Hojicha Ice Cream (Print Version)

Creamy Japanese dessert with nutty roasted green tea flavor and elegant caramel notes.

# What You'll Need:

→ Dairy

01 - 2 cups heavy cream
02 - 1 cup whole milk

→ Tea

03 - 3 tablespoons hojicha loose leaf tea or 4 hojicha tea bags

→ Egg Mixture

04 - 4 large egg yolks
05 - 2/3 cup granulated sugar
06 - Pinch of fine sea salt

# Directions:

01 - In a saucepan, combine milk and heavy cream. Heat over medium heat until steaming but not boiling.
02 - Add hojicha tea to the hot dairy mixture. Reduce heat to low, cover, and steep for 10 minutes to infuse the tea flavor.
03 - Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, pressing the tea leaves gently to extract maximum flavor. Return the infused milk to the saucepan.
04 - In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, granulated sugar, and fine sea salt until the mixture becomes pale and slightly thickened.
05 - Slowly pour approximately 1 cup of the warm hojicha infusion into the egg yolk mixture while whisking constantly to gradually raise the temperature and prevent scrambling.
06 - Pour the tempered egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining hojicha-infused milk, stirring to blend thoroughly.
07 - Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon and reaches 170 to 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
08 - Strain the custard into a clean bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours until completely chilled.
09 - Transfer the chilled custard mixture to an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions until it reaches soft-serve consistency.
10 - Transfer the churned ice cream to an airtight freezer container and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

# Expert Tips:

01 -
  • The flavor tastes sophisticated and rare, like something you'd order at an upscale tea house, but it's just hojicha doing what it does best.
  • It's naturally vegetarian and gluten-free, which means you're not sacrificing anything to include everyone at the table.
  • Once chilled, the actual work is over—the ice cream maker handles the rest while you do something else entirely.
02 -
  • The tempering step is not optional—it's what saves you from accidentally scrambling the eggs, which would ruin everything; pour slowly and whisk without stopping.
  • Don't skip the 4-hour chill time; warm custard churns into grainy ice cream, cold custard becomes silky.
03 -
  • If you can't find loose leaf hojicha, hojicha powder works—use 2 tablespoons whisked directly into the warm milk instead of steeping—though loose leaf gives a slightly cleaner flavor.
  • A pinch of matcha powder whisked into the finished ice cream before freezing creates a beautiful two-tone flavor that tastes like green tea meeting roasted tea.
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