Matcha Lychee Ice Cream

Exotically delicious, this matcha lychee ice cream is smooth and creamy and sure to please.

I have always loved exotic and tropical fruits like lychees and coconuts; and I love ice cream and green tea. So, why not combine all of my favorite things into something new and exotic, a homemade matcha lychee ice cream.

For those who are unfamiliar with matcha, it is a green tea powder obtained from finely grinding up the highest quality green tea leaves. Matcha is used in japanese tea ceremonies, and can be made into tea, lattes, or, of course, ice cream.

Lychees are an asian fruit with a rough skin, but a sweet, white pulp similar to a grape. The taste is also somewhat similar to a grape, but most people describe it as being more of a “perfumed” flavor. I love the fruit, and always buy as many as I can afford when they are available because they also freeze very well. If you freeze them with the skin on, they are even excellent eaten frozen, almost like having a very natural sorbet.

We have a lychee tree planted in our garden in the hen run, but haven’t obtained fruit from it yet, despite getting some flowers this year; of course, our tree is still pretty young. In any case the hens seem to enjoy it for it’s shade.

You already know that I love coconuts, and love to make coconut milk and butter on a regular basis. In actuality I have to admit that this time I used a can, and I used a can on lychees, despite having found some fresh lychees at the farmers market last week.

Why would you used canned!?!?!, you ask…

Well, to be quite honest, I have stopped buying and using canned anything, and I was just noticing that the best before dates on everything in my pantry are starting to go by. Rather than completely waste the food, I decided to say my farewell to cans by mixing up a recipe that allows me to use several at once. Next time I will be making this recipe completely from scratch!

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Matcha Lychee Ice Cream

Exotically delicious, this matcha lychee ice cream is smooth and creamy and sure to please.

5 from 3 votes

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Freeze time (depends on method): 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Servings: 6 half cup servings

Calories: 346kcal

Author: Tracy Ariza, DDS

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cups coconut milk perfect use for homemade coconut milk!
• ▢ 1 cup heavy cream
• ▢ 2 eggs
• ▢ 1/2 cup honey or other sweetener, adjust to taste.
• ▢ 2 Tbsp. matcha
• ▢ 12 lychees

Instructions

• Peel the lychees and remove the seeds. If you want to have some lychee pieces in the ice cream, reserve 2-3 lychees for adding later.
• Blend together he rest of the ingredients, adding the honey or other sweetener to taste. Blend in the majority of the lychees until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
• If you have reserseved some lychees, finelly chop them and hand stir the pieces into the cream mixture.
• If your ingredients were at room temperature, refrigerate the mixture until it is cold before adding it to your ice cream maker. (If using a no-churn method, this step isn't necessary.)
• Pour the cold ice cream mixture into your ice cream maker, and process according to the directions for your model until you have ice cream.
• Depending on you rice cream maker, you may need to place the finished ice cream into the freezer for a short time to help firm it up (or serve immediately with a soft-serve texture).

For no-churn ice cream

• Add the mixture to a freeze-safe container and place in the freezer. For best results, occasionally break up frozen bits, mixing them into the rest of the mixture. This ensures a creamier ice cream.

Notes

If you don’t have fresh lychees, you can use canned. 

I prefer to use homemade coconut milk, but you can also use regular milk or packaged coconut milk. 

How to pasteurize eggs

While the risk of salmonella poisoning is low, there is some risk when consuming raw eggs. To avoid issues, you can pasteurize your raw eggs before using them in recipes.

To pasteurize eggs, place them in a pot and cover them with water. Heat the pan until the water reaches 138-140ºF/59-60ºC. Keep the water at that temperature for at least 3 minutes. (If eggs are very large, do it for 5 minutes.)

Don’t allow the temperature to get much hotter than that or you will end up cooking your eggs!

After the time has passed, remove the eggs from the hot water and cool them by rinsing them with cool water. You can use them immediately or store them in the fridge until needed.

 

Course Desserts

Cuisine Asian

Special Diets Gluten Free

Keyword Ice cream

Tried this recipe? Tag me today!Mention @thethingswellmake or tag #thethingswellmake!

Serving: 0.5cups | Calories: 346kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 109mg | Sodium: 42mg | Potassium: 182mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 912IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 43mg | Iron: 3mg

I used a little less than 1/2 cup of honey, but I found it to be a little bit sweet for my taste. I am not a sweet tooth, though. I imagine that most people would like it like that. Feel free to adapt the quantity to your personal taste, though.

While I did use an ice cream maker, mine isn’t a very good one (I would much prefer the one in the link). So, my ice cream didn’t completely set up and I had to place it in the freezer. The texture was still creamy, so I imagine that you would be able to make this ice cream perfectly without an ice cream maker.

The next morning I tried it and loved it. Unfortunately, my husband wasn’t hooked, but he doesn’t like green tea and only does chocolate ice cream. So, what did I expect?!?!? He had some chocolate mousse waiting for him anyway.

More for me!