Mastiha Ice Cream — Kaimaki
The silky, pine-scented ice cream of the Greek islands
⏱
20 min
Prep
🍳
15 min
Cook
👥
6
Serves
📊
Easy
Difficulty
Kaimaki is the traditional stretchy, mastic-flavored ice cream of Greece and the Middle East. The mastic resin gives it an extraordinary flavor — fresh, piney, slightly sweet — and the addition of salep (orchid root starch) creates its characteristic elasticity. This is the ice cream of Chios summer afternoons.
Ingredients
- 1 tsp Chios mastic crystals (about 6-8 pieces)
- 1 tsp sugar (for grinding mastic)
- 500ml whole milk
- 200ml heavy cream
- 150g sugar
- 2 tsp salep powder (or substitute 1 tbsp cornstarch)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Method
- Place the mastic crystals in the freezer for 30 minutes — cold mastic is brittle and much easier to grind.
- Remove from freezer and grind immediately in a mortar with 1 tsp sugar until a fine powder forms. The sugar prevents the mastic from clumping. Set aside.
- In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk together the milk, cream, sugar, salep powder, and salt over medium heat.
- Heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to steam and thickens slightly — about 8-10 minutes. Do not let it boil.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the ground mastic powder and vanilla. The mastic will dissolve into the warm mixture.
- Pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer instructions, or pour into a freezer-safe container and freeze, stirring every 45 minutes for 3-4 hours to break up ice crystals.
- Serve in scoops garnished with a few whole mastic crystals and a drizzle of mastic honey.