Mango sticky rice ice cream

The Thai dessert turned into ice cream: a coconut and mango base with a pinch of salt and pieces of sweet sticky rice.

Khao niao mamuang — sticky rice soaked in sweetened coconut milk with slices of ripe mango — is one of the best-known Thai desserts. As an ice cream flavour it surfaced in 2026 on social media and on shop boards alike, and flavour round-ups place it with the wave of Asian desserts. This recipe splits it in two: a coconut and mango base, and cooked sticky rice folded in at the end so you get soft grains rather than one mushy mass. The salt is not a garnish — in the Thai original it is in the coconut sauce, and it makes the whole dessert.

Type: Italian gelato · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Moderate

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 420 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 200 g coconut milk (tinned, ~20 % fat) (full-fat tinned coconut milk, stirred before measuring)
  • 40 g skimmed milk powder
  • 150 g mango (flesh) (flesh of a very ripe mango)
  • 110 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 40 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 1.5 g salt
  • 2 g locust bean gum (carob gum, E410) (or 3 g of ready-made gelato stabiliser)
  • 1 g guar gum (E412)
  • 120 g cooked glutinous (sticky) rice (for topping or folding in at the end, about 50 g of dry glutinous rice before cooking)
  • 30 g coconut milk (tinned, ~20 % fat) (for topping or folding in at the end)
  • 10 g granulated sugar (sucrose) (for topping or folding in at the end)

Making the mix

  1. Soak the glutinous rice for at least 4 hours (overnight is fine), drain it and steam for 25–30 minutes until tender. Pour the coconut milk mixed with the sugar over the hot rice, stir and leave for 15 minutes until it is absorbed. Then let it cool completely.
  2. Mix the locust bean gum and guar gum thoroughly with the dry sugars (granulated sugar and dextrose). On their own they would form lumps as soon as they get wet.
  3. Pour the milk, coconut milk and milk powder into a pan and heat, stirring. When the mixture is lukewarm, add the sugars with the stabiliser and the salt and stir until dissolved.
  4. Heat the mix to 85 °C (check with a thermometer) and hold it there for 1–2 minutes, stirring constantly. This pasteurises the mix and fully hydrates the stabiliser.
  5. Take the mix off the heat, add the mango flesh and blend smooth with a stick blender.
  6. Cool the mix quickly in a bowl set in iced water.
  7. Cover and age in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch on the ice cream maker 5–10 minutes ahead so the bowl can pre-chill.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix no higher than the fill line (with a smaller bowl, churn in two batches) and churn for 27–37 minutes, until it has the consistency of thick whipped cream.
  3. Fold the cooled coconut rice into the finished ice cream with a spatula. Break the rice up with your fingers first so it does not stay in clumps.
  4. Transfer to a chilled container, press cling film onto the surface and leave to harden in the freezer for 2 hours.

Total time: 9 h 7 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Take the frozen bowl out of the freezer just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the chilled mix — no more than two-thirds full; freeze the rest as a second batch.
  3. Churn for 20–30 minutes, until the ice cream thickens. There’s no point going longer — by then the bowl has warmed up.
  4. Fold the cooled coconut rice into the finished ice cream with a spatula.
  5. Transfer to a chilled container and leave to harden in the freezer for 3 hours.

Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours beforehand (until you can no longer hear the coolant sloshing inside). The mix must be thoroughly chilled.

Total time: 10 h

Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines

  1. Divide the chilled mix between CREAMi tubs, filling each no higher than the MAX line (a full batch makes about two standard tubs).
  2. Put the lids on and freeze on a level surface for 24 hours.
  3. Place a tub in the machine and run the Gelato program.
  4. Use a spoon to dig a well about 4 cm wide in the centre, all the way to the bottom, add the cooled coconut rice and run the Mix-in program.
  5. If the ice cream is crumbly or powdery, run Re-spin (many users add 1–2 tablespoons of milk first).

Programme: Gelato

Only some models (such as the Deluxe range) have a Gelato program. If yours doesn’t, use the Ice Cream program. A standard tub holds about 470 ml, a Deluxe tub about 700 ml. Don’t fill above the MAX line, and freeze it level — the machine doesn’t handle an uneven block well.

Total time: 30 h 43 min

Stages

Preparation
25 min
Cooking
40 min
Cooling
30 min
Ageing in the fridge
5 h
Churning
32 min
Hardening in the freezer
2 h
Total time
9 h 7 min

Plan: what to do and when

The whole recipe takes 9 h 7 min, of which 1 h 5 min is hands-on — the rest is waiting you can spend elsewhere.

The day before (6 h 35 min)

  • Prepare the mix (weigh and stir the ingredients) — 25 min
  • Cook the mix — 40 min
  • Cool the mix down — 30 min
  • Let the mix age in the fridge — 5 h

On the day of serving (2 h 32 min)

  • Churn in the machine — 32 min
  • Let it harden in the freezer — 2 h

Serving and storage

Serve with slices of fresh mango and a pinch of toasted sesame, the way the Thai original is served. Gelato is served warmer than cream ice cream, at −11 to −13 °C. Move the tub from the freezer to the fridge 15–20 minutes before serving and work it with a spatula before scooping.

In a sealed container with cling film pressed onto the surface it’s best within a week; after that, ice crystals start to build up. Never refreeze ice cream that has melted. The rice hardens in the ice cream after a few days — this one is best within three days.

Tips

  • Use genuinely sticky rice (sold as sticky rice, glutinous rice or Thai sweet rice). Ordinary short-grain pudding rice falls apart.
  • The mango must be very ripe — a firm mango is sour and disappears in the ice cream. If firm is all you can get, ripen it for a few days at room temperature next to a banana.
  • The drier the rice, the harder it goes in the freezer. The coconut milk you pour over it helps keep it soft — do not skimp on it.
  • You can buy locust bean gum and guar gum in health food shops. To do without a stabiliser, stir 15 g of cornflour (cornstarch) into a little cold milk, whisk it into the mix and simmer for 2 minutes. The ice cream will be slightly denser.

Why it works

Coconut milk is about 20 % fat, but that fat is mostly saturated and harder at −12 °C than milk fat — so the ice cream is firmer than 6 % fat would suggest. Dextrose and salt offset this: 1.5 g of salt per kilo of mix adds about one point of PAC while also bringing out both the coconut and the mango. Anti-freezing power (PAC) tells you how much water stays unfrozen at a given temperature — the higher it is, the softer the ice cream. Dextrose has almost twice the anti-freezing power of granulated sugar but is less sweet, which is why the two sugars are combined.

Related recipes

How we calculate the composition · What PAC and POD mean · Balance this mix in the calculator

Sources