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Home » Desserts » Homemade Elastic Turkish Ice Cream

Published: May 6, 2014 · Modified: Jan 29, 2021 by Yusuf

Homemade Elastic Turkish Ice Cream

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Homemade Turkish Ice Cream made with salep powder. Perfectly thick and stretchy as it traditionally has to be. Both with its unique flavor and consistency, it is not like other ice creams you have tasted. 

Homemade Turkish Ice Cream served in cones

Why is Turkish ice cream sticky?

Ice cream is called dondurma in Turkish. What makes it different from other ice creams around the world is its consistency and flavor. If you have tasted it in Turkey or somewhere else, you know what I mean. Turkish Ice Cream has an elastic texture and a unique flavor thanks to salep, which is the powder of orchid bulbs. Although it has the flavor of salep, it is known as plain ice cream –sade dondurma in the country and nobody calls it salep ice cream.

I made it at home for the first time and it turned out pretty amazing, as yummy and gummy as the ones we buy from vendors or cafes. Don’t worry if you don’t have an ice cream maker, this recipe doesn’t require one.

Scooping Homemade Turkish Ice Cream in a glass container
Scooping homemade Turkish ice cream with salep in a glass container

Turkish ice cream is very dense and chewable, so it doesn’t melt easily and you might find it completely different from the regular smooth ice creams you know. If you are an ice cream fan, I highly recommend that you taste this traditional Turkish ice cream. If there is a list of foods to taste before you die, this chewy ice cream must be on the top!

Stretchy homemade Turkish ice cream in a cone

What is salep?

Salep is also the name of an aromatic winter drink, which is a combination of milk, sugar and the powdered orchid bulbs. It thickens the milk as it boils and gives its unique flavor to the mixture. As Harold McGee claims in his article named Ice Cream That’s a Stretch at The New York Times, this divine ice cream might have been discovered when salep drink was accidentally frozen.

Homemade Turkish Ice Cream served in cones

Genuine salep is really pricy here as it has been a rare product even in Turkey, but a very small amount will be enough for you so you don’t have to pay much. The question is, can you find it abroad? I’m not sure if it is sold at middle east markets, but I guess you can find it at online markets.

Homemade Turkish Ice Cream served in cones

This ice cream is a perfect dessert on its own, but you can also serve it with world-famous Turkish dessert recipes like walnut baklava or with some fruit desserts like this Grilled Pineapple with Ice Cream.

Homemade Turkish Ice Cream served in cones

More Turkish Desserts

  • Homemade Lokum Recipe
  • Homemade Kunafe Recipe

See our other recipe videos here:

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Elastic Turkish Ice Cream

Elastic Turkish Ice Cream | giverecipe.com | #icecream #salep #turkish

★★★★★

4.3 from 4 reviews

Turkish ice cream has a chewy and elastic texture and an aromatic flavor coming from salep. No ice cream maker is needed for this recipe!

  • Author: Zerrin
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 50 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 6 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: Turkish

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 cups milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp salep
  • 1 tsp vanilla powder

Instructions

  1. Combine salep, sugar and vanilla powder in a bowl.
  2. Heat the milk a little and add salep mixture gradually. Make sure that no lumps are left. Stir constantly. It reaches the pudding consistency as it is cooked.
  3. Bring the heat to the lowest and cook for 30-40 minutes.
  4. Let it cool.
  5. Transfer it to a bowl and put in the freezer . Let it sit there for 30 minutes.
  6. Take it out and whisk constantly with a fork for 2-3 minutes. Scrape the ice cyristals you see around the top of the container. Put it back into the freezer.
  7. Repeat this 4-5 times in every 30 minutes. You will see how it stretches when whisking. If you whisk it letting it stretch, it’s better.
  8. Transfer the mixture in an airtight container and freeze for 5 hours.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 dollop
  • Calories: 218
  • Sugar: 43.2g
  • Sodium: 100.1mg
  • Fat: 1.3g
  • Carbohydrates: 46.2g
  • Protein: 6.1g
  • Cholesterol: 3.3mg

Keywords: turkish ice cream, salep, homemade ice cream

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Haris says

    November 06, 2020 at 12:55 am

    I am planning to setup dondurma setup i am not into any icecream business nor have any related expeience, i just wanna know it it could be made with xanthan gum instead of salep, as it is very expensive, we tried many experiments as we dint have any machine, tried hand made icecream but did not get the required texture, results were only 25 % , is there any one who can help me out as i am fedup with making icecream on daily basis and wasting time n efforts, any help would be highly appriciated

    Reply
  2. Syed Muhammad Ali Raza Zaidi says

    September 02, 2019 at 1:17 pm

    Salep is available in the form of pure roots by name of "sohlab dana" at local pansari stores if you dig deeper into the spice merchant markets, it is quite cheap as compare to the prepared counterpart. Also the icecream calls for gum mastic which is quite pricy and is available at local pansari store with the name of "mastagi younani".

