Sasha's Kitchen: Green Tea Ice Cream

Over the weekend, my husband and I prepared green tea ice cream.  It was quite simple to make actually, since the only real flavoring required was Matcha tea powder, a green tea powder in a lovely olive green hue.  I am planning on making a green tea tiramisu next weekend, and I had bought a couple of ounces of Matcha powder.  I had a little bit of extra powder, and decided that I could either make green tea macarons or green tea ice cream.  I decided to leave the macarons for another day and prepared the green tea ice cream instead.  The end result was a rich, creamy and delicious ice cream with the green tea flavoring of the Matcha powder.  This is always a wonderful end to a sushi meal for me at any Japanese restaurant, yet it was so easy to make ourselves in our old, but trusty ice cream machine.  We are making sushi rolls this week, so the timing was perfect.

I bought the green tea powder at a wonderful local tea and spice store that I just discovered last week a couple blocks from my home called PS Coffee Tea N Spices.  This store is a fantastic place to buy just about any tea or spice you could possibly imagine at reasonable places, by the ounce.  So instead of overpaying for a lifetime supply of Matcha Powder at Whole Foods, I simply bought an ounce for a mere three dollars.  Perfect for both of my planned recipes.  I also bought an ounce of two other lovely teas - a dark tea infused with lychee and a fragrant apricot tea.

Green Tea Ice Cream  (recipe from Epicurious)
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 T Matcha Powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar

Bring the cream, milk and salt to a boil in a large pot and take off heat.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, Matcha tea powder and sugar.  Add a cup of the cream mixture to the egg mixture.  Add this mixture back to the pot and put on medium heat and stir until the mixture thickens  to coat the back of a spoon and an instant read thermometer registers at 170 F.    Avoid turning up the heat too high, as the mixture should not boil.  Next, strain using a strainer and refrigerate the custard for about an hour. Freeze using an ice cream maker (I used an old Doniver that still works just fine) following the manufacturer's instructions.