Gelato & ice cream recipe software
Know how the mix will behave before you make it - and what a scoop costs before you price it.
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Gelato & ice cream
What actually changes
No more batches you bin
Instead of fixing it after freezing, you see at your desk that the mix will come out too hard or too sweet.
Pricing based on numbers
Cost per kilo recalculates whenever an ingredient price changes, so your margin isn't a guess.
One source of truth
Recipes, allergens and nutrition in one place - not across three files and one person's memory.
The ingredient list built here goes straight onto an EU 1169/2011-compliant label - you never retype it.
A finished recipe then drops into a production plan with guided weighing, so nobody works out proportions at the scale.
A gelato recipe isn’t a list of ingredients, it’s a balance that has to add up. Too little solids and the scoop turns hard and icy. Too much sugar and it never firms up - it slumps in the display. Scooply recalculates that balance on every change of grammage, so you see the outcome at your desk instead of after churning.
What a balanced mix actually means
Balancing isn’t fixing one number after another - it’s getting several into range at once. Raise the sugar and you improve sweetness, but you also move PAC and with it how hard the scoop sets. Add cream and both fat and solids climb. That’s why the calculation runs over the whole recipe, not the single ingredient.
Below are the ranges Scooply works with out of the box. They’re a starting point, not gospel: the Italian school, the German one and your own practice differ in the details, so every recipe can carry its own limits.
| Parameter | Milk-based gelato | Sorbet |
|---|---|---|
| Total solids | 33–41 % | 27–31 % |
| Fat | 5–10 % | - |
| Sugars | 16–24 % | 24–34 % |
| PAC (anti-freezing power) | 26–32 | 33–37 |
| POD (sweetening power) | 14–19 | 16–22 |
| Stabiliser | 0.3–0.6 % | 0.2–0.5 % |
| MSNF (milk solids non-fat) | 8–12 % | - |
PAC and POD: the two numbers that decide the scoop
PAC describes how far the sugars push down the freezing point of the mix - in other words, how hard the scoop sits in the display. POD describes sweetening power relative to sucrose - how sweet it tastes. Two different things, calculated separately, because you feel hardness through the spade and sweetness on the tongue.
Two recipes with identical total sugar can behave in opposite ways, because dextrose, glucose syrup and invert sugar carry different coefficients. Swap part of the sucrose for dextrose and PAC rises while sweetness barely moves - that is the lever for softness.
- PAC too low: hard gelato that resists the spade straight out of the freezer
- PAC too high: the scoop won’t hold its shape and weeps in the display
- POD too high: it cloys, even when the structure is right
Cost per kilo comes from invoices, not memory
Every ingredient carries its purchase price, so cost per kilo works itself out at the same moment as the balance. When your supplier raises pistachio paste, you see it across every recipe that uses it - not at month end.
It’s the same figure that later feeds the wholesale price list, which is what stops a café discount from being a guess.
Excel recipes come across once
The import brings ingredients and grammages, and Scooply works out the rest: balance, cost, allergens and nutrition. You neither start from an empty database nor retype twenty years of work - you start from what you already have, only calculated.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to understand PAC and POD to start?
No. You can work with the default ranges: Scooply tells you whether the recipe fits and which parameter falls outside. The theory can wait.
Can I set my own ranges?
Yes, per recipe. The defaults are a starting point; if you work to another school or have your own proven limits, you enter them and they take over.
Where do allergens and nutrition come from?
From each ingredient’s record. They recalculate on every change of grammage and carry through to the label and the counter list, with no retyping.
Does it handle sorbets and plant-based gelato?
Yes. Sorbets have separately calibrated ranges (less solids, higher PAC), and dairy-free mixes calculate the same way - simply without MSNF.
Can I import my ingredient list from Excel?
Yes. Ingredients and recipes come in from the spreadsheet, and missing technical parameters can be filled in later - the recipe already calculates with what’s there.
Work out PAC and POD for the sugars alone in the free calculator →
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