Raw materials
Choosing ingredients
Specialist companies make excellent quality products for all sorts of customers, which explains why so many gelato makers now use compound ingredients, which have excellent binding qualities, and help with practical issues, such as keeping raw materials in optimum condition, reducing preparation times, guaranteeing cleanliness.
Good compound ingredients have well-balanced components, giving a well-textured product that is tasty, healthy, and safe.
To make perfectly creamy gelato, its solid and liquid ingredients need to be mixed together as thoroughly as possible, so that the water particles freeze smoothly and manage to trap enough air. Modern gelato workshops use balanced and selected semi-finished products: bases that include emulsifiers and texturizers that stabilize the gelato mixture without ruining its sensory properties and guarantee a creamy, scoopable finished product.
Depending on your personal tastes, seasonal factors, and your customers’ preferences, semi-finished products can be used for a variety of purposes. Below is a list of those available.
Semi-finished products for base mixtures
In powdered, liquid, or paste form, semi-finished products are available in various concentrations. They may contain additives which emulsify and stabilize hand-made gelato, to which the fresh ingredients will be added later; or else they may contain milk, cream, eggs, and other basic ingredients. Which ones you choose will depend on how much time you have available, the time of year and therefore the availability (and perishability) of raw materials, and the availability of one or more pasteurizing machines in your workshop.
Pastes
Pastes are semi-finished products which turn base mixtures into the flavours that your customers will come to know and love. This category includes powdered fruit or milk flavours (cocoa powder, freeze-dried coffee, liquorice powder) and flavour pastes (pistachio and other nuts, sugary toppings, fruit pastes), to create the various gelato flavours. Again, which exact one you choose will depend on various factors, first and foremost the season.
Ready-to-use semi-finished products
Prepared mixtures in powder, paste, or liquid form, with a full range of ingredients, for making cream- or fruit-based hand-made gelatos in an instant – just add water, milk, and/or whipped cream, depending on the recipe.
Ingredients for decoration
This category includes a wide range of preparations used to garnish gelato, based on honey or sweet syrups, chocolate or cocoa, coffee or other infusions, dried fruits, fruit and vegetable preserves and preparations, fruit juices and pulp, candied or canned fruit, alcoholic beverages, artificial colours, flavourings, and additives.
The range of products available is mind-boggling and includes products suitable for making various types of gelato (hand-made, soft, creamy express, frozen yogurt, each with their own temperature and creaminess).
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