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21/05/2026
Long before someone even scrolled the internet for an ice cream recipe or, sought a softy on a hot summer day from a random ice cream wala on the street, India already had its own extraordinary collection of desserts that were frozen, semi-frozen, and chilled. Made with milk, each dessert has some historic tale and nostalgic elements to it that rise in popularity in the summer. So, read on for some regional desserts that deserve to be understood the way a sommelier understands wine.
Where factory ice cream is whipped with air (a process called ‘overrun’), pasteurised, and machine-frozen, India's traditional cold desserts relied on slow milk reduction, naturally occurring coolants like badam pisin and nannari root, and the inherent patience of the cook. The result is always denser, richer, and far more aromatic — a kulfi recipe is denser and creamier than regular ice cream precisely because no air is churned into it. These desserts melt more slowly, carry flavour deeper, and tell you exactly where they come from.
The oldest frozen dessert in India and the original ice cream, the word kulfi itself comes from the Persian ‘qulfi’, meaning ‘covered cup’. This is a reference to the sealed metal or clay moulds in which the dessert is traditionally frozen.
Kulfi originated in 16th-century Delhi during the Mughal era, where cooks took the existing tradition of using concentrated milk, flavoured it with pistachios and saffron, packed it into metal cones, and froze it using a slurry of ice and salt.
What separates the creamy kulfi from Western ice cream is air. Unlike ice cream, kulfi is not churned while it freezes, which is what gives it that dense, slow-melting quality. Kulfiwallahs have been selling kulfi across the subcontinent for centuries, keeping the metal kulfi moulds submerged in salt-and-ice slurries inside earthen matkas.
Malai kulfi (North India): the classic kulfi made with reduced whole milk, cardamom, silver leaf, and pistachios.
Kesar pista kulfi (Punjab and Delhi): Flavoured with saffron or kesar with chopped pistachio all over the kulfi.
Sitaphal kulfi (Maharashtra): It’s made with ripe custard apple pulp, which surges in popularity during monsoons in Mumbai
Mango kulfi (Gujarat and South India): Alphonso or Kesar mango pulp is folded into a reduced milk concoction.
Kulfi falooda (Hyderabad and Delhi): served over vermicelli noodles, rose syrup, and basil seeds in a tall glass
Ingredients:
1 litre of full-fat whole milk
½ cup fresh cream
½ cup sugar
A generous pinch of saffron, soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk
½ tsp cardamom powder
Chopped pistachios and almonds
Method:
Boil milk in a heavy pan, then simmer for 35-45 minutes until reduced by one-third, stirring and scraping sides regularly. Add cream, then sugar, saffron milk, and cardamom. Cool, mix in half the nuts, pour into moulds, and freeze for 6-8 hours or overnight. Demould under cold water, garnish with remaining nuts and saffron, then serve immediately.
A traditional cooling drink from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, made with milk, badam pisin (almond gum), nannari syrup, and ice cream. The name is a mix of jigar (heart) and thanda (cold), so the drink is literally meant to cool the heart. It is also popularly called Jil Jil Jigarthanda in Madurai, where it has been a summer ritual for decades.
The story of Jigarthanda begins in the 1970s with a street vendor named P. Sheikh Meeran, who sold chilled milk cream, known locally as ‘Bhai’ ice cream, from a pushcart in the Vilakuthoon area of Madurai. His son Beer Mohammed is credited with transforming this milk cream into the layered drink known today. He added basundi, almond gum, and nannari syrup to create the modern jigarthanda.
Ingredients:
1 tsp badam pisin crystals
2 cups water (for soaking overnight)
1 litre of full-fat milk
3-4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp caramelised sugar
For khoya ice cream:
500 ml full-fat milk (to reduce to palkova)
3 tbsp sugar
½ cup fresh cream
For assembly:
4 tbsp nannari syrup
Ice cubes
Method:
Rinse and soak badam pisin overnight in water until jelly-like. Drain and refrigerate. Reduce 500 ml milk into thick palkova (40-50 mins). Mix in caramelised sugar and cream. Cool, blend lightly, freeze 6-8 hours, churning once midway if possible. Reduce 1 litre of milk by half, add sugar and a little caramelised sugar. Chill thoroughly. Layer soaked badam pisin, nannari syrup, chilled reduced milk, and khoya ice cream in a tall glass. Drizzle extra syrup on top and serve immediately without stirring.
While not a summer staple, daulat ki chaat is a winter dessert from Old Delhi that is described by those who have tasted it as eating a cloud. It appears every year in the narrow lanes of Chandni Chowk in early November, just after Diwali, and is gone by February before Holi. It might be a street food, but it has a Mughal pedigree, with an extraordinary technique, and a name that translates to ‘food of the wealthy’.
The name ‘daulat’ means wealth in Urdu, and theories for how it earned that name vary: some say the rich ingredients of saffron, dry fruits, full-cream milk, turned it into a dish only the nawabs could afford. Others say the name refers to its delicacy, that something so fragile and ephemeral deserves to be treated like something precious. And others say, simply, that just like wealth, it vanishes in no time once consumed.
