How Do You Make Gelato Without Dairy?

Making gelato without dairy isn’t about swapping one ingredient for another.
It’s about getting the numbers right.

Traditional gelato works because of a precise balance between fat, sugar, protein, water, and air. Dairy naturally provides much of that structure. Remove it, and you’re left with a system that’s far less forgiving, one where small miscalculations show up immediately as iciness, heaviness, or collapse.

So we didn’t start with flavour.
We started with ratios.

Gelato is a maths problem first

Every gelato base is a careful equation. Fat affects creaminess and melt. Sugar controls sweetness, freezing point, and softness. Protein contributes body and structure. Water has to be managed, not ignored.

Without dairy, none of those elements can be taken for granted.

Developing our gelato base meant building and rebuilding those ratios until they behaved exactly as they should, not just fresh out of the churn, but hours and days later. We spent a lot of time testing how different formulations froze, melted, and carried flavour, adjusting percentages until texture and stability lined up properly.

It wasn’t quick. And it wasn’t guesswork.

Built from raw ingredients

We make our gelato from raw ingredients, not pre-mixes. That means we control every variable, but it also means there’s nowhere to hide.

Our bases are cooked to dissolve sugars, hydrate stabilisers, and create a uniform structure. Flavours are added deliberately, not dumped in at the end. Every decision affects viscosity, sweetness perception, and how the gelato behaves once frozen.

Once cooked, the base rests overnight. This aging phase allows full emulsification and hydration which is critical for body, smoothness, and consistent churn the next day.

Skipping it would save time.
It would also undo the maths.

Controlled aeration, not fluff

Gelato is churned differently to ice cream, and we treat that distinction seriously.

We churn our gelato in a traditional Italian gelato machine, carefully controlling overrun and squeezing in up to 35% aeration. That number matters. It’s enough air to soften the texture and improve melt, without diluting flavour or structure.

Too much air and the gelato feels hollow. Too little and it eats cold and dense. Get it right, and everything clicks.

Inclusions designed to work with the base

Inclusions add another layer of complexity. Large chunks can freeze solid. Swirls can bleed. Textures can clash.

That’s why we make our inclusions from scratch in our own kitchen — so they’re designed to freeze, fold, and melt alongside the gelato, not against it. Generosity is important, but compatibility matters just as much.

Why this approach matters

Dairy-free gelato fails when it relies on shortcuts and it succeeds when it respects the fundamentals.

By treating gelato as a system, one which is governed by ratios, balance, and time, we’re able to make something that’s genuinely creamy and indulgent without dairy, not just acceptable.

That’s the work behind it.