Matcha white chocolate ice cream

More ice cream; this time it’s the creamiest, softest ice cream as claimed by Heston Blumenthal, published a good many years ago in one of the weekend supplements.

Surprise, surprise, it’s eggless. Very simple in fact, if you overlook the precise temperature measurements and the length of chilling time. A mix of cream and milk plus sugar or another sweetening agent (like white chocolate in this instance) and if you have a good churning machine, a great result, I expect. 

The fact, I suspect, is that not many of us own proper state-of-the-art Gaggia or Sage (as advertised by Mr B). We either look for no-churn or resignedly dump the clunky bucket in the freezer, forget about it and retrieve a month later. We pour our mix in presto, lest the machine warm up too much, the paddle swirls away – and gets stuck about 5 minutes later. The ice cream clings in solid stalagmites to the sides and neither brute force nor pleading can prise it off, let alone churn further and soften.

I was making the ice cream below in two version: the original vanilla, using my last precious pod (don’t even start it with essence) and the matcha white chocolate. The vanilla went first and did precisely what’s described above. I didn’t give up – I attacked it with hand mixer, stick blender, ice pick and black magic. The first two tools managed to blitz it respectably.

The matcha went next, half-heartedly as I was sure nothing good would come out of it, considering the vanilla struggle and the not-so-frozen any more bucket. Well, well, was I in for a surprise. Smooth, creamy, churned to perfection, frozen but soft, there was no fault with this concoction.

The trick is very simple: freeze your bucket but let it stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes before you start churning. The sides will still be freezing the mix but not so abruptly; and the paddle will turn far more happily and far longer. No rush, that’s the secret. Who would have thought?