This Roasted Fig Gelato is incredibly rich and creamy, made with fresh figs and mascarpone cheese. Best of all, it stays beautifully scoopable even after a night in the freezer.
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Mascarpone makes this gelato especially rich and creamy, and figs are such a natural match for it. Black Mission figs have deep color, great flavor, and a real presence that doesn’t get lost in the creamy base.
Figs have wonderful flavor, but fruit can lose some of its intensity once you add cream and freeze it. This gelato really came alive when I added a few small but important ingredients during the last few minutes of churning: a splash of brandy, a little balsamic vinegar, and, most important, fresh lemon juice. Together they sharpen the fig flavor and keep it from getting lost in all that richness.
This is definitely a more grown-up flavor ~ perfect for a dinner party, though probably not the first pick for most kids. Which, now that I think about it, may not be such a bad thing. More for us.
Tips for the best homemade fig gelato
- Use ripe Black Mission figs for the deepest color and flavor.
- Roasting concentrates the figs and keeps their flavor from disappearing into the dairy.
- Mascarpone adds richness and helps give the gelato that dense, creamy texture.
- Don’t skip the lemon juice ~ it makes the fig flavor much more vivid.
- Let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before scooping if it’s been frozen longer than overnight.
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Roasted Fig Gelato
Equipment
- ice cream machine
Ingredients
- 1 lb Black Mission figs
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 8 oz package of mascarpone cheese, an Italian cream cheese
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Brandy
- juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Set oven to 400F
- Rinse and cut off the stems of the figs. Slice them in half and lay out, cut side up, on a baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes.
- Put the roasted figs into a food processor and puree them until completely smooth. Scrape down the sides of the machine a few times to make sure you get everything thoroughly pureed. Chill the puree.
- Put the cream, sugar, condensed milk, and mascarpone cheese in the food processor or blender. Process until the marscapone is completely blended into the cream. Chill the mixture.
- When everything is really cold, pour the cream mixture into your ice cream machine along with the fig puree. Process until almost finished, and then add in the vinegar, Brandy, and lemon juice. Taste the ice cream to adjust the amounts. Continue to process according to your machine’s directions.
- Fold the soft gelato into a container and put it in the freezer for at least several hours to allow it to firm up.
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It sounds delicious,but do you have any idea how to make without an ice cream maker/machine.
Thanks Jeraldine
Hey Jeraldine. One way you can adjust most ice cream recipes to be no churn is to make the mixture, then freeze it in zip lock baggies, flat, on a baking sheet. What you want is a thin layer of the mixture when frozen. Then, when it’s frozen solid, you can break it apart and add it to a food processor or high speed blender to blend it quickly into a thick ice cream. You may need to freeze it again to become perfectly scoop-able.
Sounds amazing. What makes it gelato and not just ice cream? i thought gelato had to have a special machine to infuse air…?
I remember sampling fig gelato in Italy—I was told it was a MUST flavor to try. Now I can make it at home!! You’re the best! xo
Not sure I can compete with Italian gelato, but I tried!
Just wanted to let you know that this came out delicious, thanks so much for the recipe! By the way, for anyone curious, the yield on this for my ice cream maker was just shy of 3 pints. 🙂
Thanks so much Kimberly, and I’ll update the recipe with the yield.
Found 15m/400F wasn’t nearly long enough to roast. More like an hour to get the figs to collapse and get caramelized. Later, splashing some port and balsamic to loosen up the developing fond, the puree is very intense and quite delicious!
Sue, wouldn’t you like for someone to say they made your recipe and it was amazing? I think it would be really great if people could rate your recipe with stars + comments. I hope this criticism is helpful.
Yes, for sure, Jenoise, it’s always helpful to me and other readers when people come back and report on a recipe, I encourage it!
Everything looks so very delicious! I have 1 question: what is MASCARPONE? And where can I find it??? Thank you, looking forward to trying this!?
Mascarpone is a soft Italian cheese, a little bit like cream cheese, and it’s usually found near the cream cheese or creme fraiche in the refrigerated section of grocery stores. I have a recipe for homemade mascarpone, here: http://theviewfromgreatisland.com/minimal-monday-homemade-mascarpone/
Do you have to use Mission figs? I have a fig tree, but they are the smaller sweet brownish figs. I don’t recall the variety.
Use whatever variety you like, Linda!
You had me at mascarpone cheese; the deal was sealed with sweet milk + brandy! Yes. Yes. Yes!!!
Wow Sue we love figs and mascarpone! We can only imagine how fabulous this must taste.
And your photos are stunning! Makes us want to dive into the cone right now.
Hope you are having a lovely summer!
Thank you 🙂