Vegan Mochi Ice Cream

Vegan Mochi Ice Cream

Oh hey there cutie. We actually filmed this recipe for LA Weekly awhile back. Watch or read below!

Sheltering in place has given us the unexpected gift of a lot of kitchen time to experiment. We see all of you with your dalgona coffees and sourdough starters! We switched it up this weekend – instead of baking quarantine banana bread, we whipped up these mochi ice cream balls. We had a blast putting these together and hope you do too!

Mochi is a traditional Japanese dessert made of glutinous rice flour (hello gluten-free). They are traditionally filled with a sweet red bean paste, but you can find a variety of fillings like fresh strawberries and, of course, ice cream! We Must Love's Choco Choco Chip, but the options are truly endless.

The basic recipe for the mochi wrappers is incredibly simple, glutinous rice flour, sugar, water, potato or cornstarch.

Mochi mise en place

The mix comes together with some heat to make a giant mochi baby which you cook with steam or in a microwave until it starts to look a little translucent.

Mochi dough

You roll out the dough with some potato or cornstarch to help with the stickiness

Mochi dough roll out with potato starch

Then, cut into wrappers for the ice cream filling. We used ring cutters, but you can use any round stencil (cup, small bowl, etc.).

Cut out circles from mochi dough

Tightly wrap those babies and with a little patience you’ll end up with these delightful, plant-based mochi (n)ice creams for an anytime snack or dessert!

Mochi wrapped in plastic wrap 

Mochi Ice Cream

Yield 12 mochi balls

Ingredients

  • Ice cream flavors of your choice
  • 3/4 cup (115g) mochiko (glutinous rice) flour
  • 1/4 cup (55g) sugar
  • 3/4 cup (180 mL) water
  • 1/2 – 1 cup potato or cornstarch

Instructions

  1. Let (n)ice cream sit out on countertop until softened enough to scoop easily, about 5-10 minutes.
  2. Using an ice cream or cookie dough scoop, scoop out ice cream into lined muffin tins. Freeze until completely solid, 6 hours or overnight.
  3. Mochi can be made in the microwave or over a double boiler.
    • Microwave method: Mix together flour, sugar, and water in a microwave safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and heat for 1 minute. Stir together with a wet rubber spatula and heat for another 30 seconds. Repeat until dough turns from white to almost translucent.
    • Double boiler method: Put an inch of water into the bottom saucepan and bring to a simmer. You will need a bowl that will sit inside the steamer basket or shallow pan that goes on top. If you don’t own a double boiler, it’s easy to jerry rig one with a regular saucepan and a metal bowl (see tips here . Use a clean towel to wrap the pot lid to prevent moisture from dripping into your mochi mix. Mix together flour, sugar, and water in the bowl and steam covered for 15 minutes, stirring halfway through with a wet rubber spatula. Dough should turn from white to almost translucent.
  4. Heavily dust a large piece of parchment paper (about 10 inches long) with potato or cornstarch. Turn out dough onto the dusted parchment paper. Dust rolling pin with same starch and roll dough thinly. Lift parchment paper onto a sheet trap and put mochi dough in fridge for 15 minutes to set.
  5. Once cooled, cut out circles with a large ring cutter (we used 4.5-inch sized ring cutters). You can also use a small bowl or big glass as a template too. Re-roll scraps and cut until you have 12 wrappers. Dust off any excess starch and place plastic wrap in-between layers if stacking the wrappers.
  6. Put a completely frozen ice cream ball in the center of the wrapper. Fold and pinch edges together to form a tight seal. Tightly wrap the ball with plastic wrap to ensure it holds its shape and place back into freezer until solid (at least 1 hour).
  7. Let mochi sit at room temperature for 5 minutes to slightly thaw before enjoying!

 

Recipe Notes:

We used a 2.5 TBSP sized scoop to fit into the 4.5-inch wrappers. We also used potato starch, but corn starch works just as well.

 

Recipe developed by Elaine Chang.

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