Looking for a fun cooking project with your children? Try Mochi ice cream! The popular Japanese dessert is easier to make than you think. Imagine your kids smiling faces when they bite into their favorite ice cream inside the soft mochi shell.
Sweet little rice dumpling balls with creamy ice cream filling, mochi ice cream is the cool treat of the summer! After making its first debut in Hawaii in 1994, it didn’t take long for this unique and delicious treat to become the trendy frozen dessert item that took the world by storm.
In the US, you can find mochi ice cream at Costco, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and of course, at Asian grocery stores. The original brand of mochi ice cream, Mikawaya, offers many creative flavors such as green tea, chocolate, and mango, making them so fun to eat.
But did you know you can make mochi ice cream at home? If you enjoy making ice cream at home, this is a super fun project to tackle as a family. It’s relatively simple, so let’s make this sweet dessert truly your own today.
Table of Contents
What’s Mochi Ice Cream?
Mochi ice cream is small, round shaped confection made of sticky rice dumpling with an ice cream filling. The rice dumpling is called mochi (餅), a traditional Japanese pounded rice cake made of mochigome (糯米) —a short-grain glutinous rice—known for its sticky, elastic, and chewy texture.
As a mochi-loving child, I loved eating Yukimi Daifuku (雪見だいふく), which is a vanilla ice cream wrapped in gyuhi, a type of mochi. It was a popular Japanese dessert back in the 80s and I was addicted to it.
In the early 1990s, a Japanese American named Frances Hashimoto, who was the former president and CEO of Mikawaya, expanded on the idea of traditional mochi sweets and invented mochi ice cream.
This handheld and super kawaii (cute) dessert is indeed a delicious result of fusion creation! When you bite into the pillowy and delicate sweet rice dough with its creamy ice cream filling, it’s happiness in the mouth! The dreamy combo is what makes mochi ice cream so irresistible, and it’s hard to stop at one!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Glutinous rice flour (sweet rice flour) – I used shiratamako as it yields the best texture. You can now buy shiratamako on Amazon. If you can only find mochiko, you can use it. More on the sweet rice flours below.
- Water
- Sugar
- Potato starch or cornstarch – I used Bob’s Red Mill Potato Starch
- Ice cream of your choice – store-bought or homemade
Glutinous Rice Flour: Shiratamako vs. Mochiko
There are two different types of Japanese glutinous rice flours used to make mochi: shiratamako (白玉粉) and mochiko (もち粉).
Both flours are known for their stickiness and chewy texture and are used to make Japanese pastry and sweets. However, the flours do differ in texture and flavor.
When it comes to making best-tasting mochi, I always prefer using shiratamako as it is easier to work with and has a better elasticity and consistency. Amazon and Japanese grocery stores sell shiramtako. However, if you can’t find it, you can find mochiko sweet rice flour by Blur Star Brand.
As part of my recipe testing process, I’ve made mochi ice cream with both kinds of glutinous rice flour to see the difference. When I asked my friends for their feedback, the majority agreed that the texture and flavor of mochi ice cream made with shiratamko are far superior. So if you can get shiratamako at a Japanese grocery store or online, I highly recommend it.
To learn the difference between these two types of glutinous rice flour, please hop over to shiratamako page to read more details.
Important Tips for Making Mochi Ice Cream
I know you probably don’t believe me when I say it’s not that hard to make … but you have to trust me! If you follow my tips below, you CAN make decent mochi ice cream even at the first try!
DOs:
- Keep your kitchen cool when you are working with ice cream.
- Get this cookie scoop (portioning scoop) for creating the same portions and nice half-round-shaped ice cream for mochi filling.
- Use a generous amount of potato/corn starch on your hands and working surface to prevent sticking.
- Use a cookie cutter (or small bowl) to cut out mochi into a round shape. A round shape (instead of square cut) seals the mochi neatly and avoids an excess amount of mochi on the bottom.
- And here’s the secret tip! Wear thin latex gloves to insulate warm hands from ice cream and to prevent your hands from sticking to mochi.
DON’Ts:
- Do not take shortcuts until you are comfortable with making mochi ice cream.
- Do not expect to make a perfect shape of mochi ice cream for the first few trials. Working fast is the most important when dealing with ice cream.
