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Treat yourself with this sweet and refreshing homemade yuzu ice cream made with yuzu cha (marmalade).
Yuzu (柚子), a small yellow or green citrus fruit, has become very popular in the United States for the past decade. Many professional chefs have started using this citrus fruit in many imaginative ways. In Japan, yuzu has been around for centuries and it is used extensively in various dishes. With a fragrance that is unmistakable, I simply adore any yuzu flavored foods and one of my favorites is creamy Yuzu Ice Cream.
Easy Yuzu Ice Cream You Can Make At Home
Yuzu is originally from China, but it’s mostly used in Japanese and Korean cuisines. Yuzu’s flavor is tart but it has an amazing aroma; therefore, it is rarely eaten as a fruit. Instead we use its aromatic zest and juice just like how we use lemon for recipes.
I know fresh yuzu is very hard to find outside of Japan and Korea so I thought of using other yuzu products. I like to use bottled yuzu juice for my cooking, but this is also not easy to find if you don’t have a Japanese grocery store nearby. My third option was Korean Yuzu Tea (Yuja Cha, Citron Tea). You can find this product in most Korean and Asian/Japanese grocery stores. Although it is called “yuzu tea”, it’s more like yuzu marmalade. The marmalade is typically made from honey and yuzu fruit. It also includes yuzu zest so it works perfectly for yuzu ice cream.
The ice cream recipe is very easy and the custard is pretty similar to other ice cream recipes I have. The resulting ice cream has the perfect balance of sweet and refreshing citrus flavor. I hope you give it a try especially if you love yuzu!
See More Japanese Flavored Ice Cream:
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- 4 large egg yolks (See Notes)
- ¾ cup sugar (¾ cup = 156g)
- 2 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
- 4 Tbsp Yuzu Tea (or use Yuzu Cha, Yujacha, Citron Tea, use more for garnish)
- Pinch kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt)
-
Gather all the ingredients.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy (it’ll take about 2-3 minutes).
- In a medium saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer (do NOT let the milk boil).
- SLOWLY add the warm milk into the egg mixture whisking constantly at the lowest speed (pour in spoonful by spoonful at the beginning). Once the mixture gets warmed up, slowly pour the rest of milk and mix all together.
- Transfer the custard back into the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a silicon spatula, until thick enough to coat the back of the spatula, about 4-5 minutes or so. NEVER let the custard boil because your custard will turn into scrambled eggs.
- Pour the heavy cream into a medium size glass bowl, set on ice over a larger bowl. Set a mesh strainer on top of the ice bathed heavy cream bowl and pour the custard into the heavy cream.
- Whisk in Yuzu Tea and salt. Stir until cool over the ice bath and chill the custard thoroughly in the refrigerator.
- Pour the custard into ice cream maker and process the mixture in the ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions (usually about 25 minutes). Transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until firm.
- Serve yuzu ice cream and garnish with yuzu tea.
Egg: Need egg white recipes? click here.
Equipment you will need:
How to make this without an ice cream maker, click here.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
So can we use fresh yuzu juice in place of the yuzu tea? Will it change the flavor? We have fresh yuzu from a tree from my Uncle’s house. Thanks for all your oishii recipes!
Yuzu tea is like marmalade texture, and very sweet. If you use fresh yuzu, make sure to add some honey to sweeten. 🙂 I’m so jealous of your uncle’s yuzu tree!
The color of the yuzu ice cream is so pretty! Seeing the photos that you posted makes me want to go out and get some ice cream now… =) Thanks for sharing the recipe for another fantastic summer treat!
Thank you very much Kimmi! Often I do have cravings by reading food blogs. 🙂 Enjoy the rest of summer!
As I now have an ice cream machine I want to try your Yuzu Ice Cream recipe. The problem-where on earth can I get Yuzu around here. Well, I was over at Inno Bakery, yes a Korean Bakery, and there on a shelf was a jar of Yuzu Tea. Thanks to you I know what it is and will be trying your recipe!