    Reply
    • anusha says

      February 17, 2020 at 8:36 pm

      hello everyone, im from pakistan. i visited turkey last year and loved their typically traditional icecream. can someone tell me where i can get this turkish icecream making machine?? and how much it costs?

      Reply
    • Haris says

      November 02, 2020 at 9:31 pm

      Syed where are you from? I tried to findout here in pakistan and didnt find sohlab dana

      Reply
  3. Ahmed says

    May 29, 2019 at 9:14 am

    My milk and salep mixture never reaches pudding consistency, what do I do?

    ★★

    Reply
    • Zerrin says

      May 29, 2019 at 10:16 pm

      Hi Ahmed!
      It is probably because of the quality of salep powder you are using. I sometimes have the same issue. What I do in such cases is whisking one tablespoon of cornstarch and about 1/4 cup cold milk in a small bowl until smooth and then add it into the simmering salep mixture. This gives the pudding some consistency. Hope this helps.

      Reply
  4. Ash says

    September 08, 2018 at 2:09 am

    So we would need only the Salep ? How about dondurma? Do I have to get it too? Are they the same?

    Reply
    • Zerrin says

      September 09, 2018 at 10:53 am

      Hi Ash, dondurma is the Turkish translation of ice cream. So you need only salep.

      Reply
  5. Melih Elibol says

    July 27, 2018 at 7:36 am

    It took me a while to find salep powder. It's quite rare in the US. In case anyone else is wondering, you can buy some on etsy or alibaba. I wasn't able to find pure salep powder on amazon.

    I ended up getting some from here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MeseloponLtd

    I can't yet attest to the quality of the salep powder as it hasn't yet arrived.

    I lived in Turkey for quite a while and this is my favorite ice cream in the world. Looking forward to making it 🙂

    Reply
    • May says

      December 19, 2018 at 7:28 am

      You are guilty of international orchid smuggling. It is illegal to transport orchids or their parts across borders without a ton of paperwork, and some orchids can't be transported at all because they are endangered. Turkey's orchids are nearly extinct because of this, and now they have started in on smuggling orchids from Iran and Greece to fill the demand. There are orchid-free salep recipes and products.

      Reply
      • Boo says

        April 08, 2019 at 7:01 pm

        Calm down May.

        Reply
  6. Hammy says

    April 27, 2018 at 2:08 pm

    You need to make an amendment to this reciepe.
    "If you are not using original Turkish salep, you will require a thickening agent such as mastic. As without this your mixture will not thicken."

    I spent so much time trying to figure out why it didn't thicken 😞😞😞

    Reply
  7. SinanDira says

    February 18, 2018 at 5:04 pm

    Is sugar a must for this? Because I've used stevia instead and stirred it consistently for 30 minutes without it thickening the slightest noticeable amount.

    Here are my ingredients (2/3 of original recipe's volume):
    500ml of milk
    1 teaspoon of salep/sugar mixture (the way Syrian vendors sell it in my city)
    1.5 teaspoons of sugar
    2 mastic buds (used in most other recipes)
    4 teaspoons of stevia

    Reply
    • Zerrin&Yusuf says

      February 18, 2018 at 9:43 pm

      Never used stevia in this recipe. Thanks for sharing what changes you've made. How was the result?

      Reply
      • SinanDira says

        February 19, 2018 at 3:32 am

        Thanks for your reply! After not achieving any thickening after 30 minutes of stirring, I decided to go the old fashioned way we Arabs cook milk or salep by, adding a bit of cornstarch that is. As soon as it cooled down, it yielded a surprisingly similar result to the dondurma in your pictures, albeit a tad less smooth/consistent. Still has two thirds of the elasticity though. My family and I LOVED it!

        ★★★★★

        Reply
        • Zerrin says

          February 19, 2018 at 11:52 pm

          Could it be because of the different types of salep we use? I never add any cornstarch when making salep. Thank you for sharing your experience though. I'm glad your family and you loved it!

          Reply
  8. Sahar says

    August 21, 2017 at 11:17 pm

    Hi every body
    Im sahar from iran
    We make ice cream with this reciepe but we also add saffron , rose water and pestachiue.
    GIVE it a try, wont be disappointed 😉

    Reply
    • Zerrin says

      August 22, 2017 at 9:57 pm

      Hi Sahar! Adding saffron and rose water is a brilliant idea! I'm sure it has an amazing color! Thanks for sharing the idea with us here!

      Reply
      • Sahar says

        August 30, 2017 at 12:46 pm

        You're welcome dear 😊

        Reply
  9. Katerina says

    January 25, 2017 at 8:41 pm

    I really love dondurma ice cream. I made it and the consistency was fantastic. It was a bit too sweet for my taste buds but overall fantastic and easy. Next time I'll be making this is will add mastic which is actually the way they serve dondurma here (in Greece. I don't know if it's in the original recipe.) Thank you for sharing this.

    Reply
    • Zerrin says

      January 25, 2017 at 10:58 pm

      Thanks Katerina for sharing your experience and ideas here! The consistency is amazing, isn't it? As for mastic, I'm sure it will enrich the flavor. Personally I don't like its flavor much though.

      Reply
  10. frank says

    August 02, 2015 at 11:54 am

    Hi,
    im wondering if it's supposed to be a teaspoon or a tablespoon of salep?

    i made it, but it didnt realy thicken while cooking?

    Reply
    • Zerrin says

      August 02, 2015 at 10:13 pm

      It is teaspoon. If your salep is original, it must thicken the liquid. If salep is not pure salep, it won't give the same result.

      Reply
  11. Teri says

    June 24, 2015 at 1:29 am

    Where is the recipe???????

    Reply
  12. mariana says

    March 19, 2015 at 2:31 am

    Theres no salep here in Guatemala, what can I do??

    Reply
    • Zerrin says

      March 20, 2015 at 12:43 am

      Hi Mariana, sorry but salep is a must for this recipe. You can't have the same elastic result with any other ingredient.

      Reply
  13. Susana I. says

    June 24, 2014 at 2:19 am

    Hello, I would really like to try this ice cream but have no idea how salep must be or look like, I looked it up on Amazon but they seam to have the instant drink kind that you mention in the post, any suggestions in how I shoul look for it to get the real thing, like "pure salep" or something like that?

    Thanks a lot. 🙂

    Reply
    • Zerrin says

      June 28, 2014 at 1:44 am

      Hi Susana, salep looks like powdered sugar, but it's not as white as sugar. I'm not sure if you can find it on Amazon. Maybe you can look for "orchid powder" or "salep powder" Hope you can find it.

      Reply
      • Susana I. says

        July 02, 2014 at 4:13 am

        I found an instant salep drink on Amazon.

        Thanks.

        Reply
        • Zerrin says

          July 02, 2014 at 8:06 am

          Hi Susana, instant salep drink contains sugar and very little salep inside. I'm not sure how it works for ice cream. Would love to hear your result if you try.

          Reply
          • Pati Gulat says

            November 05, 2014 at 5:14 am

            I lived in Izmir, Turkey for awhile and I LOVED the ice cream !!! Pistachio and Cantaloupe were my favorites. I am VERY excited to find this recipe ! I will try talumba.com for the salep. 🙂

            ★★★★★

    • Isaac says

      March 13, 2015 at 8:14 am

      Salep is common in turky. Their are two types, dont buy the drink mix. buy the small amount of powder. Its A darkish white and i got 23 grams for 15 TRY in turky

      Reply
  14. Iulian says

    May 08, 2014 at 11:24 am

    Can we substitute with starch because i can't find salep in Romania.Thank you!

    Reply
    • Icecream says

      August 18, 2017 at 11:27 pm

      I tried starch but it does not give elasticity or contribute to taste, you want this get salep

      Reply
  15. Shonalika says

    May 06, 2014 at 7:24 pm

    That looks absolutely fascinating! I've heard of salep before and was very much curious to try it - even more so now its manifesting in an ice-cream the likes of which I've never seen! And no ice-cream maker required? I'm definitely going to have to give it a shot, provided I can get hold of salep... do you think it will work with non-dairy milk? I'm vegan:p

    Reply
    • Zerrin says

      May 07, 2014 at 10:23 pm

      Thank you Shonalika! This ice cream could become you favorite, it's that good! Isn't it great that ice cream maker is not needed for it? Hope you can find genuine salep. I'm not sure about non-diary milk though. I haven't had any experience with it, not something common here. I'd love to hear the result if you try.

      Reply
  16. Librarian Lavender says

    May 06, 2014 at 1:31 pm

    I really, really want to try this! It looks so good!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

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