Nigella Lawson’s no-churn matcha ice cream is a three-ingredient frozen dessert made by whisking condensed milk, double cream and green tea powder into a whipped green cream, then freezing overnight. There’s no ice cream maker, no custard and no churning, just a bowl and a whisk, and it sets into a scoopable litre of ice cream straight from the freezer.
The recipe is from Simply Nigella (2015), and it was a happy accident. Nigella invented it on the spot during the book’s photo shoot, simply because the matcha was already out from making her Matcha Cake, and it became one of her absolute favourites. The appeal is a balance between the grown-up bitterness of matcha and the “uncompromisingly childish sweetness” of condensed milk.
That condensed milk is also the technical trick. It’s what makes no-churn ice cream possible, because it’s high in sugar and low in water, so it stops large ice crystals forming as the mixture freezes. Whisk it with the cream to trap air, freeze, and you get a smooth, soft-scoop texture without a machine.
Nigella Lawson No-churn Matcha Ice Cream
Course: DessertCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy8
servings10
minutes255
kcal10
minutesNigella’s off-piste matcha ice cream from Simply Nigella, three ingredients whisked together and frozen, no churning required. Makes about a litre of vivid green, soft-scoop ice cream. She urges you to serve it with a warm chocolate pudding.
Ingredients
½ x 397g tin (150ml) condensed milk
300ml double cream
2 x 15ml tbsp Izu Matcha green tea powder
Directions
- Loosen the condensed milk: Put the condensed milk in a bowl and stir to loosen it.
- Whisk in the cream: Add the double cream and whisk until the mixture begins to thicken.
- Add the matcha: Whisk in the green tea powder until you have a whipped green cream.
- Freeze: Decant into your airtight container or containers and freeze overnight.
- Serve: Take the ice cream out of the freezer to soften for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Freezing Overnight
- Serves About 8 (Nigella gives tub sizes, not servings)
- Kit: 2 x 500ml empty ice-cream tubs or airtight containers (or 1 x 1 litre tub).
FAQs
What matcha should I use?
Nigella specifies Izu Matcha, a Japanese green tea powder, and the quality matters more here than in almost any other ingredient, because there’s nothing to hide behind. A good culinary-grade matcha gives that vivid green colour and the sophisticated, slightly bitter edge that balances the sweet condensed milk.
You don’t need expensive ceremonial-grade matcha, which is meant for whisking into tea, but avoid dull, brownish, cheap powders, which taste flat and muddy the colour. Two tablespoons is a generous amount for real depth of flavour, so buy the best culinary matcha you can, since it’s carrying the whole dessert.
Why does no-churn ice cream work without a machine?
It comes down to what condensed milk does. A traditional ice cream is churned to break up ice crystals as it freezes, which is what a machine is for. Condensed milk sidesteps that, because its high sugar content and low water content stop large crystals forming in the first place, so the ice cream stays smooth and soft-scoop.
The whisking does the second job. Beating the cream and condensed milk together traps air into the mixture, giving it the light, aerated texture that churning would otherwise provide. Between the two, you replicate a machine’s results with a bowl and a whisk, which is why Nigella calls it ridiculously easy.
My matcha went lumpy. How do I get a smooth green?
Matcha clumps easily, and those clumps show up as darker green speckles in the pale ice cream. The fix is to sift the matcha powder before adding it, pushing it through a small fine sieve to break up any lumps, which gives you an even colour and no bitter concentrated pockets.
Whisk it in thoroughly until the cream is a uniform green with no streaks. If you’re worried, you can slacken the matcha with a spoonful of the cream first to make a smooth paste, then whisk that back into the rest. Either way, take your time at this stage, since you can’t fix speckles once it’s frozen.
How far ahead can I make it, and how long does it keep?
It’s a genuine make-ahead dessert. Nigella says you can make and freeze it up to a week ahead, which makes it ideal for planning around a dinner party. After that it’s best eaten within a month, since home-frozen ice cream gradually loses its smooth texture the longer it sits.
One practical point: return any leftovers to the freezer as quickly as possible after serving, because repeated softening and refreezing is what turns no-churn ice cream grainy and icy. Scoop what you need, then get the tub back into the cold straight away rather than leaving it out on the table.
What should I serve it with?
Nigella’s steer is to pair it with something warm and chocolatey, and the Happy Foodie recommends it simply alongside a chocolate brownie. The cool, grassy matcha against warm, dense chocolate is a deliberate contrast, sweet and bitter, hot and cold, which is exactly the kind of pairing she loves.
She goes further in the book, urging you to serve it with the molten chocolate babycakes from How To Be A Domestic Goddess. If you want that warm-pudding-and-cold-ice-cream combination, a scoop melting over her chocolate raspberry pudding cake works beautifully, or serve it simply beside a batch of her brownies.
Can I use a different flavour instead of matcha?
The method is a template, and Nigella uses the same condensed-milk-and-cream base for other no-churn ice creams in her books, including a pomegranate and lime version. So yes, you can swap the matcha for another flavouring, as long as you keep the condensed milk and cream ratios that make it freeze smoothly.
For a dairy-free version, note that Nigella doesn’t give one for this specific recipe, since both the condensed milk and cream are dairy. You’d need to test a plant-based condensed milk and a coconut or oat cream, which changes the flavour and set, so treat that as an experiment rather than a like-for-like swap.
