Homemade Green Tea Ice Cream

Green tea ice cream is cool and refreshing, offering the distinctive flavour of green tea. In the following recipe we are using green tea powder, also known as matcha. This combines with milk, cream, sugar and egg yolks to make the ice cream. You will be combining the ingredients in a pan on the stove, then mixing it well, chilling it, and finally using an ice cream maker to transform it in to beautiful ice cream.

Matcha is a great ingredient because you can use it to make hot tea, ice tea, green tea cakes and cookies, and so much more. Of course, matcha ice cream is also really popular, but don’t bother buying it because it’s so easy to make yourself, and you only need 5 ingredients.

You can either use an ice cream machine to make this recipe or else make it by whisking the mixture in a bowl inside another bowl of very, very cold ice water (which is what you get when you mix salt with crushed ice!

Everyone Loves Green Tea

Green tea is such a delicious flavour because it is like having a cool, refreshing drink, but in ice cream form. Now, you can serve a scoop or two of this after any kind of main meal, or why not pair it with wafers, chocolate chips, whipped cream, maraschino cherries, chopped mixed nuts or anything else you want to add, to make this a colourful, appealing dessert.

The kids are going to love this as much as the grownups do, and you can consider making another flavour, such as chocolate, coconut or mango, and serve a scoop of that along with a scoop of this. Nobody ever gets tired of ice cream, especially the flavourful homemade kind, and this recipe is a keeper. You will be asked to make it often and very soon you will find you have learned the recipe off by heart!

Making Ice Cream without a Machine

So how do you go about making this if you don’t have an ice cream machine? Well, the good news is: it’s perfectly possible! Nestle a small bowl into a larger bowl full of crushed ice mixed with 230 grams of salt. Fill the small bowl halfway with ice cream mixture. Beat it for 10 minutes using a hand mixer or 15 to 20 minutes with a manual whisk.

Cover the bowl with a towel and freeze the 2 bowls for 45 minutes, then take them out of the freezer and mix for a further 5 minutes. You should now have soft-serve ice cream. Take the small bowl out of the larger one, cover it with plastic wrap which touches the surface, and freeze for minimum 2 hours before serving.

Photo by Daremoshiranai, on Flickr

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Fill a bowl with ice water.
  2. Whisk 60 ml of milk with the green tea powder until most of it has dissolved.
  3. Add the rest of the milk and stir well.
  4. Heat the milk mixture with half of the cream until it almost reaches a boil.
  5. Whisk the rest of the cream with the sugar and egg yolks.
  6. Add the hot milk mixture to the egg mixture.
  7. Pour the mixture back into the pot and cook until it coats the back of a spoon quite thickly.
  8. Stir it constantly so it does not curdle.
  9. Put the pot into the bowl of ice water you prepared earlier.
  10. Transfer the ice cream mixture into a container.
  11. Chill it in the fridge for 4 hours.
  12. Use an ice cream machine to prepare the ice cream, following the machine directions.
  13. Freeze for 3 hours before serving.