Kulfi is a frozen milk dessert from Pakistan and India: dense, creamy and cardamom-scented, with no air whipped into it. This no-churn malai kulfi skips the hours of simmering milk. You blend condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream and a few slices of white bread, pour it into a pan and freeze it overnight.
The one thing that decides whether it works is the blend. Pulse it just until the bread disappears, and stop there.
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Recipe
Kulfi (No-Churn Malai Kulfi)
Ingredients
Method
- Chill the condensed milk, evaporated milk and cream in the fridge. Line a 9-inch (23 cm) square pan with cling film, leaving it hanging over the sides.
- Cut the crusts off the bread and tear the slices into a blender jar.
- Add the condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream and cardamom.
- Blend on low speed in short pulses, about 20 to 30 seconds, just until no flecks of bread are left.
- Pour into the lined pan, scatter the pistachios over the top, cover with cling film and freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
- Lift the block out by the cling film, peel the film away and cut into 16 squares with a sharp knife. Serve straight away.
What kulfi is
Kulfi is a frozen dessert made from milk that has been cooked down until thick, sweetened and flavoured, then frozen without stirring. It is eaten across Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Malai means cream, so malai kulfi is the plain, milky version, usually flavoured only with cardamom and finished with pistachios.
Its origin is usually traced to the Mughal courts, though the story is told more often than it is documented, so treat it as tradition rather than settled history.
How kulfi differs from ice cream
Kulfi is not churned. Ice cream is whipped or churned as it freezes, which beats air into it and keeps it light. Kulfi is frozen still, so it sets dense and firm, closer to a frozen block of reduced milk than to a scoop of ice cream.
That is why kulfi is cut or unmoulded rather than scooped.
What kulfi is made of
Traditional kulfi needs only full-fat milk, sugar, cardamom and nuts. The milk is simmered for 30 to 45 minutes or longer until it thickens, and that cooked-down milk is what gives kulfi its body.
This no-cook version gets the same body from tins and a blender:
- Sweetened condensed milk is milk and sugar that has already been cooked down, so it does the simmering for you.
- Evaporated milk adds concentrated milk flavour without more sugar.
- Heavy cream is the malai, the richness.
- White bread, crusts off, stands in for the thickened milk solids of the slow method. Used in this amount, it does not taste of bread.
- Cardamom and pistachios are the classic flavour and finish.
The bread is the part people doubt. Indian Healthy Recipes notes that it keeps working as the mixture freezes, so the texture is better after a night in the freezer than after a few hours.
The step most people get wrong
Over-blending. Run the blender on high for a minute and the cream starts to whip and thicken, and the finished kulfi turns airy instead of dense.
Blend on low, in short pulses, for about 20 to 30 seconds. Stop when you can no longer see specks of bread in the mixture. It should look like thick, smooth pouring cream.
The second thing is temperature. Chill the tins and the cream before you start. Cold ingredients blend smoothly without warming the cream, and the mixture starts freezing sooner.
Kulfi, step by step
Chill the condensed milk, evaporated milk and cream in the fridge. Line a 9-inch (23 cm) square pan with cling film, leaving it hanging over the sides.- Cut the crusts off the bread and tear the slices into a blender jar.
- Add the condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream and cardamom.
- Blend on low speed in short pulses, about 20 to 30 seconds, just until no flecks of bread are left.
- Pour into the lined pan, scatter the pistachios over the top, cover with cling film and freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
- Lift the block out by the cling film, peel the film away and cut into 16 squares with a sharp knife. Serve straight away.
Where the quantities come from
The card is built from three published no-cook kulfi recipes that use bread: Bake With Zoha and The UnModern Woman, both Pakistani food blogs, and Indian Healthy Recipes. A quantity went on the card when at least two of them agreed.
| Ingredient | On the card | Agreed by |
|---|---|---|
| Condensed milk | 397 g (14 oz) | Bake With Zoha, Indian Healthy Recipes |
| Evaporated milk | 355 ml (12 oz) | Indian Healthy Recipes; The UnModern Woman uses one can per can of condensed milk |
| Heavy cream | 480 ml (2 cups) | Indian Healthy Recipes, The UnModern Woman (473 ml) |
| White bread | 3 slices, about 80 g | Bake With Zoha, Indian Healthy Recipes |
| Cardamom | 1 tsp, or ½ tsp for a milder kulfi | 1 tsp per tin of condensed milk in Bake With Zoha and The UnModern Woman; ½ tsp in Indian Healthy Recipes |
| Pistachios | 3 tbsp | Indian Healthy Recipes only; the other two do not agree on an amount |
The yield of 16 squares is the median of the three recipes, and the 8-minute prep time is the median of their prep times. The freezing time is stated separately because the three disagree: at least 6 hours, 8 hours, and overnight.
