
Beautifully illustrated and fully photographic, Gelato Messina is filled with unique ice cream recipes that result in frozen works of art. This cookbook transforms all perceptions of traditional gelati and shows you how to create beautiful and delicious ice cream in show-stopping flavour combinations. The first section, entitled 'Basics', covers core ingredients, equipment and techniques for making the foundation flavours used throughout the book. The 'Recipes' section shares 50 recipes for ice creams and gelati divided by bases, whether it be a white base, yoghurt base, chocolate base or even an alcohol base, as well as sorbets and infusions. The famous Gelato Messina store in Sydney is known for its impressive flavour combinations which are shared here - try your hand at the irresistible dulce de leche, pear and rhubarb, poached figs in masala or salted caramel and white chocolate flavours. // Gone are the days of two scoops or three, Gelato Messina's ice creams and desserts are works of art in their own right. Discover ice cream which is truly out of this world in the 'Messina Madness' section, such as the Pavlova - fior di latte gelato, passionfruit and raspberry coulis and meringue - or the Nut Job - custard gelato, peanut butter dust, pie crust and cream. For the truly adventurous, dare to try the Satay Gelato (peanut butter, soy sauce, chilli and chicken skin) or the Nacho Libre (avocado, tomatoes and corn chips)! These recipes will challenge everything you think you know about ice cream, and the results are sure to impress.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 28, 2014
A couple of days ago, I bought an ice-cream attachment for my bench top mixer. I'm not world's biggest ice-cream fan, so except for wanting to experiment with it as an enthusiastic home cook, I wasn't really sure if I was making the best investment. Some consultation with friends on Twitter reminded me of flavours like black sesame, which got me thinking about green tea too. Then I was browsing through the books on iTunes, wondering if I'd ever use a birthday gift card from three months ago, when I happened across this title. Hailing from Brisbane, I knew little about Gelato Messina as a customer, but as a keen watcher of MasterChef Australia I was familiar with the glazed-eyed drooling any mention of Nick Palumbo and partner's Sydney gelateria evoked. I was also reminded that I've always been more fond of gelato and sorbet than ice-cream--something I attribute to the watery fare the Mr Softy van used to serve up in my childhood neighbourhood. I loved its refreshing effect.
Anyway, I bought the book and downloaded it and then began reading.
At first, I confess, I was slightly disappointed; rushing ahead to the recipes, I saw ingredients like dextrose and stabiliser. Mostly, I was confused--didn't gelato have eggs in it? where would I get these strange chemicals? Going back to the beginning I read through the 'Core Ingredients' section and learned that dextrose was a sugar that allows you to make a less sweet gelato with a softer texture. Additional research revealed it was basically Glucodin, a substance I'd been given as a child when I was ill, that's used by body builders for an energy boost, and is a key ingredient in home brewing. Similarly, I read that stabilisers like guar and xantham gum were readily available in health food shops--common fare for the gluten intolerant. Guar gum is derived from a bean of the same name, while xantham is a manufactured bacteria. Palumbo explained that eggs are used traditionally in gelato for their properties of fat, proteins, and lecithin. He notes that the qualities they impart to gelato--mouthfeel, air incorporation, emulsification/stability--are now better met with cream, skim milk powder, and the gums. If eggs are included now, it's because the flavour is desired.
I suppose if you're a purist (and perhaps a bit naive about food additives), this may all sound like your worst nightmare, but I found a small bit of research reassured me and I am quite glad not to have to face the prospect of adding 6-8 egg yolks every time I want to make gelato.
While Palumbo denies his purpose in the 'Core Ingredients' section is to be scientific, his writing does display a level of technical understanding and expertise that might put off some home cooks. Certainly, I read one review of the book on a blog that was utterly unforgiving about Palumbo's use of the unfamiliar sugars and stabilisers. That reviewer also resisted Palumbo's claim that prior to his establishment, gelato in Australia was terrible with an attendant reputation. Perhaps the reviewer was right to take him to task for that bit of self-serving hyperbole--she cited Melbourne as a long time purveyor of good gelato. And I seem to recall that even Brisbane has had excellent gelato at La Dolce Vita on Park Road for quite some time. Still, I think that reviewer was wholly unfair in her dismissal of the book.
