Coconut: a tropical flavour for the gelato parlour

Coconut: a tropical flavour for the gelato parlour

Cool, creamy and refreshing, coconut is the perfect hand-made gelato flavour to offer in your gelato parlour to re-awaken your customers’ memories of sweet summer days.

The coconut is the fruit of the coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, a tree typical of hot countries, belonging to the Arecaceae family. With its hard, rough oval shell, the coconut is a sweet fruit, full of various nutritional properties, such as water, fibre, carbohydrates, sugars and lipids.

Generally grown in tropical countries, such as Thailand, India, and Indonesia, the coconut is sold either as the whole fruit, dried, soaked in milk, grated or grilled. Coconut is a perfect ingredient for various recipes, including cakes, frozen desserts and hand-made gelatos.

Coconut is a classic hand-made gelato flavour, perfect for the gelato parlour, especially during the spring and summer months. Sweet and refreshing, hand-made coconut gelato is a great accompaniment for chocolate flavours, but is also ideal when combined with hand-made gelato in various fruit flavours.

It is important to remember that if we use dried coconut for making hand-made coconut gelato, we can use smaller amounts of milk, which can in any case be used for making mouth-watering coconut sorbets or granitas.

Coconut: a tropical flavour for the gelato parlour
Brioche with gelato
Brioche with gelato

Sliced open and filled with gelato, with cream, or even with both, the brioche with gelato is a typical Sicilian speciality which has recently been exported to the rest of Italy; it is becoming increasingly common to see gelato shops offering this delicacy, with regional variations such as croissants and buns or the truly Sicilian “tuppo” brioche.

Vegan gelato, the new trend of Italian gelato-making.
Vegan gelato, the new trend of Italian gelato-making.

The last SIGEP, the International Homemade Gelato, Pastry, and Bakery Fair, in Rimini, saw a trend among all of the major companies in the industry to offer products – and in some cases an entire product line – for vegans. 

Part 2 - Pasteurization and homogenization of italian gelato
Part 2 - Pasteurization and homogenization of italian gelato

After selecting, assaying and processing the raw materials with the other ingredients, the next stages in making hand-made gelato are pasteurization and homogenization.

How to select ingredients for your gelato
How to select ingredients for your gelato

Why do manufacturer of ingredients for gelato parlours offer such a wide range of different bases? As user requirements differ so widely, the products are designed to help the gelato-maker to get consistently balanced mixtures, for creamier, more scoopable gelato.

Part 3 -Maturation and Batch freezing of Italian gelato
Part 3 -Maturation and Batch freezing of Italian gelato

After pasteurization and homogenization, it is time for the mixture to undergo maturation and batch-freezing, which are crucial stages for a good hand-made gelato.

Investments, costs and revenues in opening a gelato shop
Investments, costs and revenues in opening a gelato shop

Over the course of time, Italian gelato has earned itself a reputation for continuous innovation in production methods, technologies and ingredients, often dictated by the needs of both practising and would-be gelato-makers.

How to make a good hand-made gelato
How to make a good hand-made gelato

Making gelato used to involve a machine known as a sorbetière, refrigerated using ice and salt, with the mix being batch frozen by hand using a long spatula-shaped stick. Luckily, things have changed quite a bit since then! 

Selecting the gelato ingredients
Selecting the gelato ingredients

Choosing the right raw materials is a fundamental part of making outstanding hand-made gelato: the finest milk, eggs and sugar, and the best semi-finished ingredients and semi-finished products are a key component in the creativity of every craftsman.

The role of semi-finished products in gelato-making
The role of semi-finished products in gelato-making

Compound ingredients for gelato or semi-finished products are mixtures of ingredients in powder or paste that the gelato-maker keeps by his side when preparing mixtures (stabilization) and giving them flavor.

Liquorice: a tasty hand-made gelato
Liquorice: a tasty hand-made gelato

Creamy, sweet and tasty, liquorice is one of the most popular hand-made gelato flavours. With its unique and refined taste, liquorice is not only used for its therapeutic properties, but is also a great ingredient for many recipes in the gelato parlour.

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