The Difference is in the Milk

This may be the top question we receive from our customers, “What is biggest difference between gelato and ice cream?”

When we make our delicious gelato, we use whole milk instead of cream. This may seem like a simple change… but considering milk is the foundation we build our flavors upon, it affects everything!

First, we start with a superior milk! Our milk man delivers fresh, local and hormone free milk to our Kitchen located in Magnolia, daily. When this delicious milk is combined with our traditional Italian methods, it becomes a dense and silky treat. Think about when you whip cream at home. You can see it grow as the fat takes more and more air into its body. Though this makes a fluffy and delicious cloud at room temperature, when you freeze it, the air pockets create an ideal environment for ice to form, compromising the texture of ice cream. Milk, on the other hand, has less fat, and therefore, doesn’t fluff up, especially when churned slowly. Let’s do a quick experiment with your kitchen scale: Take an ice cream pint and weigh it. Then weigh one of our pints of gelato. You will see that our pint weighs quite a bit more than ice cream. Less air = more yummies!

The next thing to consider is the flavor. Because milk contains less fat, the freezing temperature of gelato is much warmer than ice cream. Your palette can experience flavors, especially sugars, better at warmer temperatures. Next time you make a custardy dessert like rice pudding at home, try this: First taste it when it’s still warm, then try it again, once you refrigerated it. The cooler it is, the less sweet it will taste. Less sugar is not only good for your health and calorie count, but reducing the sugar also allows the other flavors to come forward. This intensity of flavors is why your palette is so happy when you eat our treats.

The Nutty Squirrel journey doesn’t end there. Just as we are thoughtful about which milk we use, from our NON-GMO sugar to the Fair Trade dark chocolate we melt, we give outmost care to the selection of our ingredients. In addition, we don’t use emulsifiers; instead we age our base in a cooling tank for at least 12 hours for ingredients to naturally bind together. Our small batches give us the opportunity to tailor our recipes to the flavor we are creating. Depending on the flavor, we adjust sugar and fat content, to stay true to the traditional Gelato quality standards.

Next time you visit our Magnolia Shop, watch the magic happen from the peekaboo window. See you soon!