Traditionally you get Kulfi in Pakistan/India on the street in a clay pot or a stick, which looks just as cool. We will set ours in a loaf pan to make it look like a classy dessert. I love how Ice creams look set in a bar/terrine style serving. I made my delicious crunchy Lotus Biscoff ice cream cake the same way.
What is Kulfi
The world is no stranger to Malai Kulfi. If you’ve EVER visited an Indian/Pakistani restaurant, you’ve seen some form of kulfi on the dessert menu. It’s the South Asian equivalent of vanilla ice cream. And just like vanilla ice cream, Malai Kulfi is the most basic Kulfi recipe. You can adapt this recipe to create a ton of different flavors and variations (more on that later). Traditionally, kulfi is made by slowly cooking sweetened milk until it is thickened and then frozen into molds. But honestly, that process is a little too long for my liking. And like I said when I found the quick rasmalai recipe, why spend more energy and time on something that already has an excellent shortcut, feel me?
Ingredients/Substitutions
You only need 6 ingredients to make this kulfi! Let’s go!
Sweetened condensed milk Evaporated milk – I live in the Middle East and it’s pretty to get my hands on it. As a substitute, you can use milk powder and make a thick milk base. Thick cream – I use the tetra-pack cream for this recipe. You can use table cream, fresh cream or simply whisk double cream and make it thicker to use. Bread – The bread slice gives it the body and density of a traditional kulfi. A Brioche slice would taste awesome too! Aromatics – The main aromatic I use is green cardamom powder. But if you are feeling fancy, you can also use a little bit of rose water and saffron as well. Both are used in traditional Kulfis. Nuts – I use finely ground pistachio and coarsely chopped pistachio for this recipe. But feel free to substitute with any other nuts that you make like.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities
How to make kulfi
To make the kulfi, we start with making the kulfi base. PROTIP: If you want to add flavoring bits to your kulfi, now is the time. You can incorporate any elements you want, like chocolate chips or almond chunks. Just add in your components and beat for another 30 seconds.
How to prevent ice crystals in a kulfi
This section is for all those who want to understand the science behind ice cream making a little bit more. The steps in my recipe already ensure a smooth crystal-free ice cream. But if you are a food geek like me, here’s some more info for you:
Crystal formation happens when the time that an ice cream takes to freeze is very long. Double freezing the kulfi helps reduce the time it takes for the kulfi to freeze in the final step, as it is already at a lower temperature. The quicker the ice cream freezes, the lesser the crystal formation happens. Whipping the kulfi a second time also introduces air into the ice cream. This makes it more fluffy, and the texture becomes smoother. The second enemy of any good crystal-free kulfi/ice cream is air. Minimizing air contact once the kulfi is in the freezer is crucial to getting the perfect texture. The best way to do this is by covering the kulfi with a cling wrap directly on top of the kulfi so that the cling wrap sticks to the ice cream base. You have to keep in mind, however, that homemade ice cream that does not use a churner will only last for a month in the freezer. Over time they tend to deflate. Unfortunately, this is a reality for all homemade ice cream as they aren’t churned with a professional industrial-grade churner.
Flavors and Variations with a basic Kulfi recipe.
You can create these exciting flavors by mixing these add-ons into the ice cream base after the final whisking or by simply sprinkling them on top or base of the mold.
Chocolate Kulfi – Add 1 cup of chocolate shavings to the Kulfi base. Almond / Pistachio kulfi (any nut kulfi) – Add chopped almonds/pistachios/walnuts to the ice cream base. Crunch kulfi – Add 1 cup of chopped-up hardened caramel to the kulfi base Rose kulfi – Introduce 2 tbsp of rose water in the kulfi base and some pink food color. Top it off with rose syrup (like rooh afzah or jam-e-shireen) Rose pistachio kulfi – Use my kulfi recipe and pour rose syrup all over it, it’s deliciousssss! Chocolate crunch kulfi – Chocolate shavings and caramel crunch bits. Toffee crunch kulfi – Toffee bits and caramel crunch bits. Kulfi falooda – Add the plain version of this recipe on falooda noodles and drizzle rose syrup on top.
Basically, anything you can chop and add to the kulfi base or sprinkle on top can become a flavor.
Expert Tips
For clean edges, simply grease the pan with butter or ghee. If you are in doubt, you can line it with butter paper but know that it won’t give you smooth edges. For the nuts carpet at the bottom of the loaf pan, make sure your nuts are finely grounded to give you a sort of powder. The double freeze technique helps to give you a great ice cream texture. Whisking it introduces some air to an otherwise dense base and also reduces Ice crystal formation to give you a smoother end result. When doing the final freeze, make sure the cling wrap covers the kulfi entirely and is pressed down so that no air comes in contact with the ice cream.
More ice cream and quick desserts
Do you have any questions? I’m happy to help! And of course, If you try this recipe, I’d loveeeee to see it or simply hear about it! Hit me up in the comment section below and I’ll get back to asap! Happy Cooking!
