What do you do when your mom makes an angel food cake and kindly asks you to dispose of seven eggs yolks? Since I was gifted with an ice cream attachment for my KitchenAid mixer for my birthday this year (something that I was eyeing for a VERY long time, trust me), the first thing that came to my mind was some sort of ice cream.
I was planning on making David Lebovitz’s Vanilla Ice Cream, but it only called for five egg yolks; faced with this sort of dilemma, I did what I normally do: throw caution to the wind, modify the recipe and pray for the best.
Pulling out several tupperware cups’ worth of heavy cream and milk out of the freezer and defrosting them, I realized I only had 1 cup of heavy cream and 1.5 cups of whole milk; at this point, I just thought “to hell with it” and soldiered on with the custard preparation. I remembered there was a jar of matcha powder languishing in the pantry, and at the last moment, decided to throw two tablespoons into the cream mixture to turn it into a matcha ice cream.
1) Sister scooping ice cream after lunch. 2) Dad’s portion, in a paper dixie bowl and topped with slivered almonds, cause that’s how he rolls.
Despite all my changes, the ice cream froze and scooped wonderfully. Even after a few days in the freezer, it was still scoopable; the matcha taste was definitely there but not overpowering. My dad, who loves super fatty-creamy ice cream, deemed this my best ice cream yet. I’d like to think I was just lucky. :)
Frankenstein Matcha Ice Cream (adapted from David Lebovitz’s Vanilla Ice Cream)
Makes about 1 quart.
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons matcha powder
- 1.5 cups whole milk
- 7 egg yolks (but can probably decrease this to five with no ill effects)
- 3/4 cups superfine sugar (I just take granulated sugar and pulverize it in a coffee grinder)
- 1 vanilla bean or, in a pinch, 2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
- Whisk together the matcha powder and heavy cream in a bowl. If using the vanilla extract, stir this in now. Set aside.
- Heat the whole milk, salt and sugar in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of a paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk. (If using vanilla extract, do not add it at this point; you would have added it to the cream mixture).
- Stir together the egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add some of the warmed milk, stirring constantly as you pour. (This tempers the yolks so that you don’t end up with scrambled eggs). Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.
- Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. Strain the custard into the heavy cream mixture. Rinse the vanilla bean and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping.
- Chill thoroughly, then remove the vanilla bean and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
That looks delicious. It’s almost 2 in the morning where I am, and I still want it. : )
whoa, that looks so good. I especially like the pic in the dixie bowl with the almonds… that’s how I’d roll too.. with the almonds, not so much with the disposable bowl. nice work!
That is some seriously delicious lookin’ ice cream you got going on there! Good work!
thank goodness you saved ‘em yolks! :D AH! my favourite ice cream flavour - well ok it comes in second after pistachio. anyway i really am addicted to matcha.
but after reading this and drooling all over the laptop, i feel pretty bad about chucking away 3 egg whites today. it’s really not much but then again i could’ve used em to whip something. x
Since matcha has a strong flavour - did the vanilla taste appear at all? Second comment, why did you add matcha before cooking (heating fades the powder color)?.
Thanks guys :)
@diva: I love pistachio flavor too! If pistachios weren’t so expensive where I live, I’d try making pistachio ice cream too.
@Eva: Sorry if my instructions weren’t clear; for that very reason, I actually whisked the matcha into the heavy cream; the milk/sugar/eggs custard preparation was the one that was cooked. Right before I chilled the ice cream, I mixed the cream/matcha mixture with the custard preparation along with the vanilla. Hope this helps :) The matcha was definitely the dominant flavor, but I felt that the vanilla added a sweet note to the otherwise bitter matcha taste.
Xie-xie! :)
@Eva: No problem!