Dondurma (Turkish Ice Cream) is a traditional Turkish recipe for a classic ice cream style dessert of milk and cream thickened with salepi (orchid tuber starch) and flavoured with mastic that's churned to freeze. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Turkish version of: Turkish Ice Cream (Dondurma).
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For this recipe the mastic must be ground to a very fine powder. This is easiest done if you break the lump of resin by banging in a heavy bag with a rolling pin then grind the pieces in a coffee grinder with about half the sugar until you have a very fine powder.
The other unusual ingredient in this recipe is salepi (also known as salep, salab) is a starchy flour made from grinding the dried tubers of the orchid genus Orchis (including species Orchis mascula and Orchis militaris) which contain a nutritious starch-like polysaccharide called glucomannan. Salepi flour us used to make a drink that is popular in the countries of the former Ottoman Empire (most notably Turkey) and is also used as a starchy thickener and flavouring.
In a bowl, beat together the mastic and sugar mix with 120ml of the milk until smooth and completely blended. In a separate bowl, dissolve the salepi in a further 120ml of milk.
Place the remaining milk in a saucepan and warm over high heat. Using an electric whisk at high speed, beat the warm milk into the mastic mixture then work in the dissolved salepi along with the remaining sugar and the cream.
Turn the resultant mixture into a saucepan and bring to a boil over low heat. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the mixture from clumping. Take off the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.
Pour into an ice cream mixture and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. Freeze to store and remove from the freezer for 10 minutes to soften before serving.
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