Pista Kulfi (Pistachio Ice Cream)

July 22nd, 2008 filed under Desserts

Kulfi is a very popular Indian ice cream. Kulfi comes in a variety of different flavors. Traditional kulfi is flavored with cardamom; this recipe is flavored with cardamom and pistachios.

Serves 6.

Pista Kulfi

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups whole milk
  • 1 slice of white bread
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup sugar, adjust to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground cardamom (ilachi)
  • 10 pistachios sliced

Method

  1. Remove the crust from all sides of the bread and cut the bread in small pieces.
  2. Blend bread pieces, cornstarch, and a 1/2 cup of milk, making smooth paste and set aside.
  3. Boil remaining milk (3.5 cups) in nonstick frying pan on medium high heat.
  4. Stir milk as needed to keep milk from burning on the bottom of the frying pan. Stir the sides of the pan to avoid scalding.
  5. After milk comes to boil, let the milk boil for another 12 minutes. The goal is to boil the milk from 3 1/2 cups to 2 1/2 cups.
  6. Add the bread mixture to the milk in frying the pan and cook for another 4 minutes, reducing the heat to medium. Bread and cornstarch are added to reduce the water crystallizing in kulfi during freezing.
  7. Next add sugar and pistachios and cook for 2 more minutes.
  8. Turn off the heat and add cardamom powder.
  9. Cool the milk to room temperature and pour into a bowl,
  10. Take cellophane wrap and place it right over the milk covering it completely. Note: It is important that the cellophane wrap touches the milk.
  11. Put it in freezer. It will take about 7 hours for the kulfi to be ready to serve.

Variations

  1. Replace pistachios with almond or coconut powder.
  2. Replace pistachios with finally chopped fruits like mangos or strawberries. Add fruits in the end after turning off the heat.
  3. Many people enjoy eating kulfi like a Popsicle.  Before freezing, pour the milk mixture in to a Popsicle mold.  If you don’t have Popsicle mold use small paper cups and place cellophane wrap on top of the milk and place a Popsicle stick in center of cup and freeze.


Leave a Reply

26 Responses to “Pista Kulfi (Pistachio Ice Cream)”

  1. mrs.asma zakir Says:

    hello aunty
    you are doing a great job,your show was so understandebly taught,i really liked it

  2. anitha Says:

    thank u so much aunty …. awaititng for more recepies from u …. :)

  3. Manjula Says:

    Hi Anita,
    corn flour is a flour and corn starch is a thickener and this work really good with milk, provides the creamyness and thicken the milk. Check in the grocery store where they keep baking thing.
    If you really cannot find it, then just omitting it and use half more slice of bread.

  4. anitha Says:

    hi aunty is corn starch and corn flour same , can i use corn flour in this recepie

  5. Manjula Says:

    Hello Dipti,
    I think you neede to boil the milk little more.

  6. Dipti Malik Says:

    Oh! I tried it but still there were ice crystals………….will increasing the quantity of corn starch help.

  7. Shehla Says:

    Dear Auntie,
    I watched your video and will try it soon.I have a comment I hope you won’t mind.You are looking really nice in this video.

  8. Dipti Malik Says:

    This looks really delicious……….will surely try this :)

  9. Sowmya Chandrasekaran Says:

    Hi Manjula aunty,

    I tried this receipe and it came out very nice!

    Thanks

    Sowmya Chandrasekaran

  10. Jaya Says:

    Hi Yameen, have you checked the grocery stores for it?

    If you really cannot find it, then just omitting it is probably the best solution. There are not substitutes for everything. Although there are various kinds of starches and thickeners, they have different properties depending on what you mix them with.

    Some work better with dairy, some work better when heated, etc…

  11. yameen Says:

    anything which we can use in place of cornflour starch plz suggest soon.thanks

  12. Yatin Says:

    Hi Tam, I have know found the cellophane wrap it is called Cling Film,
    here in UK,

    Thanks for describing the item

  13. Gayatri Sharma Says:

    Hello Manjulaji
    Yesterday i tried this recipe and it came out very well. Thanks for the simple and delicious recipe you gave us. My family also enjoyed this recipe very much.

  14. Tam Says:

    Hi Yatin,

    U can find it wth the name of Saran wrap / plastic wrap sheet roll..it comes in a box similar to aluminium foil sheet roll.

    Hope it is of some help to u .

  15. Manjula Says:

    Hello Yatin, food bag should work fine as long it is touching the kulfi milk, I dont know what you mean by not perfect I need to know little more to help.

  16. heena Says:

    if the people want they can add vanilla flavour powder which is also like starch and and easily find like other ice cream falvours,or we can use gelatine powder its also availabe in store and its also easy to find….m i right aunty…?

  17. Jaya Says:

    Hi Annette, thanks for joining in and helping out. :)

  18. Annette Says:

    Corn flour is the British term for the American corn starch, and so I’m betting that the same is true in Commonwealth countries. Hope that helps.

  19. Jaya Says:

    Hi Jayanthy, then go with Manjula’s advice. I had looked around on the internet and the terms can get confusing. There is something called corn flour which has no resemblance to corn starch - I should have caught that when I wrote my reply. You can tell true corn flour because it’s yellowish in color.

    I had read that in some places corn flour can be a local term for corn starch. Corn starch is a fine, silky white powder. Is that what your corn flour looks like?

  20. Jayanthy Says:

    Hi Jaya,
    Thanks for your response.
    Aunty has already mentioned in one of her comments that corn starch and corn flour are different hence i looked for corn starch. But if corn flour is suffice for this recipe then i have it with me and i could go ahead try this recipe.

  21. Jaya Says:

    Hi Jayanthy,
    Corn starch is also called “corn flour” or “maize corn flour”. It must be available in Singapore because it is a common ingredient in Chinese cooking used to thicken sauces.
    Potato starch is another type of thickener, but I don’t know if it will give the same result in this recipe as the corn starch/corn flour.
    I would try a few more stores and ask for either corn starch or corn flour. Let us know if you can locate it. :)

  22. Jayanthy Says:

    Hi Aunty,

    I’m from Singapore.I looked for Corn starch in the baking section of the grocery store i want not able to find it , instead i could get potato starch can i use it.

    Thanks in advance.

  23. anu Says:

    Hello

    Is that corn startch and cornflour r same

  24. Yatin Says:

    Dear Manjula Auntie,

    You cook wonderful recipes I really enjoy making them, You have told us a wonderful new way to make Kulfi, I really enjoyed making it,

    Auntie Ji, I live in the U.K and I don’t know were to get Celleopane Wrap from, I used a normal food bag before but it did’nt come out perfect, please tell me.

    Keep it up Auntie ji,

  25. Manjula Says:

    Hi Tam, corn flour and corn starch both are different, you can find corn starch in any grocery store in there baking section

  26. Tam Says:

    Awesome & cmpltly new technique of mking kulfi tht I hve come across so far.
    Will gve it a try tomorrow.One question :-

    Is corn starch same as corn flour ???

    Thanks in advance.
    Post more recipes cant wait for long !!