Homemade Mochi Ice Cream are Japanese rice cakes with an ice cream center in a soft, slightly chewy, sweet rice dough. You won’t believe how easy it is to make yourself!
My love affair with Mochi (pronounced moh chee) began a couple years ago when a friend from Laos brought mochi ice cream to a dinner party. I loved the soft and chewy texture and the size and shape of this bite sized treat. Since then, I’ve noticed as mochi has made major gains in popularity in the US and I see it in the freezer section of every grocery store I enter.
My kids have also become big fans of mochi ice cream as we’ve been purchasing large packs from Costco and having them nightly for dessert. But, as much as I love the my/mo variety pack, I decided it was time to try my hand at the homemade version. And, as predicted, I’ll never go back!
Some people recommend making mochi rice cakes even sweeter with a 2:1 ratio of sugar to flour. For that approach, check out this recipe.
What is mochi?
Mochi is a sweet rice cake that is found in many different sweet or savory varieties in Japanese cuisine. During the Japanese New Year, there is a tradition called Mochitsuki, which is the more laborious process of steaming the sweet glutinous rice and then pounding it to make mochi (small glutinous rice cakes). I loved this video showing the process of Mochitsuki.
This recipe is a simpler version of mochi is made by microwaving or oven steaming the glutinous rice flour to form these little rice cakes.
Why we love to make our own Mochi Ice Cream:
- EASY! It may sound intimidating, but I’m here to tell you this recipe is so EASY! Pick up your favorite ice cream and order sweet rice flour (amazon will ship it right to your door for $7) and the other 5 ingredients are pantry staples. Plus, it takes 3 minutes to cook and just about 25 minutes to prepare.
- Customize it. I love all the customizations you can do to this recipe (see flavor ideas below). I added peanut butter to my most recent batch of dough and it was amazing.
Know before you go:
Mochi is very sticky! You will want to have cornstarch, potato starch, or tapioca flour on hand to help manage the stickiness. You’ll also want to have some water in a cup to dip your spatula in and be ready to soak everything in water when you are finished. This will help make easy cleanup.
Dough Cutter: Choose a cookie or biscuit cutter that is about an inch bigger than the ice cream scoop. It’s important to have a circle of dough that is just big enough to surround the ice cream but not SO big that you have air pockets or extra dough hanging off. I’ve even used the lid of my cornstarch container because it was just the right size. If you do have extra dough, be sure to cut it away when you add the ice cream as it will taste hard and chewy once it’s frozen.
Cooking the mochi dough: I have found the microwave to be fast, easy, and effective. However, traditional mochi is steamed. If you’d like to steam the dough instead, steam it for for 15 minutes, stir it and steam for 5 more minutes or until the dough takes on a slightly shiny sheen.
Ingredients in Mochi:
- Glutinous rice flour (sweet rice flour- I used Mochiko but you can also use shiratamako). Regular flour will not work for this recipe!
- Water
- Sugar
- Powdered sugar
- Cornstarch (or potato starch) – to help with the stickiness of the dough.
How to Make Mochi:
1. Freeze ice cream balls: Place a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Working quickly, use a small ice cream scoop to scoop ice cream balls and place them on the parchment paper. Be sure to pack the ice cream tightly in the scooper, leaving a flat edge on the ice cream so that it will sit flat on your cookie sheet. Freeze for 1 hour.
2. Make mochi: Combine flour, sugar, and powdered sugar in a microwave safe bowl. Add water and stir well, until smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and microwave mochi dough for 1 minute. Wet your spatula to prevent sticking and use your spatula to repeatedly fold the mixture. Cover, and microwave again for 1 minute. Fold the dough again and microwave for 30 more seconds. The mochi should look slightly shiny and if it doesn’t, microwave for 30 more seconds.
4. Roll mochi dough into rectangle: Place a piece of parchment paper on the counter and dust it with a layer of cornstarch. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the mochi dough from the bowl and onto the parchment paper (keep in mind that it will be very hot so be careful not to touch it). Dust the top of the dough ball with cornstarch. Use a rolling pin to roll the mochi dough into a large rectangle, about ¼ inch thick. If the dough sticks at all while rolling, continue to dust the top with cornstarch to prevent sticking. Place the parchment paper with the rolled out dough on it, onto the cookie sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Fill mochi with ice cream: Remove the dough from the fridge and use a round biscuit cutter (about 3 inches) to cut circles in the dough. Your circles need to be big enough to pinch the dough around the ice cream. Pick up one circle of dough and gently brush off the cornstarch from the top (I like to use a dry pastry brush to do this). Working with one scoop of ice cream at a time, (keep the rest in the freezer so they don’t melt), place one ice cream scoop in the center of the mochi and gently press the dough around the ice cream. Pinch the edges of the mochi to seal it. Place mochi on a piece of plastic wrap bringing the corners of the plastic wrap to the center and twisting it tightly at the top.
