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This matcha mint stracciatella ice cream perfectly exemplifies spring: it’s light, fresh, minty, and the prettiest pastel green.
The flavor profile is fabulous; the base layer is a standard vanilla bean custard, layered with fresh mint, a hint of matcha, and dark chocolate.
Flavor & Stracciatella
Despite already having a solid base ice cream recipe, I went through almost a month of recipe development with this specific flavor.
I wanted to use whole mint for both flavor and color in this ice cream, which tastes amazing, adds a lot more complexity to the flavor than mint extract, and yields the prettiest light pastel green. However, this ice cream with just mint alone felt a little flat. Adding a hint of matcha rounds out the flavor and covers the slight vegetal note of the fresh mint.
Flavor aside, the stracciatella aspect of this ice cream is key.
Stracciatella (“rags” or “shards” in Italian) is an Italian technique where melted chocolate is drizzled directly into churning custard, resulting in delicate frozen chocolate flakes in every bite of ice cream (it’s magical).
One thing about this technique is that you need an ice cream maker where the base bowl spins instead of the blades. Otherwise, the chocolate will stick to the moving blades, and it’ll be a mess. For example, this doesn’t work with the KitchenAid ice bowl.
This isn’t a hard rule, though. I do have an alternative solution that works just as well: Melt the chocolate, and using an offset spatula, spread it in a thin layer on a large parchment-lined sheet pan. Freeze, break the chocolate into tiny shards, and fold into the churned ice cream.
Ingredients You’ll Need for this Matcha Mint Stracciatella Ice Cream
- Egg yolks: Most grocery store large eggs yield an ~18g yolk; however, if you’re using smaller eggs or eggs from the farmer’s market, the yield will differ. So if you really want to get granular, weigh your yolks.
- Heavy cream and milk OR homemade nut milk: This recipe works with both dairy and non-dairy milk/cream. I’ve left detailed instructions in the recipe card for my homemade nut milk that I use for this recipe. If you’re using regular dairy, you’ll need heavy cream and milk (ideally 2% milk).
- Honey: Honey can be an overpowering flavor, so I always go for a light floral honey (clover is my favorite). A good rule of thumb is that the lighter the honey, the milder it’ll be. Alternatively, you can make this with cane sugar; details are in the recipe card.
- Fresh mint
- Matcha: I used the Sayaka matcha from Ippodo Tea — it’s a bright and zippy matcha that’s perfect for this ice cream.
- 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate: Lately, I’ve been going with 85% cacao dark chocolate for this ice cream. I love the bitter note it adds.
- Ground vanilla or vanilla paste
- Kosher salt, specifically Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Method Behind this Ice Cream + Copious Notes
Make the Custard Base
Whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl and set aside.
Add the cream and milk or the homemade nut milk into a large pot, along with the honey, vanilla, and salt. Heat over medium heat until it’s gently steaming, stirring occasionally. Once hot, reduce the heat to medium-low.
Scoop about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture out, and, whisking constantly, stream it into the bowl of egg yolks. Repeat this three more times to temper the eggs. Then, whisking the milk mixture constantly, stream in the tempered eggs. Switch to a rubber spatula/large wooden spoon, and stir constantly (I typically stir the mixture every 10 seconds) until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. This could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, depending on how high the heat is.
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl or pitcher to catch any egg white bits. Then place the custard base in an ice bath, stirring constantly until cool.
Pour the custard base into a high-speed blender, along with the mint leaves and matcha. Blend on low, slowly ramping up the speed to high. Blend on high for 1 minute or until the mint is finely blended — avoid over blending, as it’ll incorporate air bubbles into the custard and, if you’re using dairy, potentially whip the cream. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a pitcher or bowl to catch any large mint chunks and matcha clumps. Cover the base with plastic wrap or a lid and place in the fridge overnight.
Churn the Ice Cream & Freeze
Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool slightly. You can either stream the chocolate directly from the bowl/pot into the churning ice cream (this is what I normally do); you do need to control the chocolate stream, as it needs to be super thin. Alternatively, for more control, you can pour the chocolate into a piping bag/plastic bag, and stream it in like that. Note: You can do this stracciatella method with certain machines. Any machine that has the blade spinning will be problematic; the chocolate will stick to the blades instead of churning into the ice cream (for example, this doesn’t work with the KitchenAid ice cream attachment). However, I do have an alternative solution that works just as well: Melt the chocolate, and using an offset spatula, spread it in a thin layer on a large parchment-lined sheet pan. Freeze, break the chocolate into tiny shards, and fold into the churned ice cream.
Strain the chilled custard once more before churning to catch any errant air bubbles/mint pieces. Churn the ice cream as normal, but once it starts to crystallize, start streaming in the chocolate. Keep the chocolate stream thin.
Once the chocolate is streamed in, let the ice cream continue to churn for a few more minutes or until done, to break up the chocolate bits further. Pop the ice cream into your container and let it chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
Watch the Recipe
So excited for you to make this ice cream. Don’t forget to leave a starred rating and review — love hearing your feedback.
Happy ice cream making!
Print
Matcha Mint Stracciatella Ice Cream
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Chilling/Freeze Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 24 hours 45 minutes
- Yield: 1 quart 1x
- Category: Dessert
Description
This matcha mint stracciatella ice cream perfectly exemplifies spring: it’s light, fresh, minty, and the prettiest pastel green.
Ingredients
- 5 or 90g large egg yolks (~18g per yolk)
- 2 cups (480g) heavy cream and 1 ¼ cups (300g) milk) OR 3 ¼ cups (760 g) homemade nut milk (see below)*
- 1/2 cup (150 g) honey (sub with cane sugar 1 cup (100g) cane sugar)
- 1/2 tsp ground vanilla (sub with vanilla bean paste or 1 fresh vanilla bean)
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt (I used Diamond Crystal)
- 22g mint leaves
- 1 tsp tsp matcha , sifted (I used the Sayaka matcha from Ippodo Tea)
- 2 oz 70% cacao dark chocolate
Instructions
Make the custard base
- Whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Heat the milk mixture. Add the cream and milk or the homemade nut milk into a large pot, along with the honey, vanilla, and salt. Heat over medium heat until it’s steaming, stirring occasionally. Once hot, reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Temper the eggs & cook the custard. Scoop about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture out, and, whisking constantly, stream it into the bowl of egg yolks. Repeat this three more times to temper the eggs. Then, whisking the milk mixture constantly, stream in the tempered eggs. Switch to a rubber spatula/large wooden spoon, and stir constantly (I typically stir the mixture every 10 seconds) until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. This could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, depending on how high the heat is.
- Cool the custard. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl or pitcher to catch any egg white bits. Then place the custard base in an ice bath, stirring constantly until cool.
- Blend in the mint and matcha. Pour the custard base into a high-speed blender, along with the mint leaves and matcha. Blend on low, slowly ramping up the speed to high. Blend on high for 1 minute or until the mint is finely blended — avoid over blending, as it’ll incorporate air bubbles into the custard and, if you’re using dairy, potentially whip the cream. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a pitcher or bowl to catch any large mint chunks and matcha clumps. Cover the base with plastic wrap or a lid and place in the fridge overnight.
Churn the ice cream & freeze
- Melt the chocolate. Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool slightly. You can either stream the chocolate directly from the bowl/pot into the churning ice cream (this is what I normally do); you do need to control the chocolate stream, as it needs to be super thin. Alternatively, for more control, you can pour the chocolate into a piping bag/plastic bag, and stream it in like that. Note: You can do this stracciatella method with certain machines. Any machine with a spinning blade will be problematic; the chocolate will stick to the blades instead of churning into the ice cream (for example, this doesn’t work with the KitchenAid ice cream attachment). Alternative in the recipe notes.
- Stream the melted chocolate into the ice cream. Strain the chilled custard once more before churning to catch any errant air bubbles/mint pieces. Churn the ice cream as normal, but once it starts to crystallize, start streaming in the chocolate. Keep the chocolate stream thin.
- Finish churning & freeze. Once the chocolate is streamed in, let the ice cream continue to churn for a few more minutes or until done, to break up the chocolate bits further. Pop the ice cream into your container and let it chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
Notes
*Make the homemade nut milk by blending together 4 cups (910 g) of water with 1 1/2 cups (215 g) of raw cashews and 1 cup (140 g) of raw almonds on high for 1 minute and 30 seconds or until super creamy and smooth. Strain in a nut milk bag and store in a glass jar. It’ll keep well for 5-6 days so feel free to make this ahead of time.
To achieve the same results without streaming the chocolate into the churning ice cream, melt the chocolate, and using an offset spatula, spread it in a thin layer on a large parchment-lined sheet pan. Freeze, break the chocolate into tiny shards, and fold into the churned ice cream.
Hi. Lovely texture and flavor profile. May I know that ice cream churner name or link please? Thank you