Chasing the Perfect Almond Gelato

Out of all the nut-based gelatos in my upcoming cookbook, pistachio, hazelnut, gianduia, almond was the one I knew needed something extra.

Three plain nut gelatos in a row felt repetitive, and almond specifically needed a little more to make it stand out on its own. I started thinking through what would elevate it, not just add flavor for the sake of it, but something that made sense.

Citrus felt like the obvious place to start. I love citrus, and it's such a defining part of Amalfi Coast, bright, fresh, completely Italian. Orange felt like the right fit immediately. And I also did not have orange in any of my other gelato recipes.

But not all oranges are created equal. My first batch used Valencia oranges, and they had almost no flavor. Navel oranges ended up being the answer. They are always consistently good, full of flavor, every single time.

The fig came from somewhere unexpected. A while back at work, I made a fig and orange jam for a honey panna cotta, and I genuinely loved it, especially the texture from the fig seeds, that little bit of crunch running through something otherwise soft and jammy. I kept thinking about that combination, and it felt like exactly the right thing to bring into this gelato. And dried figs, not fresh, are exactly what this recipe needs. Fresh figs aren't available year-round in most supermarkets, but dried figs are always there. I ordered mine through Amazon.

Even once I had that part figured out, the base itself still needed adjusting before it was exactly what I wanted. The first time, I roasted the almonds to a darker shade, not burnt, but a fairly intense roast, and I found it actually worked against the orange, the flavor felt too heavy and weighed down rather than letting that citrus really sing. The second time, I pulled the almonds earlier, still toasted, but with a much lighter touch, and that made all the difference. The orange came through exactly the way I wanted.

One thing I'm including in the cookbook itself is a photo showing the actual color of each nut once it's properly toasted, pistachio, hazelnut, and almond all roast to completely different shades and take completely different amounts of time. Seeing the real color side by side takes all the guesswork out of it, rather than trying to picture it in your head or guess when to pull them from the oven.

Here you can see the color of the almonds, golden, but not deeply roasted. (Don't worry the picture in the cookbook wont look like this haha)

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/bbc4b2_bae5d6497fa04db4a622d1077ce00b8c/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

This is the gelato right before I took it out of the machine, about two minutes before it was done, I added the diced figs. Churn time really does depend on your specific machine, so use texture as your guide rather than a fixed number of minutes. Remember, the gelato doesn't finish setting in the freezer, it firms up there, but the real texture is built inside the machine.

Almond, orange zest, and dried figs, a combination that feels so completely Italian, dense, textured, with little bits of almond running throughout every single scoop. And somehow, putting it in a real gelato cup makes it taste even better (haha).