No-Churn Kesar Elaichi Ice Cream (Saffron Cardamom Ice Cream)
Jun 30, 2020
No Churn Ice Cream flavored with saffron and cardamom, this Kesar Elaichi Ice Cream makes a wonderful summer treat and is so easy to make!
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Easy No-Churn Kesar Elaichi Ice Cream made using only 5 ingredients!
Flavored with lots of cardamom and saffron, the ice cream base comes together in 10 minutes only.
The weather in Seattle has been a little weird lately. It was quite a cold June except for few warm days.
I am hoping July is much warmer and there’s no rain for next 30 days at least. We could use a rain-free month.
In the days that it got warm, I made plenty of ice creams at home. We love homemade ice creams and the no churn version is my favorite.
Sure, an ice cream makers makes great ice creams but you can’t beat the ease of no churn ice creams.
All it takes is 10 minutes to make the base and the possibilities are endless! There are so many flavor combinations that you can come up with.
This year, I have already made my favorite Butterscotch Ice Cream and then made this Kesar Elaichi Ice cream which we absolutely loved!
As the name suggests the ice cream has 2 very popular Indian dessert flavors- kesar (saffron) and elaichi (green cardamom).
This Kesar Elaichi Ice Cream
✔is eggless and no-churn.
✔made without an ice cream maker.
✔need only 4 basic ingredients (5 if you include the nuts).
✔you only need 10 minutes to make this!
The best part about no-churn ice creams are that they are so easy to make that anyone can make them!
For this cream you would need 4 main ingredients- heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, ground cardamom, saffron strands.
I also add some pistachios for texture making it total of 5 ingredients. Let me talk about these ingredients in detail.
Heavy cream: you need heavy cream for this ice cream, it should have minimum fat percentage of 35%+. That makes the creamiest no churn ice creams! Low fat cream would not work here.
Sweetened condensed milk: now, the cream and condensed milk form the base of this ice cream. These two when mixed together form an ice cream base which then opens endless possibilities!
Cardamom: since cardamom is the main flavor here, it is very important to use good quality ground cardamom here. Do not use the cardamom powder that you get at Indian stores, it doesn’t have that aroma.
Best is to take some good quality green cardamom pods, take out the seeds and crush them coarsley and then use that in the recipe.
I have used 2 + 1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom here (yes, that’s a lot but it is the main flavor!). I actually used this roughly ground cardamom from a brand called Burlap & Barrel (search it please, not sponsored just happen to love it). It’s amazing, so if you can get a hold of it that’s great else use real pods and crush them and use that in the recipe.
Saffron: the other main flavor in this ice cream is saffron. Again, use a very good brand. I recommend either the saffron from Burlap & Barrel or Gathering of Saffron brand (not sponsored, just sharing what I love).
The process only involves whipping the cream and then folding it in condensed milk and then adding in the flavors.
You really can’t go wrong here, however make sure to use very good quality saffron and cardamom here. The flavor of the ice cream is totally dependent on that so make sure to use the best one!
Method
Before you start, put your wire whisk attachment and steel bowl of the stand mixer (or hand blender and any bowl you are going to use) in the refrigerator for around 20 minutes until chilled.
1- In a small pan heat 2 tablespoons of milk (no need to boil it but it should be thoroughly heated). Then crush a generous pinch of saffron strands using your palms and add to the hot milk. Let it for around 10 minutes for the flavor and color to develop.
2- Meanwhile add 2 cups cream to the steel bowl of your stand mixer and using the wire whisk attachment beat the cream (I use it chilled straight from the refrigerator) until it forms peaks. Remember to not over-beat else it will separate. Set it aside.
3- Add a can of sweetened condensed milk to a large bowl. Then add ground cardamom to it and mix using a spatula.
4- Then add the saffron milk (which had developed color and flavor by now) into the bowl with condensed milk.
5- Mix the saffron milk with the condensed milk using a spatula.
6- Now, start folding in the whipped cream. Take a small amount of the cream and fold the whipped cream into the condensed milk mixture gently using a spatula moving it one direction. Do so in parts and fold in the entire whipped cream similarly.
The mixture will look very yellow right now but as you keep adding in more of the whipped cream, the yellow color will become lighter. You can also add some yellow food color at this point if you want it to be bright yellow.
7- Once all the whipped cream is mixed with the condensed milk, then add in the crushed pistachios. I pulsed these pistachios using my food processor. Don’t make it a very find powder, you want some chunks.
8- The ice cream mixture is now ready to be frozen. Transfer to an ice cream container or any freezer safe container and freeze overnight until completely set.
Once set, scoop the ice cream into bowls or ice cream cones and enjoy. You may garnish with more pistachios before serving.
If you’ve tried this Kesar Elaichi Ice Cream Recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe! You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram to see what’s latest in my kitchen!
Kesar Elaichi Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream 16 oz
- generous pinch saffron strands soaked in 2 tablespoons (30 ml) hot milk
- 14 oz can condensed milk sweetened
- 2 + 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom coarsley ground from cardamom pods
- 1/4 cup chopped pistachios
Instructions
- Before you start, put your wire whisk attachment and steel bowl of the stand mixer (or hand blender and any bowl you are going to use) in the refrigerator for around 20 minutes until chilled. In a small pan heat 2 tablespoons of milk (no need to boil it but it should be thoroughly heated). Then crush a generous pinch of saffron strands using your palms and add to the hot milk. Let it for around 10 minutes for the flavor and color to develop.
- Meanwhile add 2 cups cream to the steel bowl of your stand mixer and using the wire whisk attachment beat the cream (I use it chilled straight from the refrigerator) until it forms peaks. Remember to not over-beat else it will separate. Set it aside.
- Add a can of sweetened condensed milk to a large bowl. Then add ground cardamom to it and mix using a spatula.
- Then add the saffron milk (which had developed color and flavor by now) into the bowl with condensed milk. Mix the saffron milk with the condensed milk using a spatula.
- Now, start folding in the whipped cream. Take a small amount of the cream and fold the whipped cream into the condensed milk mixture gently using a spatula moving it one direction. Do so in parts and fold in the entire whipped cream similarly. The mixture will look very yellow right now but as you keep adding in more of the whipped cream, the yellow color will become lighter. You can also add some yellow food color at this point if you want it to be bright yellow.
- Once all the whipped cream is mixed with the condensed milk, then add in the crushed pistachios. I pulsed these pistachios using my food processor. Don't make it a very find powder, you want some chunks.
- The ice cream mixture is now ready to be frozen. Transfer to an ice cream container or any freezer safe container and freeze overnight until completely set. Once set, scoop the kesar elaichi ice cream into bowls or ice cream cones and enjoy. You may garnish with more pistachios before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
“Do use high quality cardamom (no store bought cardamom powder)”
Where do we find high quality cardamom?
I love burlap and barrel https://www.burlapandbarrel.com/
This looks so delicious. I’m going to try this. Did you use salted or unsalted pistachios in the recipe?
unsalted raw pistachios
yummy ice cream with Kesar flavor.