Ingredients:
1 litre full-fat cow's milk
½ cup fresh cream
A pinch of cream of tartar
3 tbsp powdered bura (unrefined sugar) or fine powdered sugar
A pinch of saffron soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk
2 tbsp khoya or mawa, grated
2 tbsp chopped pistachios
Edible silver leaf (varq), optional
Method:
Mix milk, cream, and cream of tartar in a bowl and refrigerate overnight. Whip the chilled mixture until thick foam forms, then transfer the foam carefully to a chilled plate. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Drizzle with saffron milk, garnish with grated khoya, powdered sugar, pistachios, and silver leaf if desired. Serve immediately.
A thick, creamy, no-cook dessert made from hung curd (strained yoghurt), sugar, saffron, and cardamom, Shrikhand is one of the oldest Indian desserts. Its preparation is simple, yet it graces weddings of Maharashtra and Gujarat, served alongside hot puri, batata bhaji, and dal. It is also prepared at home for Gudi Padwa, Janmashtami, and Ganesh Chaturthi. In Gujarat, it is sometimes called matho. Beyond its taste, its appeal is also in its simplicity, as the main key ingredient, chakka (hung curd), requires nothing but patience, which, when mixed with sugar and perfumed with saffron and cardamom, becomes something special. It comes in many flavours:
Kesar pista: Saffron and pistachio are used in the classic version.
Amrakhand: Ripe mango pulp is folded into the chakka, a summer version popular across Maharashtra
Gulkand shrikhand: Rose petal jam is mixed with shrikhand for a delicate and floral dessert that trumps any ice cream recipe.
Elaichi shrikhand: The cardamom variant, popular alongside kesar pista.
Sitaphal (custard apple) shrikhand uses the grainy pulp of custard apple that goes along with the smooth creaminess of the chakka.
Ingredients:
500 g full-fat plain yoghurt (use fresh, non-sour curd only)
½ cup fine powdered sugar
A generous pinch of saffron soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk for 10 minutes
½ tsp green cardamom powder
2 tbsp chopped pistachios for garnish
1 tbsp slivered almonds for garnish
Method:
Line a strainer with muslin cloth, add yoghurt, and tie into a pouch. Refrigerate over a bowl for 6-8 hours or overnight to drain whey (save whey for other uses). Transfer thick chakka to a bowl, whisk with powdered sugar until smooth. Add saffron milk and cardamom, mix gently, adjust sweetness, and chill for 30 minutes. Serve cold, garnished with pistachios, almonds, and saffron.
Not as famous as kulfi or daulat ki chaat, or any other ice cream recipe, boondi is something that is loved in different preparations, especially in raitas and mithai. Then there is boondi ki kheer, where the boondi replaces the rice or vermicelli, giving this kheer a texture quite unlike any other. Sweet boondi is dipped in sugar syrup first and later added to reduced milk flavoured with saffron, cardamom, and rose water, with the boondi softening into a chilled dessert.
In Bihar's Mithilanchal region, it is called sakrori, which is a festive dessert traditionally cooked in clay pots, where the earthen vessel adds an additional layer of aroma to the finished dish. In Rajasthan, it appears as boondi payas, sometimes lightly spiced with bay leaves during the milk reduction. It is often offered as prasad and made during Navratri, Diwali, and Janmashtami.
Ingredients:
For the kheer:
1 litre of full-fat milk
¼ cup condensed milk
A generous pinch of saffron soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk
½ tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp rose water or kewra essence
2 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp almonds, blanched and slivered
2 tbsp cashews, roughly chopped
1 tbsp pistachios, for garnish
For the sweet boondi (or use 150g readymade sweet boondi):
1 cup besan (gram flour)
Water, enough to make a dropping-consistency batter
Oil, for frying
½ cup sugar + ¼ cup water, for a light syrup
A pinch of cardamom powder
Method:
For the sweet boondi, first make a smooth besan batter and drop it through a perforated ladle into hot oil. Fry until pale golden. Prepare one-string consistency of sugar syrup, mix in boondi with cardamom, and cool. For the kheer, boil milk, simmer for 25-30 minutes until reduced by half. Add condensed milk or sugar, saffron, and cardamom; cook for 5 more minutes. Add rose and kewra water and cool completely. Fold cooled boondi and half the nuts into kheer. Mix and then chill for 2 hours. Garnish with the remaining nuts, saffron, and rose petals.
With blistering and sweltering summers that plague India, make the body thirst for something cold, look closer and you will find the answer. Consuming desserts like kulfi, shrikhand and more will barely cost you much and cool you down as well as a softie or ice lolly sold in fancy packaging.
A. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, mango, butterscotch, and pista are the most popular ice cream flavors in India, with chocolate often ranking the highest when it comes to sales.
