How to Make Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream
This homemade version of matcha green tea ice cream is easy to make using an ice cream maker. Tips for achieving a perfect creamy texture are shared below! Don’t have an ice cream maker? Don’t worry! Check out my recipe for no-churn matcha ice cream instead.
I am seriously having a love affair with my ice cream maker. I can’t stop thinking up new flavor combinations to make ice cream with! This week I made an Asian classic – matcha green tea ice cream. It has become one of my favorite flavors next to durian ice cream and is also really easy to make!
Developing this matcha ice cream recipe
This recipe was one of the first ice cream recipes I’ve ever made out of the tons of ice cream recipes I’ve made. I thought it was good at the time. But over the years, I’ve iterated on my ice cream base recipe and vastly improved its texture and flavor by using a higher ratio of heavy cream to whole milk. Through hundreds of tests, I found that using a higher ratio of heavy cream creates a creamier ice cream texture, and helps it freeze better. Five years after I first developed this recipe, I went back and remade this matcha ice cream with this new base recipe and also bumped up the amount of matcha powder, and now I love this recipe even more than I did back then. It’s creamy. Has a strong matcha flavor. And it doesn’t freeze like ice.
Some key ingredients for this ice cream
- Whole milk & heavy cream – In testing, I found using a higher ratio of heavy cream creates a creamier ice cream texture. It also helps it freeze better. More milk makes the ice cream freeze icy.
- Matcha powder – This adds the green color and the matcha flavor to the ice cream. Make sure to use high quality matcha powder. In my years of making matcha desserts, I’ve learned that the better the matcha, the better the color and flavor. That’s why I use Aiya culinary grade matcha powder for every single of my matcha desserts – from my matcha stracciatella to my strawberry matcha cookies.
- Vanilla extract – Adds flavor to the ice cream. A good substitute is vanilla paste or 1 vanilla bean.
How to make matcha ice cream
The importance of tempering the eggs
For this recipe, what you essentially want to make is a matcha custard before it goes into the ice cream maker. It is similar to how you temper eggs for creme brulees. I combined the dairy products, matcha powder, and vanilla in a sauce pan and heated up the milk over low heat. I then combined the eggs and sugar in a small bowl. Before adding them to the matcha milk, you want to temper the mixture to make sure that the eggs don’t cook…which happens reaaalllyyy easily. This happened to me a few times as I was testing the recipe, so make sure to temper!
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Get the Recipe:
Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream (Ice Cream Machine)
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 ¼ cup heavy cream
- 3 tbsp matcha powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup sugar
- 5 egg yolks
Instructions
- Whisk together whole milk, heavy cream, matcha powder, and vanilla extract in a small sauce pan. Heat over low heat until the milk is warm (about 5 minutes). Stick your finger in the milk to test that the milk is warm. Add a pinch of salt and stir.
- Mix sugar and egg yolks in a small bowl. Add a 1/4 cup of the matcha milk mixture and whisk until it is well incorporated. This is called tempering. We are raising the temperature of the eggs so they don't cook when you combine them with the warm milk.
- After tempering the egg yolks, add them to the matcha milk. Stir and heat until the mixture reaches 170 degrees F.
- Strain the mixture into a bowl and let it cool in the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight. This might seem like a long time but the colder your cream is the creamier your ice cream will be.
- Pour the custard into the ice cream maker and churn for 10-15 minutes until the ice cream is a little bit harder than soft serve ice cream.
- Pour the ice cream into a freezer safe container and freeze for 4 hours or overnight. I usually do it overnight.
