A taste of Dondurma, Turkish Ice-Cream

If you have not tried Turkish Ice-cream, you should give your tongue a taste of it! This gummy & yummy sweet treat from Istanbul is so unique due to its texture and taste. It can be found all around the world and people are always looking for this Ice-cream, called the Dondurma. It got its name from the word 'Freezing' and it is made of milk, sugar, salep, and mastic. This ice-cream is normally more expensive than the normal one due to its resistance from melting under the hot sun. It won't melt easily, so you can take your sweet time to eating it! This ice-cream would surely blow your mind! Below is a recipe on how to prepare a Dondurma:

Ingredients:

3 cups of double cream or whipping cream

3 cups of full fat milk

1 1/8 cups of sugar

3 teaspoons of salep (level)

7/8 - 1 teaspoon of golden gum mastic, ground

Methods:

First of all, grind the mastic. Mastic is normally sold in drops of resin that can stick to the mortar and pestle during grinding. Freeze mastic for 15 minutes before using and place it along with 1-2 tablespoons of the sugar in the mortar. Then, grind with the pestle.

Secondly, beat 1/2 cup of the milk with the ground mastic (and sugar used to grind) in a mixing bowl it is completely blended. Dissolve the salepi in 1/2 cup of cold milk. Warm the remaining milk in a saucepan over low heat. Beating the mastic mixture at high speed, add the warm milk, then the dissolved salepi. Add remaining sugar and cream to it.

Next, transfer the mixture to a saucepan and boil it over low heat for about 20 minutes. Make sure you stir it frequently to prevent any sticking and clumping. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.

If there is no ice cream maker, quickly transfer it to a metal container, cover with tightly fitting lid or foil and place in freezer. Remove it from the freezer every half hour and transfer to a mixing bowl and beat with a hand mixer until frothy. Quickly place back in the metal container and put in the freezer. Repeat three more times.

Finally, remove it from the freezer 10 minutes before serving.

Serve alone, with a syrup topping or spoon sweet, and sprinkle with chopped almonds.

Enjoy!