gelato

Over a recent dinner party dessert of assorted gelatos, a burning (or shall I say freezing?) question arose. If the word "gelato" isn't simply Italian for ice cream, then what exactly is the difference between the two frozen desserts?

The answer, in short, is air — and fat. During the churning process, ice cream's volume is increased by more than half. In contrast, gelato is churned at a slower speed, which means not as much air is whipped into the mixture; this helps gelato achieve a consistency that's so dense, it requires a warmer serving temperature than its counterpart.

Ice cream also contains more fat than gelato. By USDA standards, ice cream must contain a minimum of 10 percent milk fat, although most brands contain somewhere between 14 and 17 percent. Gelato, which often has almost no cream at all, contains roughly 3 to 10 percent fat. Less cream and air means the Italian dessert tastes decadent and more intensely flavored without as much fat. Which frozen dessert's consistency do you prefer?

To celebrate her fourth birthday, FabSugar and her Frenchie, Annabelle, are going to make dog-friendly cupcakes. Annabelle loves to cook, so they'll be using Francesca and Sharkey's (Martha Stewart's Frenchies) recipe. The cupcakes are a mixture of ground, dried dog food, carrots, and peas. For the people in attendance, Fab's mom is taking a tip from Giada de Laurentiis and will be putting together a gelato bar!

She'll make a simple chocolate sauce and freshly whipped cream. Then she'll set out an assortment of toppings like chopped nuts, peanut butter chips, and rainbow sprinkles. The guests can make a sundae to their liking. Sound fun? Get the recipe.

Meet Malia and Sasha Obama, first children — and future gelato makers? While President Obama was in Rome, Italy, for a G-8 summit, the US embassy contacted the Italian capital's most renowned gelato parlor, Giolitti, to arrange an insider's ice cream tour for the commander in chief's daughters. At the historic gelateria, Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, donned aprons to become frozen-dessert makers for the afternoon. The sisters, accompanied by their grandmother, made blackberry and banana gelato. According to parlor owner Nazareno Giolitti, "Right after they made gelato, they tasted it straight from the machine, and the youngest one said, "It really tastes like blackberries." The girls, who Giolitti said "ate with great gusto," left with a whopping 6.6 pounds each of their ice cream, and took some home for the first lady.

Giolitti later showed a local television station a tub of some of the blackberry flavor the Obama girls created, saying that the leftover ice cream was immediately picked up by customers who wanted their cones filled with it. If I were him, I would have sold it for a killing on eBay.

Are you as envious as I am that the Obama girls had the opportunity of a lifetime at Rome's most famous gelateria?