Year after year, countless people wonder what the difference between ice cream and gelato is. Are they really the same thing with a different name? Or are they something completely different from one another? We’ve decided to put this question to rest by clearly laying out the differences below. Maybe it will help you decide which delicious creamy dessert you want to sample today!

Gelato Is Not Ice Cream

Gelato has a much silkier and smoother texture than ice cream and it is also a lot creamier. While it is also denser than ice cream, it has an elastic quality to it that ice cream simply does not. This quality makes it appear to be more fluid than ice cream is. Part of the reason for this is that gelato has less air whipped into it during the churning process, and the other part is that the ingredients used for both are completely different.

The Ingredients Used To Make Gelato

The ingredients used in gelato, while sharing some of the same ones that ice cream uses, are different. Both gelato and ice cream use sugar, milk, and cream, but gelato favors the use of more milk and less cream than ice cream does. Gelato also contains less fat than ice cream and, specifically, tends to sit at around 4 to 9 percent fat content. Gelato also does not use any egg yolks while ice cream most definitely does.

Ice Cream Is Not Gelato

Ice cream is whipped or churned at a high speed so that there is more air in it, and this makes it more voluminous. It is served much colder than gelato, and this makes it a popular choice during the hotter months of the year. The combination of the amount of fat inside of ice cream along with its colder temperature causes it to hold together much better than gelato, which is why ice cream comes out in scoops while gelato is more fluid in appearance.

The Ingredients Used To Make Ice Cream

French ice cream always uses egg yolks but, in the beginning, American ice cream did not. In today’s world, American ice cream does usually include egg yolks not only for flavor but to help pack and keep it all together. Ice cream also uses much more cream than gelato does and, in fact, is defined by the Food and Drug Administration as having at least 10 percent fat. This is just a minimum; ice cream typically contains around 14 to 25 percent fat. This is a huge difference and one reason that many people favor gelato over ice cream, especially those who may be on a diet that calls for less fat.

Some Other Interesting Differences

Gelato is typically served somewhere between 10 to 15 degrees warmer than ice cream, which makes your mouth a bit less numb. This, and the fact that it contains less fat, allows your mouth to sometimes better taste the flavor of it. Traditionally, gelato is served with a spade rather than being scooped like ice cream typically is.

Both gelato and ice cream are delicious desserts that countless people enjoy. Hopefully this article has helped to highlight their differences enough so you can choose the one that is right for you. Enjoy!

If you’re interested in trying other popular Italian desserts, visit Italian Garden in San Marcos, TX.