Anyone who knows me knows that I have a deep love for bubble tea, particularly taro milk tea. There’s something about the slight nuttiness and vanilla flavor of taro combined with slightly bitter, rich milk tea that is transformative. Since we’ve been having particularly warm weather on the east coast, I decided to give my oven a break and take taro ice cream to the next level by adding milk tea to the mix.
Taro root can be found in most Asian grocery stores. For this recipe, I precook taro in the microwave and then saute it on the stove to remove excess moisture and bring out its flavor. The taro is then blended with milk tea and sugar, strained and mixed with cream to form a nutty, creamy, and tea-flavored ice cream.
You can use black tea or jasmine tea for this milk tea ice cream recipe, or leave the tea out if you’d just like plain taro ice cream. This ice cream is the perfect way to enjoy the essence of taro milk tea on a hot day. If you’re feeling fancy, you can also cook up some tapioca pearls in dark brown sugar and use them as a sauce to complete the bubble tea effect.
If you’re a fan of slightly savory, nutty desserts, you can also check out my black sesame panna cotta.
Taro Milk Tea Ice Cream
Course: Cakes and custardsDifficulty: Baking session1
quart30
minutes10
minutesIf you’re a bubble tea lover, look no further than this taro milk tea ice cream! This ice cream is decadently creamy and combines the nuttiness of fresh taro with the rich flavor of black tea for the perfect summer dessert.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (250g) grated taro
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup (245g) whole milk
3 black tea bags (Ceylon, Assam, English Breakfast or other similar Black tea)
1/4 cup (50g) white sugar
1/2 cup (100g) brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
2 cups cold heavy cream
Instructions
- Since taro skin contains toxins that can be irritating, use gloved hands to peel the taro. Slice into chunks and pulse into a food processor until grated. The taro should resemble coleslaw at this point.
- Pre-cook the taro slightly by microwaving the grated taro with approximately 2 tablespoons of water for 2-2.5 minutes until slightly softened.
- Meanwhile, in a small pot, heat the milk with the tea bags until simmering. Then turn off the heat, cover, and let steep for 5 minutes. Press the remaining tea out of the tea bags using the back of a spoon and then discard.
- In a saute pan on medium heat, melt the butter and add in the taro. Saute for five minutes while stirring frequently, allowing the taro to get slightly browned. Stir in the milk tea, turn the heat to low, cover and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add both sugars, vanilla and salt to the mixture and blend using an immersion blender or in a standard blender until there are no large chunks of taro. Strain out the remaining small chunks.
- Place the two cups of cold heavy cream into a bowl. Stir in the strained mixture until well-blended. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions and freeze.
Notes
- Once frozen after churning, this ice cream will get quite hard and will need to be set out for a few minutes to soften before serving.
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