Super easy vanilla gelato – Happy Birthday L!

Vanilla gelato

I moved to Brisbane from Sydney when I was five years old. I don’t remember much from back then but I do remember the first music lesson that I ever went to. It was in a big house, not far from home and we all sat around on an over-sized, maroon classic rug. You know the style, it looked a little like this:

Just like the music class rug

I don’t remember much from the actual class, just the rug and my music teacher. She had a daughter the same age as me called L and it was on that day that we became friends.

Fast forward 22 years (wow!) and today is L’s Birthday. That’s right, not only is she one of my oldest friends but we’re just 20 days apart.

Vanilla gelato

Whenever we had ice-cream or went out for ice-cream when we were little and someone asked L which flavours she would like her response was always the same ‘chocolate and vanilla – classic flavours for a classic girl.’ So today, in honor of the classic girl’s Birthday, I am sharing a super-quick and easy recipe for vanilla gelato.

It doesn’t result in super smooth gelato like you would buy at the gelateria but it is a wonderfully easy home-made version that you could adapt to make any flavour you like. I like to eat it straight out of the churner while it’s still nice and soft. This recipe literally takes 5 minutes prep work then the rest of the time it’s chilling in the fridge or churning in the ice-cream maker.

The ingredients

All you need is sugar, milk, cream, eggs and vanilla. The recipe says to use vanilla essence but I like the little black vanilla dots in my ice-cream.

All in

Now this is just how simple it is. No cooking required. Just throw everything in the blender and blend it up until it’s nice and smooth.

Time for chilling

Pour it into a bowl and cover the mixture then refrigerate it for 2 hours.

My trusty ice-cream machine

Set up your ice-cream maker and turn it on.

Churning

Pour in the mixture and leave the machine to work its magic.

Mmmm

All churned up

This is when I could eat the whole lot of it straight from the machine. I might have filled it a little bit past the STOP line hence the over-flow. If you let it churn for a little bit longer you could probably serve it up at this stage. It’s definitely my preference.

Freezer time

Otherwise, spread it into a container and freeze it until you’re ready to serve it.

Vanilla gelato

Ice-cream is a very tricky thing to photograph let me tell you. I managed to get a few pics before it melted away. Serve it with a little biscuit or wafer, ooh or some chocolate fudge sauce. Enjoy and Happy Birthday L!

What about you? What’s your favourite flavour?

Vanilla gelato

Super easy vanilla gelato recipe from my ice-cream machine’s manual

makes 1L

• 2 1/2 cups of milk (next time I would probably reduce the milk by half a cup and up the cream by half a cup)
• 1/2 cup cream
• 260g eggs (I used 5)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Pour the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Pour the chilled mixture into the ice-cream maker and churn until it reaches the desired consistency.

Transfer it to a container and freeze.

Gelato will keep for up to 5 days in the freezer.