November 7, 2013

Strawberry-Banana Kulfi Pops

Kulfi is a popular frozen dairy dessert from India. Unlike western ice-creams, kulfi doesn't require any whipping / churning which makes it very easy to be made at home.

The traditional method of preparing kulfi is by simmering sweetened & flavored milk in low heat with constant stirring until its volume reduces by half. The thickened, semi-condensed milk is then poured into moulds and frozen until solid. Especially with the availability of condensed/evaporated milk, making kulfi at home is really an easy-peasy affair.



Who said frozen desserts are meant only for summers?! With a pound of ripened strawberries and some blackened bananas on my kitchen counter, I knew I had to try this recipe of strawberry-banana kulfi flavored with honey & rose water. Initially, I was little skeptical to add rose water, but rose water kicked up the flavor profile to a different level altogether. To tell you the truth, the thickened strawberry-banana-milk mixture itself is so addictively delicious that you need not even worry about freezing them!!


Basic Info
Complexity - Simple
Prep time - 20 mins
Cook time - 45 mins
Serves - 6 kulfi pops

Ingredients
Ripe & fresh Strawberry - 1 lbs (washed, hulled & chopped)
Very ripe Banana - 3 nos (medium sized, chopped)
Whole milk - 2 cups
Honey - 2 tbsp
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Rose water - 1 tbsp

Method
Run chopped strawberries in a blender. Filter just the puree and keep it aside.

Run chopped banana in a blender and filter just the puree. Keep it aside.

Pour the milk in a broad non-stick pan and bring to a boil. Simmer over a medium flame stirring continuously till the milk reduces to half the original volume. Let it cool.

Mix fruits puree, milk, sugar, honey, rose water until well combined.

Freeze upto 4-8 hrs in popsicle moulds and enjoy!


Notes:
- Instead of boiling down milk to half its volume, you can also use 1 cup of milk & a can of sweetened condensed milk. If you are using condensed milk, bring regular milk to a boil and then, add condensed milk to it and keep stirring on low heat until the mixture thickens. If you are using sweetened condensed milk, adjust honey/sugar accordingly.
- You can also add finely chopped roasted pistachio nuts to the mixture for that extra crunchiness.
- Rose water is completely optional, however the flavor boost that it gave was phenomenal.
- You can skip sugar and replace it with another 2 tbsps of honey.
- Adjust honey/sugar depending on how ripe & sweet the fruits are!