email this pageItalian-style ice cream, gelato doesn’t contain as much air as American style ice cream. It’s made with whole milk and lots of egg yolks but no cream—yet it’s the “creamiest” frozen treat imaginable.
Ice Cream
A flavored cream mixture, ice cream is frozen and churned all at once, thereby beating in air to yield a creamy texture. Philadelphia-style ice cream is made without eggs; but because of changing tastes, most ice creams these days are frozen custards, a smoother, cooked egg mixture enriched with cream and then churned/frozen. In fact, almost all frozen desserts have been “ice-cream-ized”—that is, made more creamy, less icy.
Sherbet
Sherbet is a frozen mixture of sweetened fruit juice and water. It can also contain milk, egg whites or gelatin. It’s lighter than ice cream, but richer than sorbet.
Sorbet
The French word for sherbet, sorbet is made from fruit (and sometimes corn syrup or gelatin) and never contains milk. It’s virtually fat free.
Semi-Freddo
Another frozen Italian dessert, this time but made without churning—the high amount of eggs, cream and sugar keep it from freezing solid (thus semi-freddo, “half frozen”). Made in loaf pan and sliced, it’s created by the heavenly combination of a cooked meringue, a zabaglione and whipped cream.
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