Malai Kulfi

Malai Kulfi or Kulfi is an Indian/Pakistani ice cream. It is void of eggs and needs no churning to make. Common flavors are cardamom, almonds or pistachios, saffron, rose water and sugar.

I made a batch a few days back for some friends of mine. The picture above are the last two that I tried really really hard to save for my sis and her hubby!

There are tons of recipes out there that explain the preparation. The shortcut method required no heat and was done by mixing together Cool Whip, condensed milk and cream along with saffron etc. The longer method involved boiling the milk and then adding a few slices of broken up bread to the milk.

The quicker version seemed boring and the bread in the longer method grossed me out. So this is how I did it, its somewhere in between the two methods. I added khoya which was easily available from Apna Bazar. It was in a brick form and resembled paneer cheese and was packaged by Nanak. I should also point out that Mayuri stocks fresh khoya from Pabla Cuisine but you have to call ahead to see if they have it. I prefer the one from Pabla Cuisine, it's delicious and soft, but in this recipe I used Nanak khoya.

A note to people who don't know, khoya is what's left of milk when all the liquid is evaporated. I think wikipedia explains it much better than me :-)

(prep time 10 mins + overnight in the  freezer)
(makes about 18 2.6 oz kulfis)
Ingredients

Whole milk 1 1/2 cups
Evaporated milk 1 12oz can
Condensed milk 1 14 oz can
Heavy cream (36% fat) 1 cup
Khoya 6 oz shredded (I used 1/2 of the block from Nanak)
Sugar 1/3 cup
Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
Almond powder 1/2 cup

Method

Pour whole, evaporated and condensed milk into a heavy based pot and bring it to a gentle boil.
Also add sugar and cardamom powder to all the liquid.
Lower the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle the shredded khoya and mix well, simmer for another 5 mins.
To this add heavy cream, powdered almonds and mix well.
The khoya will not completely melt (or maybe it does and I was impatient) I used an immersion blender to make the mixture smooth.
Turn the heat off and allow this to come to room temperature.
Ladel into molds. Make sure you stir often when pouring into molds because the almonds tend to settle at the bottom
I used little dixie paper cups here but more commonly I use a lined muffin pan.
Freeze overnight.

Just let them sit on the counter for 2-3 minutes before eating.
This stuff was seriously awesome!

Note: This recipe can easily be doubled.
Caution: When using a muffin pan for freezing these please make sure they are lined with muffin liners otherwise its impossible to take the kulfi out without scarring it. I learned this the hard way of course :-)
A word on nutrition: Sounds scary but comaparable to a 3 oz scoop of regular icecream. A rough calculation concludes that each 2.6 oz piece contains:
236 Calories
11.8 Fat
25.5 Carbs

....and I just had three! whoops!
:-/