Matcha Ice Cream (No-Churn)

30/08/2022 by Living the Gourmet 30 Comments

_{This post has been sponsored by Matcha Kari. All opinions expressed are my own.}

Today we’re preparing a decadently creamy, deliciously flavorful batch of matcha ice cream, and we’ll be doing so with a little help from my new friends over at Matcha.com. Today’s ice cream features a natural sweet nuttiness, courtesy of the matcha, alongside luscious notes of vanilla, set against a backdrop of sweetened cream.

This ice cream is no churn, and as such it couldn’t be simpler to make. Simply brew the matcha, and combine that with sweetened condensed milk. Then fold that into whipped cream and pop it in the fridge. Super simple.

As a nice bonus, you can tweak today’s recipe to your liking. This could mean adding in wet nuts, stirring in caramel, or topping it with a whiskey sauce. Check out our favorite ice cream recipes!

Now, without further delay, let’s make some ice cream.

What is Matcha?

A type of specially produced green tea. Served hot, matcha is the tea behind the “Green Tea Serving Ceremony.” It’s also the flavoring and coloring agent behind such delights a mochi, soba noodles, green tea wagashi confections, and (most) green tea ice creams.

So, what ‘makes’ matcha different from other green teas? For starters, matcha is shade-grown. While this process (drastically) slows the growing process of the green tea, it also (drastically) increases the leaves’ chlorophyll levels, as the leaves have to compensate to absorb as much of the (intentionally reduced) sunlight as possible.

This ‘shade grown’ process alters the flavor, and gives matcha its beloved green hue, while also increasing amino acids and theanine, which further alter the flavor. The amino acids are chiefly responsible for matcha’s flavor, with higher quality matcha containing higher levels of amino acids. The matcha is then ‘cold ground,’ meaning the grinding stones are kept at a minimal temperature throughout the grinding process.

And that’s matcha.

Sourcing Quality Matcha with Matcha Prime

For today’s ice cream, I’m using matcha from Matcha.com. Matcha.com, naturally, offers select premium matcha from small-scale growers. The matcha starts off as green tea handpicked during a brief and busy harvest season. These fresh green tea leaves are then steamed for thirty to forty seconds to destroy enzymes that would compromise flavor, and then cooled down quickly to stabilize their natural color.

The tea leaves are fire dried, cut and sorted, and mixed thoroughly. This ensures a consistent quality and flavor throughout the harvested tea. After being ground into matcha, the matcha is graded by color, aroma, and flavor, then sealed and shipped to your door.

In addition to delicious high quality matcha, Matcha.com also offers a variety of Japanese teas, such as sencha, gyorkuro, and tencha. They also offer specialty roasted teas, green teas, and energy boosting teas. As a bonus, Matcha.com also offers a variety of tea accessories such as tea bowls, kettles, and pots.

For maximum convenience, and free shipping, sign up for Matcha Prime to get these delicious teas shipped to your door on the regular basis, along with early access to new products.

Ingredient Checklist and Notes

Sweetened Condensed Milk. This provides a lot of ‘body’ of the ice cream. It gives a nice texture and flavor.
Heavy Cream. This puts the ‘cream’ in ‘ice cream.’ There’s really only one workable substitute, and I’ll touch on that below.
Macha. This is what makes today’s ice cream green, while giving it that delicious Green Tea flavor.
Hot Water. Hot as in ‘boiling for tea’ hot. This is for prepping the matcha.
Vanilla. I’m using regular vanilla extract, though vanilla beans or paste will all work fine. Remember that paste, beans, and extract all substitute at a one-to-one ratio.

Substitutes

Vanilla Extract. Substitutes for vanilla extract include vanilla beans, and vanilla paste. These are used at a one to one ratio. Conversely, you could also use almond extract, but almond extract is ‘much’ more potent, so only use about a quarter as much almond extract as you would vanilla.
Heavy Cream. You can use whipping cream in place of the heavy cream, but really that’s the only substitute I would suggest using.

Step by Step

Brew the Matcha. We start off by dissolving the matcha in hot water until the matcha is smooth and clump free.
Combine. We then combine the brewed matcha with sweetened condense milk, and stir until fully combined.
Whipped Cream. After that’s done, we whip up some cream with sugar and vanilla.
Fold. We then carefully fold the matcha and condensed milk mixture into the whipped cream.
Freeze. We pop the mixture into the freezer for several hours, and that’s it.

Matcha Ice Cream

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 13 reviews

Author: Living the Gourmet
Total Time: 1 day
Yield: 10 servings 1x

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Units Scale

14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons confectioner's sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Matcha
3 teaspoons hot water

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Whisk the Matcha and hot water until the matcha is dissolved and clump free.
Whisk into the sweetened condensed milk. Set aside.
In a large bowl whip heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla.
Fold into the matcha condensed milk mixture. Pour into a loaf pan or freezer container.
Let the ice cream set for several hours or overnight.
Serve and enjoy!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 6-24 hours
Category: Dessert

Recipe Card powered by