Best Gelato in Florence with Recipe

I’ve been a life-long chocolate lover, but my life had been an empty shell before I had Italian chocolate gelato. A creamy, smooth, frozen concoction the color of night, gelato al cioccolato takes me to heights of pure ecstasy. I’m ruined now for chocolate ice cream of the American version—I look at its milky chocolate brown shade with disdain. My beloved’s tone is so deep that it borders on black. Its taste so pure that a little scoop satisfies the taste buds. During my trips to Italy, I’ve developed a considerable gelato habit. Although my proclivity has the potential to be very unkind to my waistline, it gives me reason to get out and explore.

Since gelato was created in Florence, the historic city is my taste-testing ground. In order to reduce the guilt I feel for eating so much gelato, I walk to various gelaterias across the city…briskly. For taste-testing accuracy, I get the same flavor at every shop—cioccolato/fondente. The winner, for me, is Gelateria dei Neri—a small place located not far from the famed Uffizi Gallery. I love how rich and smooth the gelato is and the price is good, too. The gelato is so delicious that it is one of the first places I go when I arrive to Florence. I’ve now grown to love their granitas, too.

The creamy concoction makes a perfect 4 pm “pick-me-up” since Italians generally don’t start dining before 7 pm (and usually much later). Avoid the gelato shops with huge piles of it, because it is inflated to get that volume. Also, avoid artificial colors; I look for small batches of the frozen dessert in metal containers with muted colors that are a smooth, creamy consistency. Beware of inflated prices, too. Gelato should be a fairly cheap treat, only costing a few euro.

The places I think serve the best gelato in Florence are: Gelateria dei Neri, Vivoli, Gelateria la Carraia, La Strega Nocciola, I Gelati del Bondi, and Cono Gelato. All of these places serve up creamy, rich gelato in small batches. They know what they are doing and their flavors explode. They practice the art of gelato-making that goes back centuries. You really can’t go wrong with any of them, but the dark chocolate (with salted caramel as a second flavor) at Gelateria dei Neri makes the price of the flight worth it for me. 

Once I return to the States, I become despondent thinking about life without that deep, dark-brown ice cream. I’ve tried various gelato products available in the grocery store, as well as those available at nearby shops, but nothing comes close to Florence’s gelato.

Since I’m too young to retire and move to Italy, I had to come up with a solution so I decided to make my own. I purchased an ice-cream machine and experimented with recipes until I developed one that came close to the dark chocolate gelato I had in Florence. Here is my recipe—the taste is as close as I can get it, but my freezer is too cold for proper gelato consistency. It’s best served right out of the ice cream machine. I use an inexpensive, electric ice cream maker. The machine consists of a bucket with a metal insert that you surround with ice and salt. A paddle is fitted in the metal container and the gelato mixture poured in. The electric mechanism affixes to the paddle and churns the mixture to soft-serve consistency, which is how gelato is served. I hope you enjoy!

Roaming Historian’s Gelato Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup Hershey Special Dark cocoa powder (or a Dutch-processed cocoa powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I like Ghiradelli Intense Dark Chocolate 86%)

Directions:

Over medium heat, stir together the milk, cocoa, salt, vanilla, and chocolate. Using a spoon, dissolve any cocoa powder clumps in the milk and let the mixture continue to heat and thicken while you prepare the rest of the recipe. Be careful that it does not boil.

Place the egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, whip together the egg yolks and sugar until they are a pale yellow color and a bit stiffer.

When the milk is heated through, but not boiling, it’s time to temper the egg mixture so that you can add it to the milk and not scramble the eggs. Remove your milk temporarily from the heat. Add a big spoonful (mixing spoon size) of the hot milk to your bowl of egg mixture. Stir vigorously until absorbed. Add another large spoonful of the hot milk and stir until absorbed. Slowly add your egg mixture to your milk while continuously stirring.

Return the pot to the heat. Keep stirring the entire mixture over medium heat until the gelato base coats the back of a spoon. This should take 10-15 minutes. When it coats the back of a spoon, pour it into another dish and cool it for several hours (I prefer 24 hours). It should look like dark chocolate pudding when it’s done. At this point it is ready to go in the ice-cream machine. Thirty minutes later (at least in my machine) and you can enjoy!

If you want an excellent Florentine experience involving gelato, I highly recommend the following tours.

Semi Private Food Tour in Florence with LivTours: https://livtours.com/tours/semi-private-food-tour-in-florence?af_code=E1DDN61

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Private Florence Food Tour with LivTours: https://livtours.com/tours/private-florence-food-tour?af_code=E1DDN61

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Tuscan Cooking Class in Florence’s San Lorenzo Market: https://shrsl.com/4l13e

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Oltrarno Local Food Tour in Florence with The Tour Guy: https://shrsl.com/4l13v

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Guy: https://shrsl.com/4l13w

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