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Milk halva, a geographically indicated delicacy from Bursa, a city in northwestern Türkiye near Istanbul, is now available as ice cream, giving consumers a cold alternative to the traditional dessert during the summer months.
Chef Emir Topuk, who runs a tradesman's restaurant in Bursa's Nilufer district, worked with bread and ice cream maker Hakan Dogan for about two months to adapt milk halva, which received geographic indication status from the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office in 2021, into an ice cream format.
To make the product, milk and halva are added to a classic ice cream base and cooked together. Separately, pieces of milk halva are dried slowly at low temperatures until they turn crisp, then mixed into the ice cream and added on top before serving.
Topuk said milk halva is one of the signature desserts of Bursa cuisine. He noted that the dessert is traditionally served hot, unlike ice cream, which is consumed cold.
Describing the preparation process, Topuk said the classic ice cream base is boiled together with milk halva, with dried milk halva added into the mixture as well.
He said the dried version is made by pouring the halva onto thin trays and cooking it at low heat for several hours to remove its moisture, turning it into a cracker-like form.
This dried halva is folded into the ice cream, while a firmer, more brittle and slightly charred version is added on top for serving. Topuk said the aim was to create a product that preserves the same flavor character as the original dessert.
Topuk said he and Dogan tested different recipes over roughly two months to achieve the desired texture and flavor.
He said the ice cream has already attracted interest from consumers in a short period of time and that they plan to increase production capacity.
Topuk added that the milk halva ice cream will also be introduced at the Bursa Gastronomy Festival in September and that they expect the new presentation to help the geographically indicated product reach a wider audience.
He noted that the pair had previously served milk halva in small pumpkins as an earlier alternative presentation of the dessert.
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