Creamy Malai Kulfi is a delicious summer treat which is a quite popular dessert in India and Pakistan! Being its looks by its taste, this eggless Indian ice cream is flavored with kesar, cardamom, dried milk solids, and nuts!
Even though it is simple milk, sugar, nuts, kesar, and cardamom, the taste will leave you craving for more! It is quite normal to find kulfi on the dessert menu of Indian restaurants and dhabas but the taste of homemade malai kulfi is unbeatable.
What is Kulfi?
Kulfi often described as “traditional Indian ice cream” is a frozen dairy dessert that originated in India in the 16th century. It is popular throughout India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and is widely available in restaurants serving cuisines from the Indian subcontinent around the world.
This Indian version of ice cream is way better than traditional ice cream despite having similar appearance and taste because it is way denser and creamier, a dream for every foodie.
Kulfi comes in a lot of flavors.
The more traditional ones are Malai kulfi, Rose kulfi, mango kulfi, Elaichi kulfi, kesar or Zafran kulfi, and Pista kulfi. Never-ending newer versions of kulfi are also coming in the market. It is sometimes considered a distinct category of frozen dairy-based dessert because unlike ice cream, kulfi is not whipped, resulting in a solid, dense frozen dessert similar to traditional custard-based ice cream. Kulfi takes a longer time to melt than Western ice cream due to its density.
These days there are several quick ways to make kulfi using condensed milk, evaporated milk and yes it’s great that there are these short cuts because honestly, you don’t always have the time to go through the entire process of reducing the milk but if you have some time and patience, I highly recommend taking the long route!
But if you want to taste the most authentic kulfi, then you need to try this malai kulfi recipe.
Tip
- Use Full cream milk for simmering to creamier and denser kulfi.
How to Make Malai Kulfi
Malai Kulfi Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ltr Milk Full fat
- 1/3 Cup Sugar
- Dry fruits Finely chopped or sliced
- 4-5 saffron strands
- 1/2 Tsp Cardamom Crushed
Instructions
- Heat a kadhai and add a little water.
- Then pour the milk, this prevents the milk from sticking to the bottom. On full flame, bring milk to boil, stirring occasionally. Keep scraping off the milk deposition on the sides of the vessel.
- After the boil, simmer on medium flame. Keep cooking until only 1/4th amount of milk is left.
- Now add sugar, dry fruits,kesar, cardamom powder, stir well until sugar dissolves.
- To make the kulfi creamy and thick in texture, cooking milk thoroughly is very important.
- Eventually, milk will turn thicker, and will start to deposit on the griddle you are using for stirring. Time to switch off the gas.
- Now, cool down the mixture at room temperature. At this stage too stir occasionally to avoid the cream layer from forming.
- Whisk it well so that the mixture is fluid yet thick and grainy.
- Pour the mixture in the paper cups or in any water glasses available.
- Tap the glass and cup to get rid of air bubbles and also cover water glasses with aluminum foil at the opening for even cooling.
- Freeze them for 2 hours and take them out to insert skewers in them so that they stay put.
- Freeze them overnight. The next day, take them out and unmold them.
Nutrition
Feeling hot? Well, all you have to do is take a bite of this yummy-licious Malai kulfi and observe the temperatures dropping. Everyone in your family is going to enjoy this authentic kulfi.
Do let me know your experience with this recipe, I would love to hear your feedback.
Happy Cooking!
Siddhi Panchal is a food blogger at CookingwithSiddhi and food aficionado who loves to cook. Her cooking skills cover a range of Indian and international cuisines. Her aim is to enable other food enthusiasts explore their love for food by helping them cook delectable dishes from India and around the world.
