Delicious Homemade Matcha Ice Cream Recipe – All Day I Eat

Matcha Ice Cream is a totally optional but highly recommended and tasty way to get your ice cream fix! On top of it’s soothing pastel green, this ice cream has a slightly earthy and sweet aroma. Surprise! It tastes just like it smells too! Using a lower ratio of cream, helps to keep this from being overly heavy while maintaining the refined flavors of delicate matcha tea.

Matcha Ice Cream （抹茶アイスクリーム）

It’s friggin hot today!

100 degrees hot!!!

And we have the winds blowing off shore here, so I’m going to definitely be hitting the beach to surf before it gets dark!

But before that I wanted to share my go-to matcha ice cream recipe with you!

I like matcha ice cream a lot.

In fact, I used just about an entire can of matcha tea to make matcha ice cream this year.

That’s how much I like it!

It’s absolutely one of my top 5 flavors!

And I especially like it since it’s made with tea!!

That makes it ‘healthier’ and gives me another excuse to make and eat it 🙂

Like Carl Cox always says… Oh yes! Oh yes!

And don’t foget to check out some of my tips for making ice cream below!

Matcha Tea vs Green Tea

Though Matcha and regular green tea come from the same plant (Camellia sinensis), the growing technique is different.

As the matcha harvest nears, the green tea plants are shaded 3-4 weeks before harvesting.

The shading process alters the chemistry and compounds that end up in the harvested leaves.

This is one of the main differences in producing matcha versus green tea!

Also, you may know that matcha comes in a powder form while green tea is loose leaf.

This difference in product also results in a different way each is prepared for drinking.

Normally, green tea is made by infusing the tea leaves in water for a minute or so.

Where as matcha tea involves whisking the tea powder in hot water, and drinking all of it. Powder and all.

Sound appetizing?

It is!

That is if you like the flavor of green (and matcha) tea!

Want to hear more about green tea? 

Some of the best green tea in Japan is cultivated near Kyoto (Uji).

Other famous regions include Shizuoka and Fukuoaka prefectures.

If you’ve had high quality Japanese green tea, you may have noticed it has a subtle and sweet characteristic.

Most restaurants don’t serve the good stuff, so you may attribute bitter flavors to green tea, which is true for lower quality teas.

And also, teas that have been oversteeped (for too long) or at water that is too high of a temperature.

So if you haven’t had a good quality tea, I do recommend trying to seek it out and give it a taste!!

Anyways, enough about tea for now.

Here’s a new video I made walking you through the recipe, step-by-step. How to make Matcha Ice cream | Using Japanese Matcha Powder 🍨 2018

Some tips for this particular recipe (and making ice cream in general)- 

• Matcha tends to clump, even if you sift it. I solve that problem by using my Kitchen aid Pro immersion blender. You could also use a regular blender too
• If you don’t have matcha green tea powder, you can substitute with regular green tea. Just make sure to use a good quality Japanese green tea. See this older video where I actually use green tea leaves to make green tea ice cream.
  • Two additional steps will be required if you use green tea leaves – first you’ll need to steep for ~30 minutes in the hot milk, then you’ll to strain out the tea leaves. Since it’s not matcha tea, the flavor will be slightly different but delicious in it’s own unique way.
• In order to cool your ice cream base quickly, set in a large ice water bath.
• Another tip is to only heat up your milk mixture and keep the cream nice and cold. I used to cook both together, but found no difference in flavor or texture after leaving the cream cold and mixing in after the custard base has been finished.

Hope this is helpful and let me know what you think!

Need an ice cream machine? Check out my review of the Breville Smart Scoop, which is one of my favorite kitchen appliances! 

In case you’ve missed them, here are some of my other ice cream recipes!

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Matcha Ice Cream

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• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 20 minutes
• Yield: 1 pint 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Cuisine: Japanese

Ingredients

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• 1.5 cups milk
• 100 grams sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1.5 cup cream
• 16 grams matcha powder

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Instructions

1. Heat milk in a saucepan on medium low heat.
2. Once the milk just starts to bubble, remove from heat.
3. In a large heatproof bowl or cup, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until nice and fluffy.
4. Gradually add about 1 cup of hot milk to the mixture while continuously whisking.
5. Add the entire mixture back to the saucepan while whisking and heat until 165-170 degrees. Remove from heat and whisk in matcha powder.
6. Add the cold cream to a heat/cold proof bowl (plastic or stainless steel) and place in an ice water bath.
7. Stir occasionally to expedite cooling.
8. Once cooled, pour into your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer instructions to churn.

Notes

Matcha powder can be found on Amazon, I would recommend using the Ito-en brand. If not using this brand, make sure the product is made in Japan and the ingredients to ensure nothing else is mixed in!

The trick to making this quickly is keeping the cream cool. Traditional ice cream recipes have you heat both cream and milk in the pot. By keeping out the cream, you help to quickly cool the hot milk when you add it to your bowl for chilling. You could even stick the cream in the freezer for a bit. Just make sure you don’t freeze it!