Healthy Green Tea Ice Cream

Remember that peculiar photo of ice cream ingredients from my ice cream sandwich post? Well, the green tea ice cream I made was vegan, adapted from a recipe in Veganomicon. I have a bunch of cookbooks that I haven't used much, so I am going to try some recipes from them this summer.

This recipe uses coconut milk and tofu. It's a lot healthier than ice cream made with egg yolks and heavy cream. This summer, I want to experiment with making vegan ice creams. Some recipes I've made in the past turned out too icy, watery, and too hard after freezing. This recipe was just okay; it could be better. Because of the coconut cream, it ended up with a coconut-y flavor, not surprisingly. It was also a bit icy, and the mouth feel wasn't what I wanted. I'll have to tweak this some more, or use a different method.

Here's the recipe, anyways. It gets pretty hard in the freezer, so just let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before scooping.


Vegan Green Tea Ice Cream
Adapted from Veganomicon


6 oz. silken tofu
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used soy)
1/2 cup coconut creme (see note)
1/2 cup sugar (I used turbinado)
1 Tbsp matcha powder

In a blender, blend all ingredients until completely smooth. Chill in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours. Churn in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Eat immediately for soft-serve consistency, or place in the freezer for a few hours to harden.

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Green Tea Ice Cream Sandwiches

I am treating my cooking deficiency. For therapy today, I made green tea ice cream and ginger cookies, and then made them into ice cream sandwiches.

I first made the base for the green tea ice cream so it could cool in the fridge while I baked the cookies. I'll be posting the recipe in the next few days.

Ice cream ingredients, hmmm.....

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I miss my Vita-mix :(

Tonight, I decided to make a green tea smoothie. I bought some vanilla frozen yogurt, got some ice, and threw it in a blender with some matcha powder.

I was hoping for a creamy, smooth smoothie, but I got icy slush instead. Granted, I did add too much ice, but the damn blender just wouldn't get it smooth enough! Also, I didn't want to make too much noise and disturb my suite mates who are probably hard at work studying for finals (ignore the fact that I'm not). I gave up, and scooped my green tea slush in a bowl, and ate it with a spoon. It was still sweet, green tea-y, and yummy, so not a total failure.

At times like these, I really miss my Vita-mix blender. IMHO, the Vita-mix is the best blender out there. Actually, that is not my humble opinion. That is a fact. The Vita-mix is THE best blender. Full disclosure: I was not paid to say that (though I would gladly say it again for some moolah ;) ) I had mine for a year, and it is one of my most used appliances. It is so versatile, not just for smoothies, too. You can make hot soup in it. Yes, you can actually cook in it, that's how powerful it is. None of this slushy nonsense.

I'll be going home soon, and you can bet that I'll be blending up smoothies, ice cream, soups, sauces, nut butters (still need to try this). I'm so excited to go home because I can cook, in an actual kitchen. YES, five more days.

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Summer Memories: Part 1

I've had some pictures left on the back burner that I never got to post. Among the many things I made over the summer, I made green tea ice cream.
I fell in love with green tea ice cream the first time I tried it. That was quite a few years ago, and I think I had it either in a Japanese restaurant or we bought a pint of Haagen Daz. Either way, green tea ice cream was a rare treat since it was hard to find in the grocery stores and we didn't frequent Japanese restaurants. Also, when I did find it in the freezer of an Asian store, the quality of the ice cream was sub par. It would either be icy or just off-tasting. Some had crap ingredients like Blue No. 1. Good green tea ice cream has the distinct taste of grassy matcha tea and the green color is purely from the tea. The flavour is pretty delicate, so it shouldn't be masked with any off flavours. The texture should have a rich mouth feel. This isn't a light, low fat ice cream.

Wish I could eat this right off the computer screen

The green tea ice cream I made was a custard based ice cream, meaning that there are eggs in it that thickens the base. That is how you make ice cream with a rich, creamy mouth feel. Yum. 

I also used a good quality matcha powder. Don't skimp on the powder, because it makes or breaks the ice cream.

Awesome ice cream making ingredients

What is unusual about this ice cream is that I used whole eggs, instead of just the yolks. Some custard ice creams have a scary amount of yolks, and I didn't want to have a ton of egg whites left over, so I just used the whole eggs.

Green Tea Ice Cream

1 cup milk

2 cups heavy whipping cream

3 whole eggs

2/3 cup sugar

2 Tbsp matcha powder

In a blender, blend the milk, eggs, sugar, and matcha powder together. Alternatively, whisk the ingredients very well in a large bowl. 

Pour the mixture into a large saucepan and add 1 cup of heavy whipping cream. Gently heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring very frequently. Keep an eye on the mixture, so that the bottom doesn't burn or boil over. Do NOT let it boil, you just want to cook it so that it thickens slightly. It will be done when the base is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon in an opaque layer. Chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

Had a little ice cream base left over

When the ice cream mixture is thoroughly chilled, churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacture's directions. I churned mine in my Cuisinart for about 25-30 minutes. When it is done, place the ice cream in the freezer to harden.

Go, ice cream maker, go!

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