Israeli · Desserts

Malabi

A set milk pudding perfumed with rose water, poured into glasses and topped with red syrup, coconut and crushed pistachios.

25 min prep and cooking plus 3 hr chilling plus time for cooling to room temperature, which the recipe does not time at least 3 hr 25 min start to finish Serves 4 servings Easy
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Malabi

Photograph credit: Baklava and Malabi desserts by Cabeza2000 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence

Cornflour sets a milk pudding softly and cleanly where gelatine sets it rubbery, and the ratio matters within a tablespoon — too little and it will not stand, too much and it turns to paste. The rose water goes in off the heat because its aroma is driven off by any further boiling.

Quick Answers

How long does Malabi take to make?

15 minutes of preparation and 10 minutes of cooking, plus 3 hours of chilling, so allow 3 hours 25 minutes from start to finish. The method also needs time for cooling to room temperature, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 4.

How to Make Malabi

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  1. Whisk the cornflour into 200 ml of the cold milk until completely smooth, with no lumps at all.

  2. Heat the remaining milk with the sugar, salt and cream until steaming but not boiling.

  3. Pour the cornflour slurry in while whisking constantly.

  4. Cook over medium heat, whisking without stopping, for 4 to 5 minutes until it thickens and just comes to a boil. It should coat the back of a spoon heavily.

  5. Take it off the heat and stir in the rose water.

  6. Pour through a sieve into glasses or small bowls, filling them about three-quarters.

  7. Cool for no more than 2 hours, then refrigerate at least 3 hours until set.

  8. For the syrup, boil the sugar and water for 6 minutes, add the juice and lemon, cool, then stir in the rose water.

  9. Spoon the cold syrup over each set pudding and finish with pistachios and coconut.

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Worth Getting Right

  • Dissolve the cornflour in cold milk first, thoroughly. Lumps never come out.
  • Rose water off the heat. Boiling it away is the most common mistake.
  • Strain into the glasses for a completely smooth top.

What to Serve With It

Strong cardamom coffee · Fresh berries · Mint tea

Storage

Refrigerate up to 3 days, covered. Add the syrup and toppings when serving.

Malabi Nutrition

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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Compiled by Turab

Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.

First published ; last changed .