Date Karatay Ice Cream

A new Karatay article from the pen of dear Sinem is with you...

Since there are no processed and sugary products in the Karatay Diet, I longed for ice cream these summer days. As I said, I hadn't bought the Karatay Cuisine book yet, because I had escapades, and I was unaware of the ice cream recipe that I will explain a little later, and I could not resist and ate ice cream from a world-famous ice cream chain. It's true that I forced myself to eat less the next day :)

Making Yogurt at HomeAs I mentioned in Canan Karatay's third book, Karatay Cuisine, there are various recipes. In the last part of these recipes, there is “Little Getaways”. I was excited when I saw the “Persimmon Ice Cream” recipe among recipes such as cakes, cookies, and pastries that can be made in accordance with the Karatay Diet, but prepared differently from what we normally do, and I decided to try it first. In fact, it is an easy recipe compared to the ice cream recipes we know, but it does not contain the ingredients that we find in our house every day. There are 3 ingredients, real pure sahlep, milk and dates. No sugar is added. When there was no sahlep and dates at home, I ended up in the Spice Bazaar in Eminönü. The sahlep you have to buy must be the real sahlep, there must be nothing else in it. Real sahlepse is a very expensive product, its weight was 250 TL. But of course, since it will be used in a very small amount, I did not mind taking around 50 gr, I was sure that I would like it and make this ice cream many times. Since it was Ramadan, there were all kinds of dates everywhere, and dates were in good condition as the circulation was high in the Spice Bazaar. I bought large and soft dates, also called Jerusalem dates, for making ice cream. But you can also try this recipe with other dates that you have at home or that you can find. In the book, the recipe was described for 5 people over the measure of 5 cups. But I made it for 2 with 2 glasses of milk and believe me it is quite difficult to finish 1 bowl at once. You can make ice cream for 1-2 people with 3 glasses of milk. You can make your ice cream by multiplying the same measurements according to the number of people, according to the recipe I will give below according to 4 glasses of milk.

• 2 water glass milk
• 2 teaspoons of real pure sahlep
• 4 dates

First of all, you need to put the dates in warm water 2-3 hours before you start preparing the ice cream. It is enough to put enough water to completely cover the dates you put in a bowl. Thus, the dates soften and swell.

After mixing 2-3 tablespoons of 4 glasses of milk with 2 teaspoons of sahlep in a bowl, you combine all the milk with the sahleb. Thus, the sahlep does not clump together in the milk and mixes well. You cook milk and sahlebi as if you were cooking pudding over medium heat, stirring constantly. After it starts to boil, we continue to cook while stirring, until the sahlep reaches the consistency of pudding. We take the sahlebi, which has reached the consistency of pudding, from the fire and continue to mix for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, it both warms and thickens. In the book, it is written that after this step, it is necessary to chop the soaked dates into small pieces and put them in bowls, and then put the cooked pudding-like sahlebi on it. I tasted it, sugar-free sahlep is very tasteless. My dates are too soft to be chopped. So I took out the seeds of the dates, crushed them with a fork and added the dates into the sahleb. With a whisk, I thoroughly mixed the dates and sahleb so that they were light-grained but homogeneously dispersed all over. I divided the mixture I made into 2 bowls and waited for it to cool, and when it got cold, I put it in the freezer. As I said, it was difficult for me to finish 2 bowl of ice cream made from 2 glasses of milk at once, it can be divided into 1 or 1 bowls. We also called it ice cream, but when it is completely frozen, it is very hard to eat because it is very hard. Therefore, it can be kept in the refrigerator and put in the freezer 3 hour before eating. I ate the first bowl before it was completely frozen and the second bowl after it was completely frozen, it was definitely much easier to eat the first one.

In the meantime, I immediately started to think about what it could be made with other than dates. The first thing that comes to my mind is dried fruits such as dried figs (1 fig per 1 glass of milk), dried apricots (3 apricots per glass of milk), prunes (3 plums per glass of milk). seems appropriate. Don't expect a very sweet ice cream, but I can say that it is quite delicious.

Written & Photographed by Sinem Çomarlı