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:
Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
Yuzu Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 4 large egg yolks
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
- 4 Tbsp yuzu tea (or make your own yuzu marmalade; use more for garnish)
- ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Instructions
- 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 (don't let the milk boil).
- SLOWLY add the warm milk into the egg mixture whisking constantly at the lowest speed (pour in spoonful by the spoonful at the beginning). Once the mixture gets warmed up, slowly pour the rest of the milk and mix it 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 it 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.
