Roasted strawberry gelato

While this is definitely a strawberry ice cream, it’s not of the bright and juicy kind bursting with fresh strawberry flavour. Roasting the strawberries concentrate their flavour and brings out the sweet, buttery caramel aromas in strawberries.

The toasted sugar further amplifies the caramel and savoury notes in the strawberries!

I prefer gelato for all fruit forward ice creams, but especially for strawberries. The intensely fruity flavour of the berries are better allowed to shine in a lean base with a fat percent around 7-9%, whereas the richness of a custard base would dull the strawberry flavour with butterfat.

Roasted strawberry gelato

Slow roasted strawberries

300g strawberries, rinsed and hulled
30g caster or granulated sugar
1 empty vanilla pod, optional

Roasted strawberry gelato

325g whole milk (3,5% fat)
175g heavy cream (38% fat)
70g toasted sugar*
40g glucose syrup
60g skimmed milk powder
5g ice cream stabiliser (e.g. cremodan, sosa procrema 5, louis Francois stab2000) OR 2g locust bean gum OR 80g egg yolks
Pinch of salt, to taste

Heat the oven to 150C. Leave small raspberries whole and halve the larger, so they are roughly the same size. Mix the strawberries and sugar and roast in an oven for 1-2 hours, until the strawberry juice is reduced to a deep red syrup. Remove from the oven and refrigerate until cooled.

While the strawberries are roasting, pour 1kg of sugar into a glass or ceramic baking dish. Roast for 2,5 hours, stirring every 30 minutes, until the sugar is deep golden brown. Leave to cool to room temperature.

Prepare a large bowl of ice cold water.

If using stabiliser: Add the whole milk, heavy cream, 50g of the toasted sugar, glucose syrup and skimmed milk powder to a heavy bottomed saucepan and heat to 40C. Mix the remaining 20g of sugar with the ice cream stabiliser of choice and add to the warm milk. Cook while stirring until the mixture reaches 85C on a thermometer.

If using egg yolks: Add the whole milk, heavy cream, 20g of the toasted sugar, glucose syrup and skimmed milk powder to a heavy bottomed saucepan and heat until steaming hot. Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks with the remaining 50 of toasted sugar until pale and airy. Pour about 1/3 of the hot milk mixture over the egg yolks while whisking thoroughly. Return the tempered egg yolks back into the warm milk and cook while stirring until the custard reaches 85C on a thermometer.

Immediately pour the gelato base into a clean bowl and place in the ice bath (alternatively cover with clingfilm directly against the surface and refrigerate immediately) until the mixture is cooled. Refrigerate at least 5 hours, preferably overnight.

Add the roasted strawberries and strawberry syrup to a blender with the gelato base and blend until completely smooth.

Pass through a chinois or fine meshed sieve, season to taste with salt and churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions. Scrape the ice cream into a lidded container and freeze for at least a few hours before serving.