Three flavours of gelato from Taranaki's Lush Cafe won gold at this year's New Zealand Ice Cream Awards.
Lush's co-owner Jo Eliason shares recipes for vanilla, milk chocolate and honey gelato here. Note – homemade gelato has to be eaten on the same day (or night).
New Plymouth is swamped with cafes, Jo says, so when Lush opened in 2008 they wanted to have a point of difference.
They decided on a gelato cabinet by the till.
It took a while to catch on with Taranakians but now they're right into it, Jo says,
The difference between gelato and ice-cream is the fat content – gelato has less fat even though it has a smoother texture.
When making homemade gelato, it's important that you use skim rather than whole milk powder as the extra proteins will give it structure, says Jo.
Dextrose can be bought in the form of a glucose powder from the supermarket.
Jo warns people not to go too crazy creating your own flavours as too much sugar will make the gelato too soft and not enough sugar makes it too hard – her recipes for vanilla, milk chocolate and honey are tried and tested.
