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.
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 Turkish dessert recipes like walnut baklava or pistachio kadaif.
More Turkish Desserts
PrintElastic 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 1x
- 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
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
Syed Muhammad Ali Raza Zaidi says
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".
anusha says
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?
Haris says
Syed where are you from? I tried to findout here in pakistan and didnt find sohlab dana
Ahmed says
My milk and salep mixture never reaches pudding consistency, what do I do?
★★
Zerrin says
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.
Ash says
So we would need only the Salep ? How about dondurma? Do I have to get it too? Are they the same?
Zerrin says
Hi Ash, dondurma is the Turkish translation of ice cream. So you need only salep.
Melih Elibol says
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 🙂
May says
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.
Boo says
Calm down May.
Hammy says
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 😞😞😞
SinanDira says
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
Zerrin&Yusuf says
Never used stevia in this recipe. Thanks for sharing what changes you've made. How was the result?
SinanDira says
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!
★★★★★
Zerrin says
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!
Sahar says
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 😉
Zerrin says
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!
Sahar says
You're welcome dear 😊
Katerina says
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.
Zerrin says
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.
frank says
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?
Zerrin says
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.
Teri says
Where is the recipe???????
mariana says
Theres no salep here in Guatemala, what can I do??
Zerrin says
Hi Mariana, sorry but salep is a must for this recipe. You can't have the same elastic result with any other ingredient.
Susana I. says
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. 🙂
Zerrin says
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.
Susana I. says
I found an instant salep drink on Amazon.
Thanks.
Zerrin says
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.
Pati Gulat says
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
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
Iulian says
Can we substitute with starch because i can't find salep in Romania.Thank you!
Icecream says
I tried starch but it does not give elasticity or contribute to taste, you want this get salep
Shonalika says
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
Zerrin says
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.
Librarian Lavender says
I really, really want to try this! It looks so good!
★★★★★