Everything You Need To Know About Kulfi, And It's Heritage

While ice cream is a crowd favorite in the western countries, in the South Asian community, kulfi dominates as one of the most favorite desserts. While it was discovered in India, it is also popular in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Nepal, and the Middle East. Kulfi is a Hindi word that has been derived from the Persian word Qulfi which essentially means "covered cup." It is known that this dessert originated in the 16th century during the Mughal Empire. The inception of this dish begins with evaporated milk and other flavoring agents like pistachio and saffron, which were then put in conical cups and placed in slurry ice giving it a creamy and dense texture and flavor.  The dessert is severed chilled and thus it is a favorite recipe for summers.

How It Is Different From Ice Cream

Kulfi Recipe

While both ice cream and kulfi are considered as desserts frozen and made of dairy, there are some differences between ice cream and kulfi. Kulfi is meant to be much creamier and denser in texture. The more traditional varieties of kulfi include cream or Malai Kulfi and other flavors like rose, pistachio, mixed nuts, mango, and cardamom or elaichi. With some influence from the outside world, there are newer flavors of kulfi in the business like orange, strawberry, apple, and even avocado. Kulfi is not whipped like ice cream, which results in a much thicker and denser output, which may somewhat be similar to custard-based ice creams. Also, because it is denser, kulfi takes more time to melt than traditional ice cream.

Following The Recipe

If you are preparing kulfi for the first time, you may find it somewhat demanding because it a process that entails slow cooking. However, the kulfi recipe is much doable if you follow the step by step guidelines. Never try to make the recipe hurry in hurry because it requires time and precision to get that rich and creamy texture. Without boiling and evaporating the milk, you cannot make kulfi, and you have to make sure that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan during the process of boiling. When it comes to flavoring your kulfi, you can get as creative as you want. From Kesar, Pista, orange, and strawberry, you can virtually put anything you want in your kulfi. Just remember that you should not be too heavy-handed with the artificial flavoring as that can overpower the taste of the kulfi and not taste like kulfi at all.

While it is a time-consuming process to make kulfi following a detailed kulfi recipe, there are ready to make kulfi mix available in the market that you can also fall back on. Enjoying a kulfi on a summer day is simply an impeccable and irreplaceable feeling!