6. Freeze: Place mochi back in the freezer with the rolled plastic wrap side down. Continue with remaining dough and ice cream. Freeze mochi ice cream for at least 1 hour before eating. Once it’s frozen, store it wrapped in the plastic wrap and in a freezer safe bag or container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow the dough to thaw slightly before eating.
Recipe
Mochi Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup glutinous rice flour (Sweet rice flour, I recommend shiratamako or mochiko)
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 cup water
- food coloring , optional, to change the color of the dough
- Cornstarch , or potato starch (for dusting and rolling)
- Ice cream , your favorite kind
Instructions
- Freeze ice cream balls: Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Working quickly, use a small ice cream scoop to scoop ice cream balls and place them onto the parchment paper. Be sure to pack the ice cream tightly as you scoop, leaving a flat edge on the ice cream so that it will sit flat on your cookie sheet. Freeze for 1 hour.
- Make mochi: Combine flour, sugar, and powdered sugar in a microwave safe bowl. Add water and stir well until smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and microwave mochi dough for 1 minute. Wet your spatula to prevent sticking and use your spatula to repeatedly fold the mixture. Cover and microwave again for 1 minute. Fold the dough again and microwave for 30 more seconds. The mochi should look slightly shiny and if it doesn't, microwave for 30 more seconds.
- Roll dough: Place a piece of parchment paper on the counter and dust with a layer of cornstarch. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the mochi dough from the bowl and onto the parchment paper (keep in mind that it will be very hot, so be careful not to touch it. Place the dirty dishes in the sink and soak them in water.
- Dust the top of the dough ball with cornstarch. Use a rolling pin to roll the mochi dough into a large rectangle. If the dough sticks at all while rolling, continue to dust the top with cornstarch to prevent sticking. Roll the dough to a thickness of 1/4''. Place the parchment paper with the rolled out dough onto a sheet pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Use scissors to cut large squares of plastic wrap (one for each ice cream ball). Each mochi will get wrapped in plastic wrap before freezing.
- Fill the dough: Remove the dough from the fridge and use a round cookie or biscuit cutter (about 3 inch round) to cut circles in the dough. Your circles need to be big enough to pinch the dough around the ice cream. Pick up one circle of dough and gently brush off the cornstarch from the top (I like to use a dry pastry brush to do this). Working with one scoop of ice cream at a time, keeping the rest in the freezer so they don't melt, place one ice cream scoop in the center of the mochi and gently press the dough around the ice cream. Pinch the edges of the mochi to seal it. Place mochi on a piece of plastic wrap bringing the corners of the square to the center and twisting tightly at the top to seal it.
- Freeze: Place mochi back in the freezer with the twisted plastic wrap side down. Continue with remaining dough and ice cream. Freeze mochi ice cream for at least 1 hour before eating. Once frozen, store it, still wrapped in the plastic wrap, in a freezer safe bag or container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow the dough to slightly thaw before eating.
Notes
- Vary the ice cream flavors: any flavor ice cream or sorbet will work!
- Swap the filling: instead of ice cream you could fill the center with nutella, chocolate, fresh cut strawberries, peanut butter, or traditional red bean paste (anko).
- Flavor the dough:
- Peanut butter: Mix in 2 Tablespoons of peanut butter right after the dough has steamed in the microwave.
- Chocolate/Cocoa Powder: Mix in 1 teaspoon cocoa powder before cooking.
- Matcha: Mix in 1 teaspoon matcha (green tea powder).
- Vanilla: Add one teaspoons of vanilla extract to dough before cooking.
