I found a box mix for ice cream, technically gelato, at my local Smith’s and was very surprised, I’ve never seen this before. I do have an ice cream machine and often make homemade ice creams and frozen custards but I haven’t considered a box mix for it. Junket has multiple flavors of ice cream and gelato mixes however the steps and ingredients used are identical on both varieties leading me to believe they use the word gelato to sound fancier.
If you haven’t made homemade ice cream before let me give you a little bit of background. You can make a true ice cream base which requires eggs, sugar, heavy cream, whole milk, and whatever flavoring you are going for. You cook all of this in a pot on the stove and then cool it in the fridge. Once cool, you can put it in an ice cream maker to churn. There is also a simpler version that is slightly less good and less creamy that is just heavy cream, whole milk, and sugar. You can mix it together and once the sugar is dissolved its ready for the ice cream maker. For flavor you can add vanilla extract, cocoa powder, melted chocolate, instant coffee, the possibilities are endless. Neither process is very complicated.
This box mix is a powdered mix and requires heavy cream and whole milk. At this point you have essentially paid for sugar, flavoring, and of course additives. I picked this mix up at a Smiths and paid $3.29 for it which is already sounding overpriced but let’s see how it turns out.
To prepare the ice cream mix, you whisk all the ingredients together until completely dissolved. The box recipe claims this will take 10 minutes but I found at 2 minutes it was all dissolved.
Next you are given the option of placing your mixture in the freezer or using an ice cream maker. While I do have an ice cream maker, I don’t suspect that is the case for the majority of people picking up a box mix so I appreciate the different options. For the ice cream maker, you turn it on and pour in the mixture and let it churn until it is ice cream consistency. This took me 15 minutes.
The ice cream came out with a really good consistency but that’s the end of the positives I have to say. Let me remind you the box refers to this dessert as “dark chocolate gelato”. What it really should say is “pale brown in color and disappointing in flavor wanna be ice cream”. If you’re interested in eating a dessert that is ice cream consistency that tastes like you’re eating a mouthful of frozen heavy cream while sniffing a piece of chocolate, you’ll be happy to know this product produced that exact effect. I love chocolate, I love ice cream, and I had been craving really good chocolate ice cream for weeks at this point yet after a few bites, I never wanted to eat this “gelato” again.
Save yourself the money and the heartbreak, search up any easy ice cream recipe and go with that instead. The ice cream base that requires eggs is definitely superior but if you’re going for quick and easy, skip the box mix, and go homemade.
2 responses to “Trying out Junket’s Dark Chocolate Gelato box mix”
I have made homemade ice cream several times and, in my opinion, it has never been worth the extra effort over just buying it ready-to-eat, just like peanut butter cups and sushi.
A box mix doesnt sweaten the deal for me (sorry, pun intended) as it removes the only fun part of ice cream making, which is customizing the flavor. But thanks once again for doing the work so I don’t have to.
You are so right. For $3.29 I’d rather buy a tub of ice cream that I already know I’ll enjoy and that takes no preparation time, just grab a spoon and dig in.