Dulce de Leche Gelato

Tags: #dessert #ice-cream #make-ahead
Servings: 10–12
Total time: 8 hours

Eggless dulce de leche gelato base (no swirl) with a guar + CMC stabilizer blend for a dense, velvety scoop.

Ingredients

• 450g dulce de leche (56.5% sugar)
• 635g whole milk
• 500g heavy cream (about 35%)
• 100g light corn syrup (glucose syrup; not HFCS)
• 45g sugar
• 2g guar gum
• 2g CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose), food-grade
• 3g fine salt
• 5g vanilla extract (optional)

Steps

1. Whisk sugar, guar gum, and CMC together very thoroughly (this prevents gum clumps).
2. Add whole milk, heavy cream, corn syrup, and salt to a saucepan.
3. Warm over medium heat to about 45°C, whisking.
4. While whisking hard (or blending with an immersion blender), slowly rain in the sugar–gum mixture.
5. Continue heating, stirring constantly, until the base reaches 82–85°C.
6. Remove from heat and cool the base quickly in an ice bath, stirring occasionally.
7. Add dulce de leche (and vanilla, if using), then immersion-blend until perfectly smooth.
8. Cover and refrigerate 4–12 hours to fully hydrate the stabilizers.
9. Churn in your ice cream maker (in two runs if needed), then freeze 2–4 hours to firm up.

Notes

• Yield: about 1.75kg base, typically just under ~2L churned (depends on your machine’s overrun).
• If your “corn syrup” label says high-fructose corn syrup, tell me and I’ll rebalance the sugars (HFCS changes sweetness a lot).
• If the gelato feels slightly “gummy,” reduce guar to 1.5g next batch (keep CMC at 2g). If it’s a bit icy, increase corn syrup to 120g and reduce milk by 20g.