I’m glad I talked about the Yuzu Tea! Most Korean stores carry it as they drink it often (melt the marmarlade in hot water). Hope you enjoy yuzu ice cream. So delicious! 🙂
This looks delicious, Nami! Thank you for sharing 🙂
BTW: where did you get the ice cream bowls in the photo? They’re beautiful!
Thanks 🙂
-jenny
Hi Jenny! Thank you so much. 🙂 Those are sake cups – it was one of those (cheap) Japanese sake set that I bought from Japanese ceramic store in the U.S. I’m glad you like them. I wanted to serve this ice cream with more “Japanese” styling and my husband suggested these sake cups. Hehee.
My friends and I enjoy this tea when we are ill. Today is Sumo Sunday – and we always get together to watch the matches over some delicious food. I made this ice cream for today – but may not be sharing it due to the typhoon. I guess I’ll have to console myself with a dish of ice cream! (I was going to compliment it with the Yuzu chuhai.)
Hi Lydia! I drink this tea when I’m ill or have throat ache. 😀 But that made me so addicted that it’s my night time drink sometimes…while blogging. I hope you enjoyed this ice cream! 🙂 I want to join your Sumo Sunday – sounds fun with delicious food!
I live in South Carolina and I have three Yuzu trees in my yard. Maybe 40-50 fruit on them now and they are turning yellow. If anyone wants some, I can send a few by mail or ship them if someone wants to help with the shipping cost. I hate to waste these, but no one around here knows what they are. I make vinaigrette, marmalade, and Yuzu cakes but I also have Ichang Lemons and tangerines more than I can possibly use.
Hi Steve! Yuzu cake! That sounds so delicious! It’s wonderful that you get yuzu in your yard and thank you so much for your kind offer, too! I know who to contact when I need fresh yuzu. 🙂
Hello Nami
Do u have a yuzu sorbet recipe to share, please?
Thank you!
Hi Gina! Yes and here it is:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/yuzu-sorbet/
Is there any steps i need to modify using the kitchenaid stAndmixer ice cream tool for this recipe?
Hi Christina! Sorry I don’t have one, so I am not sure, but KA should have the instructions on how to use it. So please follow it. 🙂
Hi Nami,
Thank you for this recipe. I’m dying to try it as I’m a big fan of yuzu.
Given that I have access to yuzu juice here I would like to use that instead of the yuzu tea. If I were to use straight yuzu juice, do you know how this would affect the recipe and whether I would still use four tablespoons?
Thank you for your help.
Hi Yomow! I’m so happy to hear you like Yuzu and you can get yuzu too!!! Awesome.
Hmm, tough question. Yuzu juice alone is very sour while here in this recipe I use more like Yuzu Marmalade (https://www.justonecookbook.com/yuzu-marmalade/). It’s a lot of trouble to make that to make this ice cream. I think you will need a lot of yuzu juice and zest and additional sugar to replicate this yuzu ice cream flavor. I don’t know how much you will need as I had never tested it with real yuzu juice… sorry…
Hello Nami-San!
I recently bought yuzu juice and dried yuzu zest peels, I was wondering how I can make yuzu ice cream but without the custard part.
HI Malisa! Well… yuzu ice cream requires custard/cream. What you can make is yuzu sorbet? https://www.justonecookbook.com/yuzu-sorbet/
I prepared my first batch last night, using the yuzu marmalade I made (using the recipe found here) the night before. Turned out excellent! Very smooth and creamy, with a well integrated – but not overpowering – yuzu flavor and finish. My total yield after putting the custard through the ice cream maker was enough to fill a 5 cup storage container.
My wife’s only comment was that it was a little bit on the sweet side for her – so maybe next time I make it I’ll use a little less sugar since there is plenty in the marmalade. Perhaps the off-the-shelf yuzu teas have less sugar than the marmalade too?
Hi Brandon! Thank you for trying this recipe and for your detailed feedback. I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it. I remember the store-bought yuzu tea is pretty sweet…but I haven’t had it for a while so my memory could be wrong…