Green tea ice cream

A custard base with the matcha sifted and pasted, never spooned straight into liquid.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (double cream), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

• 20 g matcha
• 500 ml whole milk
• 250 ml double cream
• 6 egg yolks
• 150 g caster sugar
• 0.25 teaspoon salt

Method

1. SIFT THE MATCHA AND MAKE A PASTE WITH A LITTLE WARM LIQUID FIRST. It is a very fine powder that clumps the instant it meets liquid, and the clumps never disperse -- they appear later as bitter green specks. Sift it, then work in three tablespoons of warm milk with a small whisk until it is a smooth paste, then let that down.
2. CULINARY GRADE, NOT CEREMONIAL. Ceremonial matcha is expensive and its delicacy is wasted here; culinary grade is stronger and stands up to the dairy and sugar.
3. 20 g looks like a great deal and is right. Frozen custard mutes everything, and a paler green tastes of nothing.
4. NEVER BOIL IT AT ANY POINT. Matcha turns bitter and brown above a simmer, and this is also a custard, which would scramble. Both rules point the same way.
5. Heat the milk to just below a simmer and use a little of it for the matcha paste.
6. Whisk the yolks, sugar and salt until pale, then pour the hot milk in slowly, whisking.
7. Back into the pan over a LOW heat, stirring constantly with a spatula in a figure of eight, 6 to 8 minutes, until it coats the back of a spoon and a drawn finger leaves a clean line.
8. Matcha mixture whisked in off the heat, then the whole thing STRAINED. Any speck of cooked egg or unmixed matcha shows in the finished ice cream.
9. Cream in. Cool, then chill at least 4 hours -- churning warm gives coarse crystals.
10. Churn 25 minutes, or still-freeze beating hard every 40 minutes for 4 hours. Freeze 4 hours to firm.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes