Yoghurt Italian Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 200 g double cream
• 40 g sugar
• 250 g plain yoghurt
• 6 g gelatine sheets

Method

Bloom the gelatine in cold water for five minutes — the sheets will turn translucent and spongy when fully hydrated. This gelatine will thicken the base without the crystalline grittiness that raw powder leaves behind.

Heat the double cream and sugar to exactly 60°C. This temperature is precise because you need the heat to dissolve the sugar evenly without scalding the cream or cooking off its subtle flavour compounds. Once it reaches 60°C, kill the heat. Squeeze the gelatine to remove excess water — this matters; trapped water dilutes the mixture and softens the final set. Drop it into the warm cream and stir for two minutes. The gelatin dissolves almost instantly; you're looking for no visible specks when you run a spoon through it. If streaks remain, the gel will bind unevenly and you'll taste graininess on your tongue.

Let the mixture cool to 40°C before folding in the yoghurt. This step prevents curdling. The lactic acid in yoghurt is sensitive to sudden heat shocks; cool to blood temperature and you avoid breaking the proteins. Stir until homogeneous — no white ribbons visible in the cream.

Pass the mixture through a fine sieve twice. This is not decoration. Gelatine can clump during cooling, and any particles will lodge between your teeth when eating the finished frozen-desserts product. The double pass catches what the first one misses.

Divide into containers and refrigerate for a minimum of four hours. The gelatin will set at around 6°C, gradually firming the structure. You can leave it overnight — it won't deteriorate. The yoghurt's tartness will sharpen as it sits; the cold amplifies acidity, so the ice cream tastes more intensely sour the next day than immediately after chilling. Serve straight from the fridge; it should have the texture of soft mousse, not hard ice cream. If you've chilled longer than twelve hours, let it sit at room temperature for three minutes to soften the set before serving.