Cooking Mochi with a Steamer or Microwave
Both steaming and microwaving methods work well, and it’s really a personal preference. I usually make it with the microwave because it only takes 2.5 minutes to cook mochi. My microwave is 1200W; make sure to adjust your microwave setting accordingly.
Popular Mochi Ice Cream Flavors
For homemade mochi ice cream, you can choose to use high quality store-bought ice cream or make your own ice cream (if you’re up for it). There are endless flavors, but in my opinion, you can’t go wrong with the classics. Here are some of the popular flavors:
- Matcha Green Tea – My personal favorite and I have a homemade matcha ice cream recipe here.
- Azuki Red Bean Ice Cream – This is also my favorite. See my red bean ice cream recipe here.
- Vanilla – My son’s favorite
- Chocolate – Find my dark chocolate ice cream recipe.
- Sweet Mango
- Strawberry – My daughter’s favorite. Or try my strawberry cheesecake recipe.
- Cookies and Cream
- Coffee – Find my coffee ice cream here.
- Dulce de Leche
What’s your favorite? Will you make mochi ice cream from scratch? Or do you have a favorite store-bought brand? Please share in the comments below!
More Delicious Mochi Recipes You’ll Love
- Daifuku (Small Mochi with Red Bean Paste)
- How to Make Mochi with a Stand Mixer
- Green Tea Mochi
- Strawberry Mochi
Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
Mochi Ice Cream
Video
Ingredients
- ¾ cup shiratamako (glutinous rice flour/sweet rice flour) (or use mochiko; see the measurement below; now you can buy shiratamako on Amazon)
- ¾ cup water
- ¼ cup sugar (do not omit sugar as the moisture in the sugar helps mochi stay softer)
- ½ cup potato starch or cornstarch
- ice cream of your choice
If you substitute shiratamako with mochiko…
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Equipment you will need: 12 aluminum/silicone cupcake liners, a medium cookie scoop (smaller than an ice cream scooper), a rolling pin, and a 3.5 inch (9 cm) cookie cutter or a round bowl/glass cup.
- Using the cookie scoop, scoop out ice cream of your choice into aluminum/silicone cupcake liners. The ice cream will melt quickly so I recommend freezing them immediately for a few hours or until ice cream balls are completely frozen solid.
- Once the ice cream balls are frozen solid and ready, you can start making mochi. Combine ¾ cup shiratamako (glutinous rice flour/sweet rice flour) and ¾ cup water in a medium bowl and whisk all together. Tip: To use mochiko instead of shiratamako, substitute ¾ cup mochiko (glutinous rice flour/sweet rice flour) in the above step.
- Add ¼ cup sugar and mix well until combined.
- Microwave Method: If you’re using a microwave to cook mochi, cover the bowl with some plastic wrap (do not cover too tight). Put the bowl in the microwave and heat it on high heat (1000w) for 1 minute. Take it out and stir with a wet rubber spatula. Cover again and cook for 1 minute. Stir again, cover, and cook for 30 seconds to finish cooking. The color of mochi should change from white to almost translucent.
- Steaming Method: If you’re using a steamer, cover the steamer lid with a towel so the condensation won’t drop into the mochi mixture. Put the bowl into a steamer basket and cover to cook for 15 minutes. Halfway cooking, stir with a wet rubber spatula and cover to finish cooking. The color of mochi should change from white to almost translucent.
- Cover the work surface with parchment paper and dust it generously with some of the ½ cup potato starch or cornstarch. Then transfer the cooked mochi on top.
- To prevent from sticking, sprinkle more potato starch on top of the mochi. Once it’s cool down a bit, you can spread the mochi into a thin layer, about ⅛ inch (3 mm), with your hands or with a rolling pin. Make sure to apply potato starch on your hands and the rolling pin. I recommend using a rolling pin because it’s easier to evenly spread out.
- Transfer the mochi with parchment paper onto a large baking sheet. Refrigerate for 15 minutes until the mochi is set.
- Take out the mochi from the refrigerator and cut out 7–8 circles with the cookie cutter.
- Dust off the excess potato starch with a pastry brush. If you find some sticky part, cover the area with potato starch first then dust off. Place a plastic wrap on a plate and then mochi wrapper on top, then lay another layer of plastic wrapper down. Repeat for all wrappers. With leftover mochi dough, roll into a ball and then flatten into a thin layer again and cut out into more circle wrappers (I could make about 12 mochi wrappers).
