Green Tea Ice Cream

I really enjoy making homemade ice cream - but I also enjoy Blue Bell ice cream.  So if I'm going through the effort of making my own, it has to be something unique that you can't get from Blue Bell.  Green tea ice cream qualifies!

Now, the real reason I chose to make green tea ice cream is because I made sushi this weekend!!  The only sushi to be found in Durant, Oklahoma is terrible - as you might imagine.  Sushi is one of the things I miss most about living in a city.  Like so many other wonderful dishes that are nowhere to be found in my small town, I've decided to learn how to do it myself.

I'm not going to blog it because I just followed Pioneer Woman's Sushi 101.  It was fun and my friends and I had a blast making and eating it.

Anyways - back to green tea ice cream.  Every time my friends and I go out for sushi in the city we either get ice cream tempura or green tea ice cream for dessert.  It is just a nice, cool, refreshing way to end a meal of fresh sushi and wine.  If you have never tried it, the best thing I can compare it to is the Green Tea Frappuccino from Starbucks.  In fact, you could probably blend this up with some milk, top it with whipped cream and have something pretty comparable to the Starbucks version!

Ingredients:  eggs, sugar, salt, whole milk, heavy cream, green tea and green food coloring.

Separate the egg yolks from the whites and put them in a mixing bowl along with the sugar.

Beat them for a minute or two until the mixture is a pale yellow color.  Set aside.

Scald the milk on the stove.

While the milk is scalding, cut open all of the tea bags and empty out the loose tea leaves.  If you are lucky enough to find loose green tea at your local grocery store, buy it and skip this step altogether.

Add the tea leaves to the scalded milk.  Cover and let it steep for about 4 minutes.

Then strain it into a bowl using a fine mesh strainer and pressing with a rubber spatula to extract as much of the liquid as possible.

Pour the liquid back into a clean pan along with the heavy cream and heat to a simmer.

Temper the egg mixture by pouring about 1/3 of the cream mixture into the mixing bowl and beating on low.  This slowly brings up the temperature of the eggs before adding it all to the hot pot of cream which prevents it from turning into scrambled eggs.

Combine all of it into the pot with the cream mixture and mix in some green food coloring a few drops at a time until you get a nice minty green hue.  I think I ended up using something like 20 drops or so.

Cook the mixture over low heat until it is nice and thick, stirring constantly.

It is thick enough when it will coat the back of a wooden spoon and you can scrape your finger down it, leaving a trail.

Give it one more strain to make sure the batter is perfectly smooth.

And that's the batter.  Isn't it pretty!?  Cover with plastic wrap and let it chill in the refrigerator.  I always let my ice cream batter chill over night.

Once it has chilled completely, freeze it in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.  I use the ice cream maker attachment for my stand mixer.  It was worth every penny!

I think it took about 15 minutes or so freeze.  It will nearly double in size.

Hello lover!

Depending on how you like your ice cream consistency, you can eat it right away or transfer it to a container and let it chill in the freezer over night.  I like mine creamy like Blue Bell, so I always choose the over night option.

Serve it with my Honey Vanilla Pound Cake and you have a match made in heaven!  Or you can just drizzle it with honey.  Or make your own Starbucks inspired Frappuccino!  The possibilities are endless...

Link to the printable recipe:

Green Tea Ice Cream

Source:  Emeril Lagasse