Tea flavored ice cream returns: Masala Chai

[Ginny Blundy]

So I posted back in August about my Earl Grey flavored ice cream. I had a party this weekend after Thanksgiving and decided that the holiday was the perfect time to experiment with another ice cream flavor that I've been wanting to try: masala chai.

My base ice cream recipe is this one: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/serious-vanilla-ice-cream-recipe/index.html

This time, I altered it in the following ways to make the chai-flavored ice cream:
1. Remove the two Tablespoons of sugar mentioned in the recipe, but don't replace them with peach preserves. There is no need to replace that sugar.
2. After the batter has reached 170 degrees as noted in the recipe, remove it from the heat source and immediately drop 3 bags of chai in. I used Tazo organic chai.

I let the tea steep in the warm batter for about an hour, squeezing the tea bags between two spoons twice during that time. Squeezing is essential to get the tea flavor out into the cream base.

I kept the vanilla bean as a flavoring, because I figured it would complement the chai.

The results were excellent. To me the flavor was like a very spicy gingerbread. I should note that I'm not normally a fan of chai - I mostly made this because I knew my partner would like it. But the very nature of adding tea to so much sugar and cream is that the flavor does change quite dramatically even though at the base of it, you can still taste the chai. So while normally masala chai is a bit more spiced than I like, in the ice cream it was perfect.

At the party a few people noted that it tastes a bit like root beer. One specifically said that it reminded her of a root beer float. I disagree, but mostly because I don't like root beer.

This seems to be an issue of making tea-flavored ice cream - not everyone thinks it tastes like tea. When I made Earl Grey ice cream, some people who tried it said it tasted like Froot Loops. It didn't taste that way to me, but the citrus bergamot flavor definitely rose to the top, which I guess is what they interpreted as Froot Loop-ish.

[Jane_Faye]

Good heavens, this sounds excellent! Chai in forms as well as tea can be nothing but a good idea.

*Bookmarks for next dinner party*

[Ginny Blundy]

I plan to try a green tea ice cream before long, and to retry Earl Grey (perhaps with more tea next time), but I think chai is probably the most ice cream friendly of the lot. The taste is so powerful that it doesn't get diluted that much by all the cream and sugar. Plus, around here it's not that uncommon for people to drink chai with cream or milk anyway, so I think it maintains a lot of its familiar flavor.

I've been thinking of using full leaf tea in the future as well, and just adding it to the cream mixture at the beginning and heating it along with the cream. One problem with tea bags is that in the thick cream batter the tea doesn't easily flow out into the mix, which is why you have to squeeze the bags a few times. I think heating loose tea with the mix and then straining the leaves off would solve this problem.

[Indigo Spire]

Hagen Das makes a Matcha Green Tea ice cream, omg.....it is delicious!  My favorite flavor of all time!
Your Earl Grey flavor sounds terrific.

[Lord Wraste]

Indigo, your powers of resurrection are amazing!


The fun thing about green tea ice cream is the fact that you can get really decent matcha powder and just leave it in.
A friend once worked for a Japanese restaurant that ran out of green tea ice cream. So they improvised by sifting matcha over vanilla.
It was just as good, if not a little better because it had a stronger green tea flavor.

I fully endorse this!

[Indigo Spire]

Indigo, your powers of resurrection are amazing!


The fun thing about green tea ice cream is the fact that you can get really decent matcha powder and just leave it in.
A friend once worked for a Japanese restaurant that ran out of green tea ice cream. So they improvised by sifting matcha over vanilla.
It was just as good, if not a little better because it had a stronger green tea flavor.

I fully endorse this!

Yeah - I will be trying this in about two hours! Thanks for the tip.  Such a simple idea and if it is as good as it sounds .........well let's just say I will need to exercise a lot of restraint!