Matcha ice cream

How does no-churn ice cream work

Churning normally does two jobs: it beats air into the base and keeps ice crystals small. No-churn splits those jobs between the ingredients: whipped cream carries the air in before freezing, and condensed milk's heavy sugar load stops large crystals forming. The result scoops genuinely well and carries matcha's flavour beautifully, because the bitterness of the tea offsets condensed milk's sweetness. The trade-off is a slightly denser, sweeter result than a churned custard ice cream, a good trade for zero equipment.

How do you make the custard-base version

If you own an ice cream machine, a custard base gives a less sweet, silkier scoop. Warm 500 ml of milk with 250 ml of cream, whisk 5 egg yolks with 120 g of sugar, temper the hot milk into the yolks and cook gently, stirring, until the custard coats the back of a spoon (about 82 degrees Celsius, do not let it boil). Whisk a paste made from 10 g of matcha and a little of the hot custard back through the pot, chill completely, then churn per your machine and freeze. The matcha still goes in as a sifted paste, never as dry powder.

How much matcha for ice cream

Ten grams per litre is the dessert-shop zone, a proper green tea ice cream where the matcha stands up to the dairy and sugar. Cold numbs flavour, so ice cream needs roughly double the matcha concentration a hot drink does; 6 g reads as delicate, 12 g as assertively tea-forward. Culinary grade is the right choice: its punchier profile is exactly what survives freezing, and the sugar in the base smooths its edges.

Storage and serving

Keeps 2 weeks in the freezer at its best, with baking paper pressed on the surface to slow ice crystals and colour fade; after that it stays safe but the texture coarsens and the green dulls. Serve it the Japanese dessert way, alongside anything from the matcha baking repertoire, or as the scoop beside a slice of matcha cake.

Common questions