Nolen Gur Icecream

I made a lot of Nolen Gur Icecream once upon a time. It was popular amongst my family and friends. I even tried it at a food festival once. It’s been a while since I made any icecream. I’ve taken to trying other simpler things nowadays. Like Fruits and Yoghurt.

Winter dates for Summer Fates

Nolengur (aka Pataligur) is the magical molasses made from date palm which has the most heavenly aroma and flavour. It has the dark, heavy caramelized sugar notes with a fruit nutty aftertaste. I can’t do justice to this unique flavour in words- you simply must taste it!

In Kolkata, my hometown, it makes a much-anticipated brief appearance during the winter season. That’s when I pick up as much as I can store and horde it in my freezer. It’s like precious gold and I try to stretch it along for as long as I can through the rest of the year.

In the two winter months of Dec-Jan, Bengalis go crazy devouring nolengur all kinds of sweets and desserts- in sandesh (a dry sweet made of cottage cheese), in payesh (a kind of rice pudding), in peethes ( rice based pancake like or dumpling like sweets), and yes, my favorite- the nolengur ice-cream.

I give in to give up

My friends have been asking me for the recipe and it is long overdue. It’s quite simple- has just 3 ingredients. But it does require an Ice-cream maker.

I use a Cuisinart 1.4lt one- it’s easy to use and good enough for home cooking. The inner chamber of the ice-cream maker needs about 24hrs in the freezer to be ready to churn out the ice-cream. I also find it better to make the ice-cream 1 night ahead and let it freeze overnight for a more solid block. So, plan ahead if you want to make for a party!

The ice-cream contains egg yolks- I am still trying to work out a good egg-free recipe. Will update as soon as I have that. For the leftover egg whites, I have a great recipe for Glutenfree Dairyfree Almond Cookies

Alternates always exist

I have tried a dairy free version as well and it is equally delicious. The recipe adapts very well to the dairy-free version by simply substituting the regular cream with coconut cream in the recipe below. For coconut lovers it is perhaps taking the ice-cream recipe up a notch or two with the added nutty flavor of fresh coconut cream. So, try that as well for a more paleo-friendly lower-carb option!