Strawberry Ice Cream Mochi

Mochi is a non-baked dough made from Japanese glutinous rice flour mixed with sugar and water, and steamed until fused together into a ball. It’s extremely sticky and took copious amounts of corn starch to keep it from sticking to everything that got near it. There’s also a baked version of mochi, that’s enriched with eggs, milk and butter. It’s super good, but not the right consistency to wrap around ice cream scoops successfully.

• A pint of your favorite ice cream
• ¾ cup (100 grams) Shiratamako or Mochiko rice flour (I bought mine online from Tokyo Central, but it can be found in most grocery stores as well!)
• ¾ cup water
• ¼ cup (55 grams) sugar

• ½ cup (100 grams) corn starch

Since it melts so quickly, it’s easier to pre-scoop and re-freeze the ice cream in it’s new round shape, as opposed to scooping as you’re wrapping them in mochi. I used a small cookie scoop to portion my ice cream out evenly. You can store them in mini muffin tin lined with papers so they’d hold their shape while re-freezing.

I chose to use shiratamako rice flour. It is coarser than Mochiko, the most commonly found brand in the Bay Area. See how coarse the grind is on the rice flour? That difference in texture helps to keep the mochi dough less dense and more workable.

Whisk together all three ingredients, and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Microwave it for 2 and a half minutes, stopping to mix with a spatula after each minute. It will solidify and you'll see a change in color - this is good!

Cover your work space in cornstarch to keep the dough from sticking. The more, the better! Coat your rolling pin in cornstarch as well, and roll it out until it's very thin. The thickness is truly up to your own preference: if you like more coating, leave it a little thicker. I personally like it super thin!

Pop the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes or so before this step. Take a 3.5 inch round cookie cutter and cut out circles. Lay each circle on a small square of plastic wrap. It feels a tad wasteful with all of the plastic wrap layers, but there really isn’t a better way to wrap them and have them keep their shape while re-freezing. I cut the plastic wrap into quarters so as to use as little as possible for each one.

You'll have to work quickly so the ice cream balls don't melt while you're wrapping them! Place one ice cream ball in the middle of each circle and wrap the circle around it, twisting the top to seal the package. Then wrap the plastic wrap tightly around the ball and place it back in the muffin tin, seal-side down. Pop them back in the freezer until you want to eat them! If you don't have enough freezer space to keep multiple muffin tins in at once, just freeze them for an hour or so, then transfer them (still wrapped in plastic) to a smaller container and put back in the freezer until you want to enjoy them.

I recommend that you leave them out of the freezer for a minute or two before eating. (Brain freezes are not fun!)