Sawaddee ka welcome to hot thai kitchen so today i'm making creamy thai tea ice cream bars using no
machines but instead we're going to use a special ingredient that's going to keep the ice cream
soft and smooth without churning it's actually an old-school thai method that i really think
deserves a comeback let's get started first order of business we need to prep the mold because ice
cream is going to go from the stove into the mold right away so you're not going to have time later
so you can use popsicle molds of course but to do it the traditional way you can use any old
rectangular dish and then we're going to cut it into pieces later and yes indeed in thai
this is called Itim Tud which means cut ice cream and to prep the dish i simply oiled the dish
and then line it with parchment paper and the oil is going to help the parchment stick to the side
and then you want a lot of overhang because you're going to use that to pull out the ice cream later
and just secure the sides with some paper clip that's all that's out of the way now
let's brew the tea but first i need to boil water which i have not done so cut
let's brew the thai tea so you will need thai tea leaves which you can buy at any asian grocery
source any brands will work for this and to brew it's very simple i'm just gonna pour in some
hot off the boiled water give that a stir and now i'm gonna let that steep for five minutes it's
been five minutes i'm gonna strain it now because there is orange food coloring in here you want
to line your counter with something because this could stain okay pro tip i'm gonna pour this into
a fine mesh strainer the finest one that you have preferably something bigger
it's okay and then you want to push out as much liquid as possible without being obsessive about
it there we go and you should end up with a little more than a cup of liquid you don't want to use
this right away because there's a lot of really fine tea dust in thai tea so you want to let it
sit for just a minute or so to let all that dust settle so we don't pour that into the ice cream
while the dust settles let's deal with our special ingredient the secret to keeping ice
cream soft without a machine is tapioca starch yes and i'm using pine bran today who is also
our sponsor pine brand's flagship product is glass noodles which you've seen me use on the
show many times but they also make high quality tapioca starch that is pure with no additives and
i love their sturdy packaging which means i don't have to worry about flour leaking in my shopping
bag which i'm sure many of you can relate to tapioca is very versatile you can use it in
sweet and savory dishes i'll link to some recipes in the description but one of the most unexpected
uses of it is in keeping ice cream soft and i'll explain how that works in a minute we first want
to dissolve the starch by adding just some of our evaporated milk just enough so you can whisk it
you want to make sure all the lumps are gone before you add it to the pot
this could be any liquid that you're using by the way but i don't want to use the tea
because the tea is hot right now and it might cook the starch when you add to it so you want
to use cold or room temperature liquid and now i'm going to add this to our pot
followed by the rest of our evaporated milk and i made it so that this recipe uses up
a whole can of evaporated milk you're welcome for sweetness i'm going to add sweetened condensed
milk which is a key ingredient in thai tea and also a whole can how convenient right
i'm going to add some whipping cream for some creaminess and a little bit of salt
to balance all of that sweetness it's very very important do not forget the salt instead
of the whipping cream if you want something lighter you can go with milk or half and half
but the lower fat you go the icier and the harder the ice cream is going to be
which is not necessarily a bad thing especially if you're looking for something more refreshing
like more popsicle-ish but for me i'm looking for rich and creamy so whipping cream it is now i'm
gonna add our tea in and i'm just gonna pour it through my fine mesh skimmer one more time
just in case you don't really need it but make sure you hold back on the last little bit
where most of the dust is straight into the sink for no stains give everything a stir
to dissolve the condensed milk it's looking like thai tea already right like this is the
color right here and yes you can make this any other flavor that you want the technique applies
and i'll write more about that in the blog post so now that it's all dissolved i'm going to turn
the heat on just medium and then i'm going to keep stirring and it's very important that you
do not stop stirring because otherwise the starch is going to settle at the bottom and the ice cream
is not going to be thickened evenly what you want to do is bring this to a full boil and completely
cook the starch and it's going to thicken our ice cream base this is the key technique right here
so i'm waiting for two signs the first sign is it's going to start to bubble which means it's
reaching a boiling temperature and i'm looking for the thickness to stabilize so i'm cooking
and i'm cooking it's getting thicker and thicker and then it doesn't get any thicker anymore which
means the starch has done all the job that it can see when i stop it's starting to bubble
can you see the bubbles you can see movement there we go i'm seeing bubbles around the edges
and it hasn't gotten thicker in the last little while so i know that this is now done
i'm turning it off what's happening here is as the starch cooks it absorbs some liquid and it gels
up and in doing so it prevents that water from becoming frozen into ice crystals so that's how
starch works to help keep ice cream soft rather than freezing into a hard icy block now this is
not a unique technique to thailand there are many cultures around the world that use some sort of
starch to help improve the texture of their ice cream and i'll write more about that in the blog
okay the skin is going to form on this really quickly as you can see not to worry but this is
why we want to have our mold ready because it will get thicker and thicker as it cools and as it gets
thicker it will be hard for you to get a smooth surface when you pour it into your mold i'm going
to spoon this into my popsicle mold first and i love this popsicle mold because it's so small
and it's so cute and it's just the right snack size and now the traditional cut ice cream one
and see how it's super thick if this gets cold you won't be able to smooth the top
so right now it's hot enough that if i let it settle
the top will smooth out but if it's really cold you get lumpy bits we're gonna see some bubbles
we can just use a toothpick to get rid of those and that'll settle and smooth out as it sits
and that's it now you want to let this cool to room temperature before sticking it into
your freezer so as to not melt anything else in your freezer and then we're going to cut it
up so here's one that i made yesterday and to take this out you want to run the thin knife or
spatula along the sides without the parchment and then carefully lift the parchment overhang
you can run hot water under it to get it come out but i try not to do that because this melts pretty
easily and and it can you can go overboard really easily oh here we go i got it i got it i got this
yay
okay
now that that's over you can trim off the edges if you like for a clean cut and then
you can just cut it into whatever size you want and because of that starch the ice cream is soft
enough that yes you can just cut right through it the traditional way is to make rectangles
and then you use a wooden skewer to insert and there's your stick peel it off from the parchment
and there you go this is like classic traditional old school style right here if you want you can
also cut it into little cubes let me set this down for a second oh my god so cute imagine
this at a party you know you don't have to commit to like a big ice cream you can have a little one
how cute is that look at it moment of truth i want you to see how easily i can bite through this
look at that
it's so good oh it's just like a texture like you've never had before it's creamy it's soft
but because of the tapioca starch it's a little bit chewy and i mean that in the best possibly i
mean like this is ice cream you can chew which is awesome it melts perfectly the sweetness the thai
tea everything is coming through just right this is revolutionary right here i mean when was the
last time you made creamy ice cream simply by cooking something on the stove and freezing it
it's incredible so i hope you give this a try the recipe as always will be on
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thank you as always for watching and i will see you next time for your next delicious thai meal