Refreshing Blueberry Mojito Sorbetto anyone??
Frozen desserts (gelato included) & alcohol don’t go hand in hand unfortunately.
As we explained for sugars a few post ago, alcohol is another ingredient that lowers dramatically the freezing point keeping the gelato really soft. On top of this major issue, alcohol destabilizes the delicate structure of your product reducing its shelf life and its quality.
Keep in mind this article is geared towards artisans that need to balance all their recipe from scratch & correctly every time.
How do we use alcohol in gelato? We have a few options:
Considering which alcoholic beverage we are using. Most white & red wine don’t contain sugar some liquors, amari & digestif will have also a good amount of that which will further enhance the anti freezing power of the alcohol.
Use it sparingly to impart a light, rounding flavor to the gelato. Consider that the higher the alcohol % of the beverage the less you should be using. You can use a lot more light white wine than whiskey. Using alcohol in sorbetti can be more forgiving, considering the high water %, but those flavors are also more delicate therefore will last even less in your display.
It’s still imperative to reduce the overall sugar content, especially those sugars, like dextrose or inverted sugars, that do have a really high anti-freezing power so that your gelato can stay harder. You might need to take them out completely. If you need more sweetness, plan on increasing the sucrose which has a much lower anti-freezing power.
We add the alcohol directly into the batch freezer after a few minutes when the gelato is starting to freeze - this will allow your machine to freeze it faster and more efficiently.
How do we display & serve flavors that contain alcohol?
It is really important to have a blast freezer that will rapidly lower the temperature of the gelato just out of the batch freezer and avoid melting.
We should be placing the pan in the coldest spot of our display case, which normally is in the center of the back row, right next to the evaporator.
We can lower the serving temperature of the gelato. By serving the gelato at a colder temperature you can be free to add more alcohol, but this can work for pints or in special occasions. If you have a regular display case normally you have only one temperature to work with for all your flavors (and here is where true artisans shine because they know how to balance it correctly).
You can use alcohol in your frozen desserts and it is normally appreciated by your customers, but make sure you keep in mind what it does to your gelato!
Hopefully this was helpful & valuable!
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A presto amici!
Vincenzo