Traditional kulfi: the slow version
Authentic kulfi, in the sense most recipes mean it, is milk reduced on the stove. Full-fat milk is boiled and then simmered, stirred and scraped for 30 to 45 minutes or more, sweetened, flavoured with cardamom and often saffron, then frozen in cone-shaped kulfi moulds.
The slow version tastes of cooked-down milk. The no-cook version leans on cream and condensed milk instead, and it has no milk to scorch. Indian Healthy Recipes points out that stove-top kulfi can turn icy by the second day, while the bread version improves over the first few days.
If you want the slow version, the cooked kulfi at Indian Healthy Recipes and the stove-top malai kulfi at Flour & Spice are both worked out in detail.
The shorter route: 3-ingredient kulfi
Kulfi can be made with three ingredients: heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk and white bread. Bake With Zoha uses 720 g (3 cups) cream, one 397 g tin of condensed milk and about three slices of bread, with cardamom optional.
What you lose is the evaporated milk. More cream takes its place, so the kulfi is richer and tastes more of cream than of milk. Add the cardamom anyway; without it the 3-ingredient version is closer to a plain frozen cream.
Moulds and flavours
The mixture can go into kulfi moulds, small steel cups or ice-lolly moulds instead of a pan. To release them, dip each mould in water for about a minute, or roll it between your palms, then pull it out by the stick. That is the method Indian Healthy Recipes gives for its moulded kulfi.
- Kewra: The UnModern Woman adds kewra (screwpine) essence. It is strong, so add it a drop at a time and taste the mixture.
- Saffron: crush a pinch of saffron into a spoonful of warm milk and blend it in for kesar kulfi.
- Almonds: use coarsely ground almonds alongside the pistachios.
- Mango: for a fruit-forward frozen dessert, the mango ice cream with condensed milk uses the same no-churn idea.
What goes wrong, and what it looks like
- Light, foamy texture: the cream was whipped in the blender. Next time, pulse on low and stop sooner.
- White specks in the slices: the bread was not fully blended, or the crusts went in. Remove the crusts and blend until the specks are gone.
- Soft in the middle: it has not frozen long enough. A 9-inch slab needs at least 6 hours, and it is better overnight.
- Icy texture: low-fat milk or cream went in. Indian Healthy Recipes warns that low-fat substitutes make the kulfi icy, so use full-fat tins and heavy cream.
- Shattering when cut: it is too hard straight from the freezer. The UnModern Woman takes it out 10 minutes before slicing.
Serving and storing kulfi
Serve kulfi as soon as it is cut. A square starts to soften within minutes at room temperature, so cut only what you will serve and put the rest back.
Keep leftovers covered in the same pan in the freezer. Flour & Spice notes that kulfi keeps well for weeks frozen. Make it at least a day ahead, since the texture improves overnight.
For a dessert table, set kulfi beside warm gulab jamun, ras malai or sweet saffron zarda.
Questions people ask
What is the authentic kulfi recipe?
Authentic kulfi is full-fat milk simmered for 30 to 45 minutes or more until it thickens, sweetened, flavoured with cardamom and often saffron, then frozen in moulds without churning. The no-cook version on this page swaps the simmering for condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream and bread.
What are the ingredients for kulfi?
This no-cook malai kulfi uses sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream, white bread with the crusts removed, ground cardamom and chopped pistachios. Traditional kulfi uses full-fat milk, sugar, cardamom and nuts.
How do you make kulfi with 3 ingredients?
Blend heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk and a few slices of crustless white bread until smooth, pour into a lined pan and freeze for at least 6 hours. Bake With Zoha uses 720 g cream, one 397 g tin of condensed milk and about three slices of bread.
What makes kulfi different from ice cream?
Kulfi is frozen without churning, so no air is beaten in. It sets dense and firm, and it is cut or unmoulded rather than scooped. Ice cream is churned as it freezes, which makes it lighter.
Can you taste the bread in kulfi?
Not when it is used in the right amount. Indian Healthy Recipes, whose version uses three crustless slices, says the bread cannot be tasted in the finished kulfi. It thickens the mixture the way cooked-down milk does in traditional kulfi.
