This pandan ice cream has a wonderful herbaceous pandan flavor and an amazing green color that's totally natural.
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What is pandan?
Pandan is a tropical plant of the screwpine genius. It has long strappy dark green leaves. It is commonly used in South East Asian and Southern Asian cuisine as both a flavoring and green food color. It is used in everything from wrapping chicken into parcels to fry, to desserts and in this case to flavor and color ice cream. It is sometimes referred to as Asian vanilla essence.
Looking for more Asian-inspired desserts? Why not try making my ube cheesecake, matcha cheesecake or matcha ice cream. Delicious!
Or if you're in the mood for more delectable ice cream check out my full collection of Cuisinart ice cream maker recipes (that work well in other brands ice cream makers too!).
🥘 Ingredients
Pandan leaves - available from Asian supermarkets and some fruit and veg stores. Look for long, fresh, firm, unblemished leaves. If you can't get fresh pandan leaves you can use approximately one cup of frozen or two teaspoons of pandan extract. Either way it won't have the same bright, herbaceous notes as the fresh leaves, but it will do in a pinch.
Cream – in Australia I use thicken cream. The key thing is it needs to have a fat content of around 35% or you risk your ice cream being icy.
Milk – gotta be the full cream stuff, so around 3.5% fat. Anything less is going to make your ice cream icy.
Granulated sugar: for both taste and scoop-ability. Granulated or white sugar is best here as it gives a clean taste to the ice cream.
Optional:
Glucose syrup – also called confectioner’s glucose. It's available from some supermarkets or specialty baking stores. A small amount of glucose syrup helps lower the freezer point of ice cream and improves the texture and scoopability of the ice cream. If you can’t get glucose syrup you can substitute it with the same amount of light corn syrup or powdered dextrose, commonly available from brewing shops. Do not add to much or your ice cream will melt in a red-hot minute!
Xanthan gum – sometimes called vegetable gum, is a fermented by-product. It’s used in gluten-free baking and a huge variety of other products to thicken and stabilize food. Its often used by vegans and those with egg allergies as an egg substitute.
You only need a tiny amount, just one gram. It's better to measure this with a pair of digital kitchen scales that go down to .1 grams. If you don’t have scales measure out one-quarter of a teaspoon and make sure it's a flat quarter teaspoon at that.
You can leave it out if you prefer. Your ice cream may be icier, but will still taste delicious!
🔪 How to make pandan ice cream
Wash the pandan leaves well. Cut into pieces approx ½ inch (1cm) long. Add the to the chopping bowl of an immersion blender with the milk and blend for several minutes until well blended. If your chopping bowl is on the small side like mine you can divide the pandan and milk in half and blend it in two batches.
Cover and chill in the fridge for at least four hours, preferably overnight.
Once the pandan is infusing in the milk make the rest of the ice cream base.
Add cream, sugar and glucose syrup if using to a small pot on medium heat. Heat until the mix is just starting to bubble around the edges, then turn down and continue stirring until all the sugars are dissolved.
Turn off the heat and allow it to cool. Refrigerate until your pandan leaves have finished infusing.
Strain the milk-infused pandan over a bowl, pressing down on the pandan leaves to remove as much of the infused milk as possible. Add pandan-infused milk and salt to the rest of ice cream base. Place mix in a deep-sided bowl you can use an immersion blender in.
Measure out xanthan gum if using. If measuring out with a teaspoon and not scales remember you only need a flat ¼ teaspoon of xanthan gum. Use the back of a knife to ensure the teaspoon measure is flat. If you add to much it will make the ice cream gummy and unpleasant.
Put the xanthan gum next to the bowl. With the immersion blender running carefully sprinkle in the xanthan gum. Continue to blend for one minute to ensure the xanthan gum is well mixed in.
Cover and chill well in the fridge for at least four hours, ideally overnight. If using a self-churning machine, turn it on ten minutes before churning to chill, otherwise remove the churning bowl from the freezer just before churning.
Churn the ice cream. It will be the consistency of soft serve when done.
Transfer to a chilled container and freeze until firm.
💭 How to serve:
To serve remove from the freezer, scoop and enjoy! Great on its own or with some toasted coconut. Delicious!
💭 How to store:
You can store this ice cream in an air-tight container in the freezer for up to a week for the best texture. It will still taste good after this but may become icier over time.
Have you made this recipe? Tell me how it when in the comment below and tag me on instagram so I can see your delicious creations! #KCAEIC
Looking for more yummy dessert recipes?
Why not try making
- Mint choc chip ice cream
- Easy matcha ice cream
- Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake by The Schizo Chef
- Buko Pandan by The Unlikely Baker
- Pandan Mahalabia by Lins Food
📋 Recipe
Pandan ice cream
Equipment
- ice cream churner
- Immersion blender with a chopping bowl attachment or a food processor
Ingredients
- 12 pandan leaves, 40cm long each (approx 55gms total)
- 2 cups (500ml) thickened cream
- 1 cup (250ml) full cream milk
- ½ cup (120gms) castor sugar
- ½ flat tablespoon (15mls) glucose syrup *optional
- ¼ flat teaspoon (.8gms) xanthan gum *optional
Instructions
- Wash pandan leaves well and cut into ½ inch (1cm) pieces
- Add ½ the pandan to the chopping bowl of an immersion blender with half the milk. Blend for several minutes until well blended. If you are using a larger food processor you can do it all at once.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours, ideally overnight.
- Once the milk in infused, make the rest of the ice cream base.
- Add cream, sugar and glucose syrup in using into a small pot. Heat on medium heat until just starting to bubble, then turn down, stiring until sugars are all dissolved.
