With temperatures on the rise, there’s nothing like a refreshing Kulfi! This Rose Kulfi is made with milk, sugar and flavored with rose water and rose syrup. It makes a refreshing treat on a hot day!

I have often talked about my love for kulfi on the blog. It was always my and my mumma’s favorite. Whenever we would crave something refreshing during summers, we would always go for kulfi. For us, it was always better than ice cream.

After maa passed away, for some time I couldn’t even eat kulfi. Every time, I picked it up, it reminded me of her love for kulfi. I remember when we were in Houston for her treatment, there was this Indian ice cream place. One day she wasn’t feeling great (just like most of her days there) and to make her feel better, we asked if she would like to have kulfi and her face immediately lit up. She smiled and said yes 🙂 , so we drove to that place and got kulfi for her. I still vividly remember how happily she ate that kulfi. Probably one of the few good memories that I have from Houston.

When I was little, I loved homemade kulfi the most. There was something about that homemade kulfi made from scratch without any shortcuts. There are so many ways to make kulfi quickly, but I still feel the taste of the kulfi which is made from scratch is unmatched. The slowly reduced thick milk has a taste of it’s own.

While I love the traditional kulfi, I also like to try new flavors like mango kulfi and this rose kulfi which is flavored with rose water and rose syrup. It’s lightly sweetened and make a delicious summer treat.

Ingredients

• Whole milk: to make kulfi, always start with whole milk. 2% or fat-free milk will not give the same rich taste.
• Heavy cream: I add this to make kulfi creamier, but if you don’t have it, no problem just skip it.
• Milk powder: again this makes the kulfi richer in taste. You may skip it.
• Sugar: the kulfi is lightly sweetened with sugar. I don’t use a lot since we are also using rose syrup which is also sweetened. But if you prefer sweeter kulfi, you can definitely add more sugar.
• Rose water & rose syrup: I have used 2 ingredients to give the kulfi that rose flavor. Rose water which you can find at Indian grocery stores or Mediterranean grocey stores. I have also used rose syrup (I used Hamdard Rooh afza) here. More than the flavor, I used it for color. You can definitely skip it if you don’t have it.

Nuts in this recipe are optional, you can skip it.

Easily Customizable

This recipe is easily customizable depending on the availability of ingredients and what you have in your kitchen.

No heavy cream? No problem, just skip it!

No milk powder? again, just skip. If you have mawa/khoya, you can add that in place.

Nut allergy? skip the pistahcios here, it will still be good!

No rose syrup? skip the rose syrup, but add more of rose water then and also add more sugar in the case. If you still want the pink color without the rose syrup, you can add some pink food color.

No kulfi molds? freeze in any container that you have. I really like these paper cups which are easily available at most grocery stores.

Step by Step Instructions

1- To a heavy bottom pan on medium heat, add whole milk.

2- Let it heat up for 4 to 5 minutes and then add heavy cream to it.

3- Stir and let the milk come to a boil. Once it comes to a boil around 15 minutes time, lower the heat to low-medium. Stir every 5 minutes or so and let the milk simmer on low-medium heat for 30 minutes. Remember to use a heavy bottom pan and stir often else milk will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

4- After 30 minutes, the milk would have reduced a lot. It’s color will also change, from white to a little cream in color. Now add milk powder and stir.

5- Also add sugar and and stir until all sugar is dissolved. Cook 5 minutes stirring often.

6- Add cardamom powder and mix. Use fresh cardamom powder for best results.

7- Then add in ground pistachios (I took some raw pistachios and ran them in a spice/nut grinder to get this powder) and stir. This is optional, if you don’t want nuts in kulfi, simply skip this.

8- Add in the rose water. Stir and cook 5-10 more minutes

9- Finally, add in the rose syrup. Stir, cook 1 minute and remove pan from heat. You can also add some pink food color at this point if you want, I did not add any. The total time taken from the time milk started boiling was 45 minutes and the total time from where I added the milk to the pan to the last step was around 1 hour.

We started with 1 liter milk + 1/4 cup cream (60 ml). At the end, the milk was reduced to around 400 ml.

10- Let the kulfi mixture cool down and then transfer to kulfi molds or any container you want to freeze the kulfi in. I have used 3 oz paper cups here. It’s easier to freeze in these, since to de-mold, you just have to peel the paper.

11- Cover each cup with a small piece of aluminum foil.

12- Stick a wooden stick in the center and freeze overnight. Before freezing, if you want you can add some dried rose petals on top of the kulfi and then freeze.

To de-mold, I simply peeled the paper since I used paper cups but if using a kulfi mold, place it under warm water for few minutes and then gently pull using the wooden stick, it will come out.

Tips & Notes

• If you choose to skip the rose syrup, add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon extra rose water. Also add 1 tablespoon extra sugar in that case.
• This kulfi is lightly sweetened, add 1-2 tablespoons extra sugar for sweeter kulfi.
• This recipe makes 5-6 small kulfis, if you freeze in bigger molds, it will make less servings.
• The most important thing in making kulfi from scratch is to use a heavy bottom pan and stir often. It takes time for the milk to reduce, if you use a light pan, the milk will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. So, make sure to use a heavy bottom pan.
• Always make sure to keep the heat on low-medium once the milk comes to a boil. The milk needs to slowly reduce and get thick.
• If you want your kulfi to look more pink, add few drops of pink food color to it.

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