- Now we’re ready to form mochi ice cream balls. On the work surface, place one sheet of plastic wrap with a mochi layer on top. Working quickly, place a scoop of ice cream into the center of the mochi wrapper. Pinch the four corners of the mochi layer together to wrap the ice cream ball. Repeat with the remaining mochi wrappers and ice cream balls.
- When mochi gets sticky, put some potato starch on the sticky area and seal the opening. Quickly cover with the plastic wrap and twist to close. Place each mochi ice cream into a cupcake pan to keep the shape. You will need to work on one mochi ice cream at a time in order to keep the ice cream frozen at all times. Put mochi ice cream back into the freezer for at least 2–3 hours. When you’re ready to serve, keep them outside for a few minutes until outer mochi gets soften a little bit.
To Store
- You can keep the mochi ice cream in the freezer for 2–3 weeks. Be careful with freezer burn and make sure to store without air.
Can I add dye to mochi to give similar color of ice cream?
Hi Caitlin! Sure!
Hey! I am so excited to try this. I was wondering… When you see mochi flavored with green tea, strawberry, peanut butter, etc, is the mochi just died or do they flavor it, or both?! I am planning on making huckleberry mochi so if i flavored it, it would be with the juices, What do you recommend? How much of food coloring/flavor?
Hi Mariah! I’d say majority of mochi ice cream use food coloring, but if you make it at home you don’t have to. Use juice to color the mochi at step 4. Adjust the amount of extract as you add. 🙂
Hey, I went for it. It was absolute carnage. Mochi everywhere. I loved it! It is beautifully soft and incredibly satisfying. I cant wait to try again with chocolate mochi and peanut butter ice cream! Great recipe! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Mariah! Thank you for your feedback. Haha, I know, it’s pretty sticky isn’t it. I guarantee the second time is much easier as you know what to do. 🙂 Oh wow that combination sounds delicious!
If you make the chocolate mochi, would you mind sharing your process? I want to make chocolate mochi, but I can’t find a recipe anywhere, and the ingredients for this is not exactly easy to come by for me, so I can’t afford to mess up ????.
Hi Liz! I noted myself. Thank you for your request! 🙂
I am going to try your mochi ice cream recipe tonight! want to use Mango sorbet for starters! I work in the same building as Kikkoman Headquarters and their products are the best AND employees are fantastic people.
Hi Terry! I hope you enjoy(ed) the recipe! It’s a lot of work but once you know how to make, it gets easier… Ohhh mango sorbet inside mochi! I want some. 😀 So nice to hear you enjoy Kikkoman products. 🙂 Kikkoman team I work with are all nice people too!
Were you able to find the rice flour in a regular grocery store (like Kroger or Wal-Mart) or is this something I’ll need to order online. Sorry if this seems like a stupid question but since I’ve never looked for it I’m not sure about where to buy it.
Hi Meagan! I live close to several Japanese grocery stores so I can get the glutinous rice flour (sweet rice flour) easily. You can find Mochiko in some American grocery stores here in the Bay Area, but you might need to look for it online if you don’t see it.
http://amzn.to/2pPC7Mk
Hi, Nami. Thank you for this recipe. Can’t wait to try it! Is there a particular length of time you can store the mochi in the freezer? Do they lose texture, freshness, etc if stored in a deep freezer?
Hi Adam! It’ll be hard, but you can bring back to soft texture by defrosting it for a few minutes. It should be okay for 4 weeks. But make sure to store in air-tight package and don’t let the skin dry out. 🙂
Are these supposed to taste good? My family thought they were extremely unappetizing. We were not sure if we were supposed to eat them raw or deep fry the little balls? This way a buy we will never forget!
Hi Jessica! My first question for you is if you like Japanese mochi or any type of mochi dessert.
If you don’t like that kind of mochi texture (there is nothing like that to explain the texture, which is why we call it “mochi texture”), I doubt you like mochi + ice cream combination, even you enjoy ice cream.
Mochi ice cream is a heaven for mochi lovers. You eat this because you love mochi, not because you love ice cream. 🙂
My second thought was that I hope you had a GOOD quality mochi ice cream at least… mochi has to be chewy and soft. enough that melts in your mouth (after chewing).
