Green Tea Ice Cream Recipe

"Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone."
 - Jim Fiebiq

Who said ice cream was only for the young? People of all age groups enjoy a cone of ice cream during any time of the year. To add more variety to our favorite dessert, many flavors have been introduced to it. One of the many flavors that has gained popularity in recent times is green tea. It is a Japanese specialty made with 'matcha', which is a special type of green tea, that is prepared at the Japanese tea ceremony. It is well-known in Japan and also in some countries in East Asia. It was introduced in the United States of America in the late 1950s, and has become a popular ice cream flavor among Americans.

Green tea ice cream is now being manufactured by many companies. However, with the introduction of cheap ice-cream-making machines, it has become a simple task to make this at home.

• Eggs, 3
• Milk, 1¼ cups
• Green tea powder (matcha), 2 tablespoons
• Boiling water, 2 tablespoons
• Double (heavy) cream, 1¼ cups
• Vanilla pod, ½
• Sugar, 3 tablespoons
• Caster sugar, ¼ cup

Boil water in a pan and add sugar and green tea (or 'matcha') to it. Take the pan off the heat and let the mixture stand for at least 12 minutes. Break the eggs in a mixing bowl, whip it with the caster sugar and set aside. Heat the milk in a cooking pan and add the vanilla pod to it. When it simmers, take it off the flame and pour it into the green tea mixture. After 5-6 minutes, pour this through a strainer into the bowl containing sugar-egg mixture.

Take another pan and pour the whole mixture into it. Keep it on low heat and stir, continuously. Take it off the flame when it turns into a thick batter. Fill a large vessel with cold water and dip the bottom of the pan into it, to cool the mixture. After it cools down, pour the double (heavy) cream into it and stir, briefly.

If you have an ice cream maker at home, just place the whole mixture into it. Follow the instructions and then keep the mix in the freezer, after storing it in an airtight container. Serve when the ice cream hardens, top it off with a cherry.

If you do not have an ice cream maker, you can still make a delicious batch at home. Here's how:

After you add the double cream, put the ice cream in a large container and place it in the refrigerator. After two hours, transfer the container to the freezer. While following this method, you will have to stir the ice cream every 15 minutes, so that ice crystals do not form. Repeat this once or twice until it hardens.