Aside from revealing the ongoing and fractious nature of the Sydney-Melbourne relationship, the reviewer's comments highlight the often-drawn opposition between 'natural' and 'scientific' in discussions about food. The reviewer simply couldn't parse the use of dextrose, beyond even the word. (I surely wouldn't want to be in the same room as her during one of Heston Blumenthal's turns on the TV.) If anything, perhaps that's a problem with this book: it wants an audience of professionals with pasteurisers and blast chillers, and a domestic audience with double-boilers and ice-cream bowl mixer attachments, who are generally suspicious of chemistry in powdered form.
Even as I write that, I can see that the details of the proportions and processes of making gelato and sorbet imparted throughout the book are its strength too. I think the best recipe books share knowledge and encourage creativity and experimentation, and Palumbo's passion for gelato makes it impossible for him to do anything else: he wants everyone to partake in the perfect gelato of his Sicilian heritage, even if you have to make it yourself.
I completed my first batch of gelato today--Fior di Latte--and it was everything Palumbo promised: creamy, stretchy, and refreshing. I haven't managed to consume it all within the 2-3 hours that he recommends, before he says its texture becomes 'compromised'. For me that's impractical, but with far less knowledge than Palumbo, I'll probably be far more forgiving of any deterioration over the next couple of days. Still, as a beginner, even this process of deterioration will provide the opportunity to learn more.
Anyway, I bought the book and downloaded it and then began reading.
At first, I confess, I was slightly disappointed; rushing ahead to the recipes, I saw ingredients like dextrose and stabiliser. Mostly, I was confused--didn't gelato have eggs in it? where would I get these strange chemicals? Going back to the beginning I read through the 'Core Ingredients' section and learned that dextrose was a sugar that allows you to make a less sweet gelato with a softer texture. Additional research revealed it was basically Glucodin, a substance I'd been given as a child when I was ill, that's used by body builders for an energy boost, and is a key ingredient in home brewing. Similarly, I read that stabilisers like guar and xantham gum were readily available in health food shops--common fare for the gluten intolerant. Guar gum is derived from a bean of the same name, while xantham is a manufactured bacteria. Palumbo explained that eggs are used traditionally in gelato for their properties of fat, proteins, and lecithin. He notes that the qualities they impart to gelato--mouthfeel, air incorporation, emulsification/stability--are now better met with cream, skim milk powder, and the gums. If eggs are included now, it's because the flavour is desired.
I suppose if you're a purist (and perhaps a bit naive about food additives), this may all sound like your worst nightmare, but I found a small bit of research reassured me and I am quite glad not to have to face the prospect of adding 6-8 egg yolks every time I want to make gelato.
While Palumbo denies his purpose in the 'Core Ingredients' section is to be scientific, his writing does display a level of technical understanding and expertise that might put off some home cooks. Certainly, I read one review of the book on a blog that was utterly unforgiving about Palumbo's use of the unfamiliar sugars and stabilisers. That reviewer also resisted Palumbo's claim that prior to his establishment, gelato in Australia was terrible with an attendant reputation. Perhaps the reviewer was right to take him to task for that bit of self-serving hyperbole--she cited Melbourne as a long time purveyor of good gelato. And I seem to recall that even Brisbane has had excellent gelato at La Dolce Vita on Park Road for quite some time. Still, I think that reviewer was wholly unfair in her dismissal of the book.
Aside from revealing the ongoing and fractious nature of the Sydney-Melbourne relationship, the reviewer's comments highlight the often-drawn opposition between 'natural' and 'scientific' in discussions about food. The reviewer simply couldn't parse the use of dextrose, beyond even the word. (I surely wouldn't want to be in the same room as her during one of Heston Blumenthal's turns on the TV.) If anything, perhaps that's a problem with this book: it wants an audience of professionals with pasteurisers and blast chillers, and a domestic audience with double-boilers and ice-cream bowl mixer attachments, who are generally suspicious of chemistry in powdered form.