Some Americanized Japanese restaurants deep fry mochi ice cream, but that’s not very Japanese style. I can’t imagine eating it. But I guess it’s popular in the US? I’m not sure as I haven’t tried it.
I absolutely LOVED these!! Such a wonderful texture to go with ice cream, I made it with Mediterranean vanilla bean gelato!
Hi Carol! Awesome! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! Oh my vanilla bean gelato!! I’d love that! 🙂
Hello, i tryed the mochi after this receipt. However, while unfreezing (5 min) the mochi, the dough is still pretty firm to bite. Do I have to wait longer until the dough gets soft again or did I make some error?
Hi Nohz. Hmmm hard to tell from what you wrote… Did you use glutenous rice flour (sweet rice flour)? It shouldn’t be too hard. Depends on season/where you live, 5 mins may not be enough to get soften on outside (but inside ice cream is still hard).
Hey Nami, thanks for the fast reply. I used Kimura Usagi Rice Flour (from japancentre.com) – On their description says it is the same as shiratamako. Is it different? :S I will try waiting a little bit longer, see what happens.
I am from Austria and we do not have mochiko or shiratamako explicitly. Do you have an idea how i can get it in Austria/Europe?
Hi Nohz! I don’t know a store that ships internationally, but I’m asking this company to sell shiratamako and ship internationally… once they can, I’ll inform in my newsletter. I know so many people are waiting for shiratamako. Mochiko is easily accessible on Amazon (http://amzn.to/29zllew) in the US.
Shiratamako is NOT rice flour. Shiratamako is made from glutinous rice flour (or sweet rice flour). We use this sticky rice for making mochi, and certain dish. Mochiko is also made from glutinous rice flour.
Rice flour is made from regular rice – the rice we eat everyday in Japan. Not sticky rice (glutinous rice).
Rice flour has several kinds too, but most common one is Joshinko.
Hope this helps!
What do you mean by “when mochi gets sticky”? I’ve found that mochi isn’t very sticky at all once it’s cooled down.
Hi Sara! When mochi gets extended (by pulling in order to wrap), there will be some parts that are “new” surface. That new mochi surface is sticky as it is not covered by potato starch. Not everywhere, but it’s possible it gets sticky on the new surface… Sorry my English is not good to explain the situation very well.
Hello,
I’ve followed your instructions, but I think I might have over-microwaved the mochi. It was difficult to wrap the ice cream because the mochi wasn’t sticking to close 🙁
Hi Rod! My microwave was 1100W when I made this recipe (now it’s 1400W), so maybe your microwave is stronger?
The purpose of potato/corn starch is help your hands not stick to the mochi but you might want to brush off the mochi where you need to pinch to close. 🙂
Hi what is the size of oxo cookie scoop you use (small, medium, large)?
Thankd
Hi Ivy! I just went to my kitchen and found out that it’s 1 1/2 Tbsp. I have two sizes, but I’m pretty sure this is the right one. 🙂
Hey namiko,
Is it alright if food colouring is put into the mixture or will it have any effect on the mochi??
Thanks, your recipes are the best! XD
Hi Jenny! Sure! You need to put it in the mixture before microwaving/steaming. No affect. It’ll be pretty color! 🙂 I’m happy to hear you enjoy my recipes. Thank you!
From the response you gave below, if we want the mochi to be soft like the store bought ones. The ratio is 1:2. Does this mean 1 part shiratamako and 2 parts sugar? For your recipe above, I would use 100 g of shiratamako and 110 g of sugar then? Please clarify for me. Thanks.
Hi Ann! No, sugar should be half of shiratamako. 🙂
Hi Nami. Do I need to cook potato or cornstarch before using this Mochi ice cream recipe? Please reply. Thanks so much.
Hi Isabella! Nope, no need to cook potato/corn starch. When you eat store-bought mochi, you’re actually eating it (without realizing it). 🙂
I’m so happy to see a mochi ice cream recipe! Yours looks so good! Can’t wait to make this recipe. Is the potato starch only to prevent sticking? Or is some added to the bowl before cooking?
Hi Dina! So sorry for my late response – I was traveling and couldn’t get back to you sooner. Yes, we only use potato starch to prevent from sticking. 🙂 Hope you enjoy this recipe!