Wild blueberry gelato with ginger and maple
August was blooming, and one of the first things Grandma did when we all showed up in Maine for a long month was to order blueberries. Twenty pounds of wild blueberries from a local farm were to arrive, not knowing when they were going to be harvested, but sometime in the next week or so. We saw them as we drove past fields of short bushes with kayaks on the roof of our Subaru. We dreamed of them as we researched recipes of crumbles, cheesecake bars, pancakes, and of course, gelati. We smelled them from the back porch, because everybody has wild blueberries growing on their lawn.
Wild blueberries are a special type of treat; their skin is almost mild and their flesh is fragrant and watery. Not unlike peaches, if I could make a comparison. We tried a few ways to let the blueberry essence flow in gelato, but ultimately fresh berries didn’t do as well as those stewed and concentrated. Gelato made with fresh berries was too watery, and the stewed berries didn’t lose their “freshness” flavor. So, this recipe is no more than a variation on that for the peach gelato, with the Maine touch of maple syrup for Something Sweet. Fresh ginger follows as the tail for Something Floral, mostly because it pairs well with blueberry and maple.
Taste and adjust. And, don’t eat all the blueberries on the counter before they’re cooked. Be sure to use the darkest maple syrup you can find; Grade B if you can, or at least a dark amber, since the darker the syrup the more maple will come out. Sweetness tends to get lost in the cold of a gelato. Be shy on the xanthan gum, since blueberry skins hold a lot of pectin already and the finished gelato becomes slimy with too much. We tried sliced ginger which didn’t create as much flavor as grated; and grated ginger, despite being bitter on the tongue, tasted great in the frozen cream at the end.
Ice creams and gelati take time to chill the mixes, blend in an ice cream maker, and then harden more in the freezer. Making this a day before eating is best, although we’ve previously rushed this at noon and had a very soft but still tasty gelato for dinner.
Blueberry purée & gelato base
about 2 quarts of wild blueberries
1 cup dark maple syrup, not light amber
1/4 cup sugar
scant 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
Blend the blueberries in a drink blender for a while to pulverize the skins. Set in a saucepan over medium heat and reduce (roughly by 1/4) until syrupy thick and with a robust blueberry flavor. Remove from the heat and measure out 2 cups; save the rest in the fridge for other uses like pancake topping, etc.
In a small bowl, stir the xanthan gum into the sugar and mix well. Pour slowly into the 2 cups of blueberry purée while stirring to prevent clumping. Stir in the maple syrup, then pour into a fridge container and let cool to room temperature before shoving into the fridge.
Ginger cream mix
1 cup heavy cream
2 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
Pour the heavy cream into a pint jar with the ginger. Microwave for a minute at a time until hot to let the ginger steep; cover, then shake every few minutes or whenever you think of it until cool. Set in the fridge alongside the blueberry base, and shake it whenever you open the fridge and see it.
Blending and freezing
light corn syrup to taste
Once the mixtures are very cold, strain out the ginger from the cream. Mix everything well somehow; we prefer pouring each container into half-gallon mason jar, closing the lid, and shaking. The mixture will be a bit goopy because of the xanthan gum. Adjust to your preference with corn syrup, although we prefer ours less sweet so didn’t add any. Pour into your ice cream maker and let it run until the slurry looks like a frozen smoothie and isn’t changing much any more. Scoop quickly into a freezer container and shove in the freezer. Freeze until you’re ready to eat it, which could be an hour for a melty smoothie, or at least 6 hours for a firm gelato.
