If you've never had mochi before, well my friend, you're in for a treat. I grew up loving this sweetened rice flour dessert. It is an acquired taste or so I've heard. My fondest memories of mochi were during the New Years celebration. My mom would make us butter mochi; which I will show you on another occasion. I remember tag teaming with my siblings while my mom was preoccupied and we'd go into stealth mode and steal a few pieces here and there before they'd make it to the dessert table.
I can't really describe it in English. My Fijian friends did say it tastes like casava. Growing up speaking Pidgin, serving a church mission Taiwan where I had to learn Mandarin, then moving to the mainland where no one knows Pidgin (other than my local friends) has definitely taken a toll on what good English I had. (P.S I got a C in English in high school. So you are more than welcome to help me with my punctuations. Other than a winking smiley face, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to use a colon for ;) <- You see?)
So here we go....
Ingredients:
- 1 small tub of ice cream. (I would say to be safe stick with vanilla or strawberry. Mango woks excellent as well)
- 1 box Mochiko Flour (3 C sweetened rice flour)
- 3/4 C sugar
- 3 C Water
- Corn or Potato starch (for dusting)
Other items needed:
- Small Muffin Pan
- Ice cream scooper
- Whisk
- Pizza cutter
- Saran wrap
- Food coloring
- Spoon
- flat/shallow pan
1) Grab your hot mama apron and throw it on. It's your time, Gorgeous ;)
2) Scoop ice cream into balls. I made them too big in this batch. But it turned out
great and I'll tell you why in a bit
3) Dust the pans with the corn/potato starch to keep dough from sticking
4) Mix the three ingredients very well; making sure there are no clumps. You could use a hand held mixer or a whisk. Personally, I like the little workout my arm gets from using the whisk.
5) Add in the food coloring. Like a sillidiot (yes, I make up my own words) I like to match the color of the batter to the ice cream. Today I did strawberry
6) Whisk well until the color is even. Cover with saran wrap and cook in microwave for 4 minutes
7) When it's done, whisk swiftly to avoid clumping. When you've got out all the clumps then replace the saran wrap and place back in the microwave for another 2 minutes. Take it out and whisk swiftly. Do this twice more
8) When it's finished, scrape the mochi onto the shallow pan. Dust with starch and press down softly. You WILL get the starch everywhere and it WILL be awesome. After pressing down it will get a little sticky on the bottom. Just try your best to put a little more starch on the bottom if it does (pretend you're making the crust of a pizza)
*The dough should be stretchy. If it is not, then put it back in the microwave and heat it a little more.
9) Using the rolling pin, flatten out the dough evenly. My dough was still a little thick, but my ice cream scoops were a little larger. Having the right amount of mochi and ice cream is the deciding factor in this recipe; just ask my friend Karess
**CAUTION**
When taking the bowl out of the microwave your glasses may get fogged up. I learned that the hard way.
While waiting for the microwave to finish, take up a hobby. It's amazing how long 4 minutes is when waiting for something to cook in a microwave. I picked up my guitar and pretended to play something called, "music", while my toddler danced and spun around the room hippie style
10) After the mochi has cooled for about 10-15 minutes, using the pizza cutter, cut the dough into squares big enough to cover the ice cream scoops (using the pizza cutters will help the edges stick together)
11) Place the square in your palm. After putting a scoop of ice cream on the mochi, pinch opposite corners together. Then quickly do the other corners. Using both hands, pinch the edges together and flip the mochi ball over, placing it in the muffin pan
**CAUTION**
I really am no pro. As you can see my mochi balls aren't even circle, but the ratio of mochi to ice cream was pretty darn good. Also, the mochi will probably tear when trying this out. A few of mine tore while trying to get the dough too thin. I'm not sure how the companies get the mochi so thin and perfect (maybe it's because I'm only a quarter Asian?!?), but this sure beats the heck out of buying a box of 6 for $6.00.
12) Finally, cover the tin with saran wrap (or tin foil or whatever you can find) and place it back in the freezer. Freeze it for at least an hour. Take it out a few minutes before you are ready to eat it
This recipe, depending on how thin you roll your mochi, should make anywhere between 20 and 40 servings. Last week I made about 45, but the ice cream scoops were small. Today my mochi was pretty thick and it made 22. Like I've said before I would rather learn how to make something than spend a ridiculous amount for someone else to do it for me. A box of this Mochiko flour was $1.57 here in Arizona and I'm sure it is not much more everywhere else. A buck 57 for 22 pieces of mochi ice cream as opposed to the $7.00 I would have spent at LeeLee for a box of 6.
If it doesn't turn out great the first time that's okay. Why? Because it gives you an excuse to try it all over again. My cute assistant was caught sleeping on the job. Whoever said sleeping while standing was impossible never met my 18 month old. Granted, his knee did give out right after this picture was snapped. Thank goodness for fast reflexes.
Enjoy, my friends.
**A hui hou**