- Coconut: Add 1 Tablespoon coconut milk to the dough before cooking
Nutrition
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HAVE YOU TRIED THIS RECIPE?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
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It turned out wonderfully! I made sure to keep the mixture covered while microwaving, and kept the cornstarch close while I was working with the dough. Covering my rolling pin in cornstarch was very helpful. It was difficult wrapping the dough around the ice cream balls without it sticking to my fingers, but rubbing the cornstarch on my hands before helped a lot. They don’t look perfect, but I know with time and practice I will get better at handling the dough! Thank you for the yummy recipe!
How big of the scoop of ice cream should we make. Diameter would be good to know, or maybe measured in tablespoons. Thank you! Will be making it this weekend!
about 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of ice cream per ball.
So good! The consistency of the dough was spot on which I was very surprised but then again we steam everything else in the microwave so it makes sense! I took some liberties and added red bean paste to my vanilla bean ice cream and oh my god, it’s perfection. Subtly sweet enough to where it makes you want to eat way more than needed. Highly recommend this recipe! Thank you!
I have to also add, after reading several comments to the same, that this was incredibly sticky, even with adding an additional minute to microwaving, letting the dough rest in the fridge for a few hours, and using a lot of cornstarch.
This was a great recipe, very easy to follow along with and very easy to make a large batch for a big family
At first I thought the recipe had failed as it was really liquids and looked nothing like the video, but as I continued to microwave the dough it got better and turned the correct consistency! I have yet to put the ice cream in but I am sure it will be delicious as the dough was good eaten just by itself 🙂
While making it was very sticky, so I used corn starch to thicken like the recipe said. And all I could taste was the corn starch.
As I just said to the author, it’s supposed to, as far as I know, rest in the fridge before rolling and it shouldn’t be sticky.
Yum! So good!
This would be a good suprise/gift to do for someones birthday if they like/love to eat mochi.
Followed the recipe and ended up with a useless sticky gluey mess.
Well everyone else followed it and it was perfect! What’s the variable here?🤔
Maybe don’t give the recipe a poor rating when the problem was obviously not the recipe… just a thought🍡
chef’s kiss
I made this with my senior Girl Scout troop. The dough was gritty. We used the Mochinko rice flour. We had to knead it out with a LOT of corn starch. One thing that helped was using plastic wrap to cover the counter for a work space. This made clean-up easier. We used gel food coloring and different flavoring to make it fun.
From my experience, it helps if you let the mixture sit after adding the water so that all the grains dissolve into a nice smooth liquid
Mine was gritty too until I realized I was not covering the bowl with the plastic entirely while it microwaved. This is important because this process takes the place of steaming like you would traditionally on the stove, etc.
Amazing!
I used mango and green tea ice creams. Yummy, but much like everything DIY on Pinterest, the DIMyself presentation was hideous. More trouble than it’s worth to do again. It’d be a fun, albeit messy activity with your family, a date, etc. But I’ll never go by this recipe again. Suggestions:
1) Use a Mellon baller, not just a small scooper. I suggest balls no more than 1” diam.
2) Wet the edges of the dough before wrapping the ice cream- twisting is near impossible.
3) Great suggestion about keeping the ice cream in the freezer between wrapping.
Have fun making them- I didn’t. But super good!
Dough is bit rough and sticky also hard to roll, but over all it was very good treat
After reading some of the comments about the stickiness I wasn’t sure that I wanted to try this recipe. After looking around at other mochi recipes, I figured I’d give it a go. I followed the recipe converting to weights. After about 2 minutes in my microwave, it starting looking like mochi and not a weird milk product. I split the batch and put in some flavorings and dye. I toasted some glut. rice flour and used it instead of the cornstarch. I coated the ball of mochi and hand patted it out, making sure it was well coated in the toasted flour. Then I used a rolling pin to get it to quarter inch thick. Tastes great. Thank you for the recipe. I highly recommend making it.
This recipe was great! I made the ice cream filled mochi and then for my next batch I flavored the mochi with peanut butter. It was delicious and easy to make. I am going to try different fillings next time!
This recipe is useless, I still have sticky mochi bits on my hands. It started okay, a bit watery after the first microwave but I decided to trust the process. It seemed to form a dough like any other mochi, but when I tried to roll it out it kept sticking to the rolling pin. Then I added some more cornstarch and nothing changed. I ended up pouring around a cup of cornstarch into the dough and trying to mix it in but it still didn’t change. I decided to throw it but first I had to clean my hands, they felt so sticky, like a fly in a cobweb. It only came off after lots of warm water, soap, and scrubbing with two different kinds of sponge. This recipe was a complete waste of time and ingredients, I don’t recommend it at all.
