Rich, Milky and Dense Brain Freeze Ice Creams & Desserts Made Around the World

Where there is milk, there is ice cream and that makes for some of the most delicious dessert recipes, when it comes to the ones we see in grocery stores and brand outlets, they are commercially produced. Lucky for you, there are ice creams that are made in different countries some frozen and some as a result of copious amount of churning all producing rich, refreshing and delicious unadulterated ice cream.

1. Banana Split

This was one of those desserts that we kept hearing about all the time, but somehow we never ate it or forgot about it. It’s a speciality of the US, invented in 1904, that has a whole banana slit longitudinally between which scoops of ice cream, primarily vanilla but chocolate and strawberry are also used, is scooped between them. This whole dessert is topped with whipped cream and a glaced cherry. It is served in a long dish called boat.

2. Kulfi

Born under the rule of the Mughal dynasty in the 16th century, kulfi has Persian influences, made by locals at the foothills of the Himalayas. It's made by slow cooking the milk to reduce the milk in volume that gives the kulfi its nutty and a hint of caramelized flavour. It uses special moulds where the milk flavoured (rose water, saffron, pista) or unflavoured is poured and frozen to get the dense ice cream with an intense milky flavour, its often eaten with falooda that consists of sweet vermicelli noodles, rose syrup, basil seeds and dry fruit and nuts. They are still sold by street vendors called kulfiwalas and also found in local shops and restaurants.

3. Sundae

Second only to the banana split, Ice cream sundae is the second most popular ice cream item in the United States. It might be the exact opposite here, because we have been enjoying sundaes for a long time because long before tubs were popular, ice cream sundaes were. The commercial ones also look similar to the ones served at ice cream parlours, restaurants and cafes. It has two to three scoops of ice cream coming in different flavours – vanilla, caramel, chocolate, strawberry or butterscotch topped with sauces anything from caramel to chocolate and topping of choice from chocolate chips, candy sprinkles to nuts.

4. Dondurma

This is the Turkish ice cream you see Turkish ice cream sellers playing catch me if you can with, and it stands out for its texture. Dondurma is not your average ice cream that melts easily in the heat or in the sun. In fact, it is often eaten with a knife and fork because it is chewy and dense. It comes from the city of Kahramanmaraş and it is made using milk, sugar and thickening agents – mastic resin, a kind of Arab gum and salep, which is a root flour made from the early purple orchids. The more the salep content, the denser and chewier it is, and the city of Kahramanmaraş, where the dondurma is from uses plenty of it.

5. Bastani sonnati

Straight from Persia, the modern day Iran, Bastani sonnati is a local delight that uses a generous amount of saffron to flavour the ice cream. It was invented by Akbar Mashti, the first known ice cream vendor in Tehran in the 1900s. It's a little similar to the kulfi ad also the Turkish Dondurma because this too uses milk or cream, frozen custard and pistachios that may be flavoured with rose water and saffron. It is also dense like the Dondurma because it uses salep, the orchid root extract and is a beaotful yellow in colour. Iranians like it in dessert bowls or as an ice cream sandwich between two layers of wafers.

6. Gelato cioccolato

Who is not aware of the the Italian gelato, and the chocolate version at that? Gelato cioccolato Is exactly that which is made with chocolate, cocoa powder, milk, cream, and sugar. It melts quite easily because its made from milk and needs copious amount of churning to make this ice cream. The churning produces a smooth and velverty but dense gelato or ice cream with luxurious taste of ice cream. The earliest recipe of the chocolate gelato dates back to 1692.

7. Sorbetes

The ice cream is made with carabao (water buffalo) milk that comes in a range of flavour, the most popular being chocolate, cheese, mango, coconut, and ube or yam. The ice creams are sold by street vendors mostly, earning it the monicker dirty ice cream, in the Philippines and scooped on sugar cones. The Filipinos like theirs between two wheat buns, kind of like an ice cream sandwich. It is quite similar to sorbet in its taste as well as the mouthfeel, and is refreshing on a hot summer day.