Kesar Mango Kulfi

Summers are here and so is the craving for ice creams. Sadly, my daughter has a sensitive throat and tends to go down with a cough or cold whenever she eats one and so we need to avoid eating it as well. However, you cannot do much when you crave for something so dearly and so this weekend I decided to prepare a small batch of kulfis for my guests for dinner. It was a big hit and everyone including my little one enjoyed it and kept asking for more. It takes a little time to prepare this as I did not add any thickening ingredient to the milk and kept reducing it on a low flame till it reached desired consistency. Result was a delicious and rich milky goodness and flavored with my favourite fruit. Only thing that I will do differently next time is use fresh mango pulp instead of canned! Pure deliciousness!!

Ingredients 

1 litre full cream milk (if in India, do not separate the cream/malai once boiled)

1/2-3/4 can condensed milk (I used low fat and little less as my mango pulp was sweetened already)

1/2 tsp cardamom powder 

Few strands of saffron/kesar

1/2-3/4 cup mango pulp (depending on how strong flavor you want)

Chopped pistachios/dry fruits for garnishing (optional)

Direction 

Take the milk in a heavy bottomed pan and bring it to a boil. Now mix the condensed milk and cardamom powder and saffron and stir well. Keep the flame on medium low and let it simmer while stirring in between. You can do this along with other cooking that you may have  so that the job doesn't feel too tiring. You will be amazed to see how easy it is when you finish cooking and reducing the milk at the same time. Keep mixing in the layer of cream that forms on the top into the milk each time you stir. 

Once the milk is reduced to almost one-third the volume, remove it from heat and let it cool. Keep stirring again in between so that the layer of cream is constantly mixed into the milk. Once cooled completely, mix in the mango pulp. Add the pulp little at a time and stop when you are satisfied with the flavor. Pour the mixture into kulfi/popsicle moulds and freeze covered until set. 

To de mould, hold the kulfi moulds in running water for a few seconds and then release using the stick. Enjoy!!!