Even as I write that, I can see that the details of the proportions and processes of making gelato and sorbet imparted throughout the book are its strength too. I think the best recipe books share knowledge and encourage creativity and experimentation, and Palumbo's passion for gelato makes it impossible for him to do anything else: he wants everyone to partake in the perfect gelato of his Sicilian heritage, even if you have to make it yourself.
I completed my first batch of gelato today--Fior di Latte--and it was everything Palumbo promised: creamy, stretchy, and refreshing. I haven't managed to consume it all within the 2-3 hours that he recommends, before he says its texture becomes 'compromised'. For me that's impractical, but with far less knowledge than Palumbo, I'll probably be far more forgiving of any deterioration over the next couple of days. Still, as a beginner, even this process of deterioration will provide the opportunity to learn more.
July 25, 2023
Great photos and okay recipes.
January 10, 2022
As someone who is thoroughly OBSESSED with Gelato Messina, this book was a no-brainer birthday present, especially since we had recently bought an ice-cream machine. My one critique is that the recipes rely on a thermometer rather than giving an indication of the overall consistency. An indication of what the consistency should be like would be very helpful for those of us who don't have thermometers. Alternatively, don't be like me and instead buy yourself a thermometer BEFORE attempting any of the recipes.
April 4, 2018
Perfect gelato book, gracious in knowledge and recipes sharing, love those guys and what they do, recipes require a bit of extra effort to get the "special ingridients" like dry milk, dextrose, meltadoxterin.. But it yields best gelato quality i've ever had at home.
July 3, 2016
I suppose I should have been surprised. The title says it right there, this book is the recipes. And pretty much nothing else. A little bit on equipment and ingredients at the beginning, but basically it's just dive in and page after page of recipes. Given that they're all ice creams, it's a bit repetitive. No, strike that, it's a lot repetitive. Not only are there dozens of recipes that are pretty much identical other than one or two flavoring ingredients, but the author basically cut and pasted the ingredient lists and the instructions one after another, right down to the different techniques for different types of ice cream making equipment. So I thought, okay, this must be a companion volume to, say, Gelato Messina: The story. But as best I can tell, it's not. There's another recipe book, called Gelato Messina: The creative department, which takes all these various ice cream recipes (I'm guessing) and turns them into works of art - that book is touted as a coffee table book for anyone who's not a professional pastry chef. Unfortunately, that means that there's not much here you can't get from a quick search on the internet for a decent ice cream recipe in the flavor you want. Meh.
August 13, 2016
Gelato Messina in Sydney is a very popular destination. If you feel like a gelato on a warm summer's evening (or even on a not-so-warm one) you have to be prepared to queue. As queuing isn't my thing, this book of Gelato Messina recipes was a very welcome Christmas gift. I've been making ice cream for years, graduating from an olde-worlde Monier ice cream maker, which required salt and ice, through various electric ice cream makers to my current much-loved and well-used ice cream maker with its own compressor. Making gelato, though, is going to be much more difficult, requiring exotic ingredients such as dextrose and maltodextrin and precise use of a kitchen thermometer. It's fair to say that I'm daunted. However, I like a culinary challenge and I'll be giving the recipes a go pretty soon. At the moment, the four star rating is a reflection of the book's pretty pictures and the (mostly) yummy sounding flavours. Lets just see if I can get the recipes to work.
August 9, 2014
Changed my world!
I have read other ice cream and gelato cookbooks (such as David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop). This book blows them out of the water! The must-have book if you want delicious gelati and sorbet with perfect texture and consistency. Teaches you how to use the right ingredients so that your gelato stay soft, creamy and never icy. This is the book to get!!
I have read other ice cream and gelato cookbooks (such as David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop). This book blows them out of the water! The must-have book if you want delicious gelati and sorbet with perfect texture and consistency. Teaches you how to use the right ingredients so that your gelato stay soft, creamy and never icy. This is the book to get!!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews