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.
This ice cream is probably the rarest one among all Turkish desserts because it is not very easy to find real salep powder outside Turkey.
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.
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!
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.
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.
This ice cream is a perfect dessert on its own, but you can also serve it with world-famous walnut baklava or pistachio kadaif.
More Turkish Desserts
As always: If you make this recipe, let us know what you think by rating it and leaving a comment below. And post a pic on Instagram too—tag @give_recipe so we can see!
Sign up for the FREE GiveRecipe Newsletter to get the new recipes into your inbox! And stay in touch with us on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram for all the latest updates.
Elastic Turkish Ice Cream
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!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 6
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients
- 4 cups milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp salep
- 1 tsp vanilla powder
Instructions
- Combine salep, sugar and vanilla powder in a bowl.
- 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.
- Bring the heat to the lowest and cook for 30-40 minutes.
- Let it cool.
- Transfer it to a bowl and put in the freezer . Let it sit there for 30 minutes.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Sneh Rathi says
I live and love ur recipe of ice cream
Haris says
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