Just let it rest, cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for a few hours before rolling.
*mod* I wont leave anymore saying this, just want to help, especially the people who threw it out, hopefully next time something isn’t working (and I’m not bein Judgmental so please don’t think, I sincerely want to help people, and that this is how I became the baker I am) when something isn’t working I will never throw it out, ever. Food is too expensive and too rare in some countries to waste. Just google what you have and how to save it. First use as many details as you can to describe what you have. watery, slimy, both wet and dry, whatever you have. So like ‘how do i save homemade mochi dough that is way too sticky to roll or touch.’ You’d probably get some results to let it rest in the fridge, and many of us would never guess. One major thing though, don’t ever add alot more cornstarch or flour, because then your item will taste like cornstarch and even worse than throwing the dough away, you’d be throwing away items that you spent time and even more money making. Very rarely, is adding more thickener the right answer. Everything you’ll ever need to know is on the internet. Don’t ever think you won’t find an answer to something because you will, it’s all been done.
I hope you give it another try and have a wonderful result next time.
Turns in to a big mess and I had to throw it out
More people giving up too easy and throwing food out. read my reply to Iris above. and I hope you will give it another shot someday with mine, or someone else’s tips and succeed beautifully.
Hi! I tried this recipe but the dough was so sticky and ripped easily that I couldn’t wrap it around the ice cream… I tried coating my fingers in corn starch but it didn’t help much. Any suggestions? Maybe I under cooked it?
l love how you do it and l will make it .
this food is very good 10 out of 1000000
you mean you give it a 1000000 out of 10? 😀
Have a great day!
I used your recipe. I substituted ice cream for my homemade gelato. I used a little more Mochi in the recipe so it wasn’t so sticky. The result was less liquified and more “flour-like” it rolled out great with adding the cornstarch. My kids love them and now make them them selves. We will be trying many varieties of this for years to come. Thank you!
I tried to make this but it kept failing so I think I got the wrong things but good job
i’ve done mochis before and i tried it with regular flour but i don’t know if it would’ve been a BIG difference and it worked lol.
I found this recipe to be to much of a pain in the butt not all of us can afford half a container of corn starch or more to stop it from sticking to everything in sight.
cornstarch costs $2 or less per container. if you can afford ice cream you can afford this. 🙂
After a total of 2 1/2 minutes in the microwave the mixture was still like water. I continued to microwave 30 sec and mix for a total of 3 more minutes before it even started to resemble dough. Then it was like silly putty (when I wasn’t kneading it it liquefied). I had to add a lot of cornstarch,by the handfuls before it stayed in a solid state. The dough tasted as it should and texture was correct. I am not sure what I did wrong. The ratio of sweet rice flour to water when you steam the dough is 1 c. to 3/4 c. water. I will stick to steaming the dough fro.now on.
I’ve always wanted to make these from scratch, and when I saw your new recipe we tried them out for New Years. They were fun to make and easier than I thought. Thank you!
I followed the recipe to a T except I used powdered sugar instead of cornstarch to dust the dough with. I got the dough out of the refrigerator after 30 minutes and it had a lot of moisture on it making it impossible to seal the ice cream into the ball. Is there a reason why my dough had so much moisture to it?
Cornstarch absorbs the moisture, while the powdered sugar will not.
If I had to guess I would say replacing the starch with sugar is your reason
I tried making these with the exact ingredients… But the dough is too solid. From everything I see, its supposed to be maliable like fondant. I tried wrapping the dough around a ball of ice cream and the dough just crumbled … Please tell me what I did wrong??
Generally you’ll notice where there’s sugar there’s more moisture. Sugar is def not something to use to remove moisture.
These look great! What do you do with the leftover dough?
I toss it.
really? why not freeze it for next, or eat it with something else in the center, like an update on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch.
I’ve always wanted to make these from scratch, and when I saw your new recipe we tried them out for New Years. They were fun to make and easier than I thought. Thank you!
This was a happy accident. I was on your site looking for something else and saw this recipe for Mochi. It was perfect timing cause I was looking for something fun to do for NYE. Well…I have made three batches in three days. They are SO GOOD and everyone loves them. So far we have tried mint chocolate, dulce de leche, and strawberry and have loved every one. I think this will be a new go-to. Thanks!