- Turn off heat and allow to cool. Refrigerate until pandan has finished infusing.
- Strain the pandan milk mix, pressing down on the pandan to extract as much infused milk as possible.
- Add infused pandan milk and salt to rest of cooled ice cream base.
- Measure out xanthan gum, if using and have next to bowl with ice cream mix.
- Blend ice cream mix with an immersion blender. While blending carefully sprinkle in xanthan gum. Continue to blend for one minute to ensure xanthan gum is well blended in.
- Cover and chill well, for as least four hours.
- Put ice cream storage container in the freezer to chill
- If using a self churning machine, turn on ten minutes before churning to chill, otherwise remove churning bowl from freezer just before churning.
- Churn the ice cream. It will be the consistency of soft serve when done.
- Transfer to chilled container and freeze until firm.
- Scoop and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate based on an online database. The nutritional content of ingredients may vary by brand. If you require accurate nutritional information, you should calculate this based on the specific brands and products you are using.
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Azlin says
Now I know I'm going to totally love this ice cream. Pandan is a flavouring I grew up with and cannot live without. Looks incredibly creamy, Sarah.
Thank you for including a pandan recipe from LinsFood.
Sylvie says
I have actually never tried pandan before, but I so should give it a go!! Ice cream seems like the perfect way to start 😉
Kavita Favelle says
Oh this looks wonderful, I've used pandan only rarely but do enjoy the flavour. My friend made me some Kaya and infused some of her test batches with pandan, they were so good!
Sarah Brooks says
Thank-you Kavita, its a great flavour isn't it? Quite different and very versatile.
Rachi says
I love pandan leaves, gre up with it. Lovely!!! Looks so creamy
Sarah Brooks says
Thanks Rachi, pandan is so versatile isn't it? And goes so well in ice cream.
Aditi says
Omg!!!! I am just in love with your website... Such cool colours and interesting flavours. Makes me want go make everything right now and eat all of it... Great going 👍🏻👍🏻
zeba says
I have never used or sadlyheard of pandan before. This ice looks incredible, love the color. Thanks for sharing on Fiesta Friday.
Sarah Brooks says
Thank you Zeba, its such a fantastic colour isn't it? The pandan makes it such a beautiful green with no food colouring needed 🙂
Robyn says
I have never used pandan before but this looks amazing - what a beautiful colour!
Sarah Brooks says
Its such a great colour 🙂 worth getting fresh leaves if you can to keep the vibrancy.
Miz Helen says
I will be excited to try this new flavor in Ice Cream, it sure looks good! Thanks so much for sharing your talent with us at Full Plate Thursday and please come back soon!
Miz Helen
Sarah Brooks says
You're welcome Miz, Pandan is such a great flavour that not that well known outside Asia.
Louise says
This looks lovely. Thanks for sharing #cookblogshare
Sarah Brooks says
Thanks Louise, thanks for hosting #cookblogshare this week.
Umran says
Hi, I tried this over the weekend but I found that the pandan milk had a bitter aftertaste which I suspect is from the leaves. Could it be that I chopped the leaves too fine and squeezed out too much when straining the remnants of the chopped leaves from the infused milk mixture?
The ice cream ended up tasting more like a green tea (matcha) ice cream. Really wanted this to work as am a huge fan of pandan and often use it in South East Asian cooking!
Thanks for all the fantastic recipes you share here.
Sarah Brooks says
Hi Louise, I'm so glad you loved this recipe. I suspect the bitter after taste was the quality of the pandan leaves. I would try it with younger, fresher leaves if you can, or try steeping the leaves for less time. Alternatively if you use another form of pandan in your other South East Asian cooking such as frozen or extract you could try this instead, it may be more to your taste.
Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook says
Oh my!! I love anything Pandan and this ice cream looks absolutely gorgeous!! I love that you used pandan leaves instead of the flavoring! Amazing!! Thanks for sharing with us here at Fiesta Friday party!
Sarah Brooks says
Thanks Jhuls, I discoverd Pandan during a cooking course I did on a trip to Thailand a few years ago. I'm new to Fiesta Friday and it seems like a great community, I'll definitely be back and checking out a lot of other delicious recipes!
Rebecca - Glutarama says
Th colour of this ice cream is so delicate and beautiful, I was today years old when I found out about Pandan, now I want to know more!
Yanti says
I don't have an ice cream machine. Can I use mixer to make it ? If it can...how is the process.
Sarah Brooks says
You can make this without an ice cream machine, it will just take a bit of time. Make the ice cream mix. Pour into s shallow container (a brownie tin works well). Put in the freezer until it starts to freeze around the edges, about 45mins ISH. Mix well then return to freezer. Repeat this process until the ice cream starts to firm up, it will be the consistency of soft serve ice cream. Then leave to freeze until it firm enough to scoop. Let me know how it goes 🙂
Shirley says
This turned out sooo good! The real pandan leaves give such a beautiful floral yet delicate flavour to the ice cream. I'm not really a fan of the extracts myself. As a tip to anyone making this, avoid overblending if you want a clean ice cream otherwise it becomes more difficult to strain, and little bits of leaves end up in the ice cream. I also may have gone a little overboard with how many leaves I used... My ice cream had a tiny bitter aftertaste which I suspect are from using too many leaves. I probably used ~20 lol. Still tasty nonetheless. Thank you Sarah sharing this wonderful recipe!
Sarah Brooks says
Hi Shirley, you're very welcome, I am delighted you loved it, it's music to my ears! Yes over blending may result in bits in your ice cream. But I find you need to blend it a bit to get a stronger flavor than just steeping the leaves along. You could also try less blending and leaving the leaves in for loner, but again that may lead to a little bitterness in the after taste.