If my first version of licorice for Gelato Project Open Lab recounts a clear and established choice, this second recipe stems from a different question: how far can one go without losing identity?
The inspiration here is salmiakki, the Finnish licorice candies made savory by ammonium chloride. Not a simple “salty licorice,” but a more complex, almost disorienting taste, where the sweetness recedes and salty, deep, at times umami-like sensations give way.
This ice cream does not seek shock effect, but a new balance.
From sweet to umami
The first intervention is on sugars: sucrose is reduced and partially replaced with trehalose to lower the sweet perception without losing structure.
Salt comes in strongly, not as a contrast but as an integral part of the taste.
Then come the elements that really shift the aromatic axis:
- The mirin, which adds roundness and depth
- pulverized kombu seaweed, used with great care, to bring a clean and persistent marine salinity
The result is not a “salty” ice cream, but an ice cream that comes out of the territory of classic pastry and approaches that of gourmet taste.
A recipe still in motion
Perfectly in the style of“Gelato Project Open Lab,” this version is not declared as final, and intentionally so. I will be working on one more step: lightening the finish, which is now very deep and enveloping, by inserting a fresh, pungent note. Current tests include the use of black lime, lemon slowly oxidized in a desiccator, to give verticality and close the taste with more tension.
It is a real research phase, made up of trials, adjustments, repeated tastings. And that is precisely why it makes sense to recount it here.
Ingredients (for 1 kg of mixture)
- 490 g of whole milk (3.5 percent fat)
- 230 g of cream (35% fat)
- 62 g of trehalose
- 56 g sucrose
- 35 g licorice powder
- 31 g low-fat milk powder (1% fat)
- 30 g dextrose monohydrate
- 23 g of water
- 20 g of mirin
- 10 g of fruit fiber (short-chain inulin)
- 7 g of Core_Inside THE ONE (or 4.5 g of locust bean seed flour)
- 6 g of salt
- Optional: 2 g/kg pulverized kombu seaweed
- optional: grated black lime, to taste
Proceedings
- Combine milk, cream, water and mirin and start heating.
- Mix sucrose, trehalose, dextrose, low-fat milk powder, fiber, licorice and neutral.
- At about 45 °C, incorporate the powders into the liquid mixture, stirring carefully.
- Bring the mixture to 65 °C while maintaining good stirring.
- Add salt and, if provided, kombu powder.
- Blend with immersion blender until smooth.
- Cool quickly and allow to ripen in the refrigerator.
- Mantle with restrained overrun, evaluating any adjustments on the aromatic finish.
When serving, it is recommended to finish the dish by grating black lime.
This savory licorice is not meant to please everyone. It is a recipe that asks questions rather than gives answers. And that is exactly the kind of contribution the Open Lab wants to host: not just finished results, but paths, attempts, directions.
If the first version was a statement of intent, this one is an exploration. And it’s probably not the last word yet. Would you like to have your say?
Leave a comment or give us your feedback via the Gelato Project form!
Your recipe in the Open Lab
The Gelato Project Open Lab is also this: a space where professionals and enthusiasts can share a recipe that truly represents them. We are not looking for “weird at all costs” flavors, but for proven preparations with a story behind them, precise choices, and a clear idea of where they want to go.
If you have a recipe that works, that tells something about you or your way of making ice cream, write to me via the contact page indicating “Open Lab” as the reason for contact. We always start with an idea, a picture, two lines of context. Then, if it makes sense, we develop it together and turn it into a real article, inside the Gelato Project path.
This is how the best contributions are born: from a conversation.
Il suo approccio unisce studio, ricerca e profonda consapevolezza tecnica: ogni gusto nasce da un’idea precisa, spesso legata a ricordi o suggestioni culturali, ma sempre sviluppata con metodo. Wally si distingue per la produzione interamente artigianale, senza scorciatoie industriali, dalla materia prima al prodotto finito. Anche la scelta di non replicare il format in più punti vendita riflette questa filosofia: qualità, presenza e cura prima di tutto.
- Andrea Zingrillo’s salmiakki ice cream - 26 February 2026
- Licorice ice cream, an “atomic bomb” by Andrea Zingrillo - 11 February 2026
