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Mochi ice cream madness may have reached a frenzied peak this year, but these fun bite-size snacks have been the frozen treat of choice for those in the know, for decades.
The handheld poppable desserts are easy to pick up in the frozen section but mastering how to make multi-flavoured mochi ice cream at home will open doors, make you new friends and impress the old.
Discover more about mochi and how to make matcha, strawberry and green tea mochi ice cream at home, in our recipe round-up below.
What is Mochi?
Mochi, pronounced 'moh-chee', are round buns made of sweet and chewy rice dough with a sweetened bean paste centre, and they are traditionally eaten around Japanese new year.
With mochi ice cream, you get the all the texture and flavour of the chewy rice ball wrapped around a delicious ice cream filling of your choice.
What Does Mochi Taste Like?
Plain mochi has a neutral, gummy, candy and starchy flavour, but they're usually flavoured with green tea and filled with sweetened bean paste.
Mochi Ice cream replaces the bean paste inside with any number of classic or creative ice cream flavours.
When did Mochi Become Famous?
The late Frances Hashimoto, former president and CEO of Mikawaya, is credited with having popularised mochi ice cream, creating the first state-of-the-art facility for the mass production of the Japanese-themed sweets, making them a runaway success in the 1990s.
Bubbies also made mochi ice cream a popular freezer snack after Keith Harris founded the original Bubbies Homemade Ice Cream Parlor in 1985 in Honolulu, and soon invested his energy in developing the mochi ice cream business. Bubbies mocha ice cream can now be found in over 25 ice cream flavours, from classics, from strawberry, vanilla and triple chocolate, to red velvet, passion fruit or pistachio, in grocery and speciality stores throughout the US and the world.
What Flavour is Mochi Ice Cream?
The traditional mochi ice cream flavours are vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, strawberry-chocolate and vanilla, green tea, black sesame, passion fruit and mango.
Mochi Recipe
Master how to make the mochi dough and fill it with your favourite ice cream. Or really start from scratch and make your own ice cream filling as well.
To make mochi dough is very simple, you'll need the following ingredients:
- Mochiko flour
- Granulated sugar
- Water
- Potato flour
Once you've made the dough, roll it out on a large piece of parchment paper covered with potato starch with a rolling pin until it's smooth and even. Then cut the mochi dough into individual rounds using a cookie cutter and dust off all of the excess potato starch.
Then it's simply a case of putting mounds of ice cream in the centre of each round and folding the dough up around the edges of the ice cream and pinching the edges shut tight. Once you have your ball, twist it tight inside plastic to ensure there's no gap between the dough and the ice cream and freeze to perfection again before eating.
How to Make Mochi Ice Cream
Babish takes us back to basics once again in his easily watchable video recipes, where he teaches how to make both the ice cream filling and the mochi paste, in what he calls 'chewy finger-safe ice cream delivery systems'.
How to Make Strawberry Mochi Ice Cream
If you love summer strawberry ice cream, try upping your summer fruit game and making a strawberry-themed mochi ice cream in the recipe below.
Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream
If you prefer more classic flavours try this recipe for elegant green tea mochi.
