My first attempt at making mochi ice cream.
As promised in an earlier post, I finally got around and made some mochi ice cream for the first time. Needless to say, it was somewhere between an epic fail and an epic win. The overall appearance and form didn't look as good as what Naked Tchopstix serves, but it tasted just the same... with the exception of a few over-doughy balls. Don't worry, I intend on mastering this art before too long.
It's hard to say when mochi ice cream will creep up into the Angelic Guardians saga. From what I've read, the Japanese Americans created it and brought it over to Japan in the twentieth century, which makes it a candidate for the Demonic Guardians trilogy. The common flavors include vanilla, mango, strawberry, and green tea. However, more and more Japanese are getting accustomed to eating chocolate on a financial scale (chocolate used to be considered as a luxury), so chocolate has been added onto the list.
So, if you are like me and wish to take on this skill, here's a recipe that I got from two websites (one of which came from blogger.com itself). Good luck!
Mochi Ice Cream
(Japanese Ice Cream)
Ingredients:
1/3 c. sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour)
½ c. water
½ c. sugar
Cornstarch
Your preferred ice cream flavor (Common Japanese flavors include vanilla, green tea, strawberry, mango, and, recently, chocolate. However, you can always throw in some mint chocolate chip, butter pecan, cookies & cream, etc. for fun.)
Directions:
1. Dump sweet rice flour into a glass bowl.
2. Add water a little bit at a time as you mix it with the rice flour.
3. Cover the glass bowl with plastic wrap but leave a portion of the bowl open to allow air flow. Otherwise, you might be at risk of blowing up your glass bowl (see step four).
4. Put the glass bowl in the microwave for 3 minutes on medium. Your dough will start to thicken from the heat.
5. Dip a wooden spoon in water and stir the dough.
6. Put the glass bowl back in the microwave for another minute on medium. Your dough should then start to look smooth and shiny.
7. Dump the dough onto a cutting board and smooth it out with a wet wooden spoon. Make sure the cutting board is covered with cornstarch. You will need cornstarch to cover the dough too.
8. Flip the dough over and make sure it is coated well with cornstarch.
9. Push and stretch the dough until it is smooth, flat, about 3 millimeters thick.
10. If the dough is still warm at this point, let it cool!
11. Use either a small bowl/cup or a larger bowl/cup to cut out your dough wraps.
a. Recommendation: It’s best to freeze your dough wraps before you begin filling it with ice cream. Depending how warm the wraps are, your ice cream may start melting.
i. To freeze: place a flat wrap on a sheet of plastic wrap (again, covered with cornstarch), and place another flat wrap on top of it in the same way (plastic wrap à flat dough wrap à plastic wrap à flat dough wrap, etc.). Do this until are flat wraps are gone. Top it off with one last piece of plastic wrap.
12. Drop a medium-sized (or smaller) scoop of ice cream in the center of your flat dough wrap.
13. Tuck in all the edges at the top of the ice cream scoop and pinch them to hold the wrap in place.
a. Recommendation: If the dough isn’t sticking together as you wrap your ice cream, there’s nothing wrong with sprinkling some water. Cornstarch tends to dry out the dough, so it might be craving for moisture.
14. Before you continue to make another, it’s highly recommended that you start freezing your dough ball as soon as you’re done with it!
15. Freeze until you’re ready to serve.
