I've always thought it was hard or time consuming to make your own ice cream, but during this ridiculously hot summer, so May and I decided to experiment with different ice cream and sorbet recipes. First on the list is of course... Matcha! There's nothing like a really creamy, homemade Matcha ice cream that tastes better than store bought. It's made with only 6 ingredients!! No fillers, stabilizers or additives. This is dairy but we are working on a non-dairy version soon and of course a reduced sugar version :-). 

You may see churn and no-churn recipes sprinkled on the internet and we have done quite a few experimentation with the 2 versions. No-churn is super easy, but there is a sickly, sweet taste that basically makes the ice-cream too heavy.

No-churn uses condensed milk and requires you to mix all the ingredients and freeze. We find churning the ice cream results in a more creamier and lighter texture on your tongue. The key thing to making a churn ice cream successful is making sure your ice cream mixture is fully chilled before it goes into your ice cream machine. This helps reduce the amount of ice crystals that will form. Churning also removes ice crystals so the result is a deliciously, creamy ice cream! Sometimes a no churn ice cream gets ice crystals and we think it's because of no churning!

Tools you will need:

Ingredients - serves 3-4

• 1 Cup Whole Milk
• 1 Cup Whole Cream (we used Anchor because of the higher fat content)
• 1/2 cup sugar of your choice (we just used white granulated sugar)
• 1 1/2 tbsp of Premium Grade Matcha
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tspn vanilla paste with seeds

Timing

15-25 min cooking excluding chilling and freezing time.

Method

1. Make sure your ice cream machine has been frozen for 24 hours, and your container is in the freezer.
2. Combine Whole Milk and Whole cream in your measuring cup. Pour into your saucepan along with the sugar and vanilla paste.
3. Turn on low-medium heat. Start sifting your matcha powder in and stir to mix - this stops any clumps from forming.
4. Once it's been fully mixed, let it rise to around 68C-75C. You don't want it to boil, but just so it reaches a foamy consistency at the top. 
5. Remove from heat and start transferring to your measuring jug. Prepare an ice bath by filling your metal bow with ice and water. Place the jug in the middle so it cools down quicker. This process may take up to 2 hours. You want it to reach around 4 degrees C. I also wrap the entire bowl with tin foil so it cools down quicker.
6. Once it's chilled, place into your ice cream maker and churn according to it's manufacturer's recommended time. Ours took 30 minutes. 
7. The ice cream should be a soft-serve consistency and is ready to eat. We like ours a bit more firm, so place the mixture into your chilled loaf tin and cover with tin foil. Leave it to freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Soft serve consistency - tastes sooo good!

So creamy! Look at those ripples. This is left overnight.