Kulfi – no cook version

Kulfi is the Indian version of ice-cream. Rich, creamy and full of traditional flavors, Kulfi makes a very intriguing dessert. I have grown up in Ahmedabad a city that happens to be a leading consumer of ice creams in India. In the 70s and80s. the name Vadilal was synonymous with ice creams while a local ice cream maker called Asharfi defined Kulfi. Amongst all its flavors they offered the one that was loved and relished the most was BPK or the Badam-Pista-Kesar kulfi. Luscious, creamy and caramelized Kulfi with tiny bits of nuts with soothing aroma of cardamom happened to be my favorite too.

Like many other traditional desserts Kulfi too arrived in the sub-continent with the Moguls. The cooling flavors of this dessert have a very Persian influence to it. Making Kulfi at home has been a very old practice and there is an ease in creating this dessert at home because all it requires is evaporating the milk to bring it to a thick consistency. The creamy milk ensures dense and ice-crystal free dessert. The addition of mava/koya gives it rich taste and texture and the black canvas can be painted with any type of flavors. Mava, Gulkand, Raj Bhog, Mango, Sitafal, Paan, Saffron, Kaju-Kishmish are some of the popular flavors.

I personally shy away from making Kulfi at home because it requires me to stand before the gas to evaporate the milk for as long as it takes. The other reason was the ease of getting it from one of the numerous outlets Asharfi has around my city. Why make when you can get the best quality from the market. I have also tried pouring the Amul Basudi in Kulfi moulds or small kulhads to make my own kulfi. The need was never so acute to convince me to begin making Kulfi at home.

It was one of those days when we were discussing some easy recipes when Aparnaji mentioned about this Kulfi recipe. It required blending 3 liquids together and adding 2 slices of bread. Thats it. Believe me it does not get any simpler than this. And for someone who does the shopping and dishes it does not get any better. All I had to do was put all the ingredients in a blender, blend, pour in the mould and freeze. The result is most creamy and caramelized home made Kulfi. It will be difficult to believe there was no cooking involved. And you can choose to play with the flavors of your choice. No mava, no cooking at all!!

The issue for those living in India is finding evaporated milk but for all of us outside India evaporated (unsweetened) milk is easily available on the shelves. It is usually placed next to the condensed milk. I have mentioned the substitutes to evaporated milk, will try making the next batch of kulfi with this alternates.

Since it was my first time making this no-cook Kulfi version I have decided to make it with the flavors I love. The BPK Kulfi or the Badam Pista Kesar Kulfi.

Kulfi – no cook version

Serves -6

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup Evaporated milk
• 1 cup Condensed milk
• 1 cup Cream I have used Amul's low fat cream
• 2 slices White bread
• 5 tablespoons coarsely ground almonds and pistachios
• 2 green cardamom pods ground
• A pinch of saffron strands soaked in 2 tablespoons of warm water

Method

 

1. Remove the sides of the bread and tear them in big chunks.
2. In a blender, bring together the evaporated milk, condensed milk and cream and blend to mix them well.
3. Add the ground nuts, soaked saffron and powdered cardamom and mix well.
4. In the end add the bread pieces and run the blender on pulse, twice. We do not want to completely blend the bread.
5. Pour the kulfi mix in desired moulds and freeze overnight.

Notes

It is hard to source evaporated milk in India. I googled to search the best options. What is most recommended is blending 3/4 cup of full fat milk with 1/4 cup of cream or reducing 2-1/4 cup of milk to 1 cup by cooking it on low flame. The later producing the slightly caramelize and pale colored milk which is how the evaporated milk looks like.