Daifuku-style strawberry mochi

Strawberry ice cream wrapped with a thin layer of sweet anko bean paste — a frozen take on ichigo daifuku.

Ichigo daifuku is a Japanese sweet: a strawberry wrapped in sweet anko bean paste and soft rice dough. Here the strawberry is replaced by a ball of strawberry cream ice cream, and the anko is a thin disc under the dough. The filling is a scaled-down version of the strawberry cream ice cream: smooth, with no pieces, so that it shapes well.

Type: Mochi ice cream · Servings: 12 · Difficulty: Challenging

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 180 g strawberries (hulled; frozen are fine)
  • 5 g lemon juice (fresh)
  • 150 g whipping cream 33 %
  • 45 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 18 g skimmed milk powder
  • 65 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 15 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 120 g sweet red bean paste (anko, from adzuki beans) (ready-made smooth paste (koshian) from an Asian shop; leave it out if you can’t get it)
  • 100 g glutinous rice flour (mochiko, shiratamako) (shiratamako or mochiko — ordinary rice flour won’t work)
  • 50 g granulated sugar (sucrose) (don’t leave it out — it keeps the dough soft)
  • 180 g water
  • 20 g cornflour (cornstarch) (have about 60 g ready for dusting; about a third ends up on the mochi)
  • 120 g strawberries (for topping or folding in at the end, 6 smaller strawberries, halved)

Making the mix

  1. Filling: chop the strawberries, sprinkle with 25 g of the sugar, add the lemon juice and leave for 30 minutes to release their juice.
  2. Mix the milk powder and dextrose with the rest of the sugar. Heat the cream with the milk to about 70 °C, add the sugars and stir until dissolved. Cool in a bowl set in iced water.
  3. Blend the strawberries with their juice until completely smooth and stir into the chilled cream mix.
  4. Cover and leave to age in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch on the ice cream maker 5–10 minutes in advance. Pour in the chilled mix and churn for 25–35 minutes until it has the consistency of thick whipped cream. The batch is small, so it freezes faster.
  2. Transfer the ice cream to a container and leave it to firm up in the freezer for an hour — soft ice cream won’t hold a ball shape.
  3. Line a muffin tin with paper cases (or a baking tray with baking paper). Using a cookie scoop (about 30–40 ml), scoop 12 balls of ice cream, put them in the cases and freeze for at least 2 hours until completely hard.
  4. While the balls freeze, make the dough.
  5. Dough: in a microwave-safe bowl, mix the glutinous rice flour with the sugar. Gradually pour in the water, stirring until the dough is smooth and free of lumps.
  6. Cover the bowl loosely and microwave (about 1000 W) for 1 minute. Stir with a wet silicone spatula, microwave for another minute, stir again and finish with 30 seconds. The cooked dough is glossy, slightly translucent and very sticky. Without a microwave, put the bowl in a steamer for 15 minutes and stir the dough halfway through.
  7. Careful: the dough is hot and very sticky. Don’t touch it with bare hands; work with the spatula.
  8. Dust a worktop or a sheet of baking paper generously with cornflour (cornstarch). Tip the dough onto it, dust the top with cornflour too and roll it out with a rolling pin into a sheet about 2 mm thick.
  9. Leave to cool for 10–15 minutes. Cut out circles with a cutter about 9 cm across, press the scraps together and roll them out again — you should get 12 circles. Cover the circles with cling film so they don’t dry out.
  10. Brush the excess cornflour off the dough circles — on the side that needs to stick together it would get in the way.
  11. Divide the anko into 12 pieces of 10 g and spread each into a thin disc about 5 cm across. Place it in the centre of a dough circle.
  12. Take only 2–3 balls out of the freezer at a time. Put a ball in the centre of a circle, quickly draw the dough up around it, pinch it closed into a little bundle and press firmly. Thin disposable gloves help — the dough doesn’t stick to them and the warmth of your hands won’t melt the ice cream.
  13. Turn the mochi seam side down and put it in a paper case in a muffin tin. Keep the tin in the freezer between batches. If the ice cream starts to soften, stop and let the balls firm up for 15 minutes.
  14. Leave the finished mochi to harden in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

The batch is about 0.5 litres of mix. If your machine has a large bowl, feel free to double it and keep the leftover ice cream.

Total time: 11 h 13 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Take the frozen bowl out of the freezer just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the chilled mix and churn for 15–25 minutes until thick.
  3. Transfer the ice cream to a container and leave it to firm up in the freezer for an hour — soft ice cream won’t hold a ball shape.
  4. Line a muffin tin with paper cases (or a baking tray with baking paper). Using a cookie scoop (about 30–40 ml), scoop 12 balls of ice cream, put them in the cases and freeze for at least 2 hours until completely hard.
  5. While the balls freeze, make the dough.
  6. Dough: in a microwave-safe bowl, mix the glutinous rice flour with the sugar. Gradually pour in the water, stirring until the dough is smooth and free of lumps.
  7. Cover the bowl loosely and microwave (about 1000 W) for 1 minute. Stir with a wet silicone spatula, microwave for another minute, stir again and finish with 30 seconds. The cooked dough is glossy, slightly translucent and very sticky. Without a microwave, put the bowl in a steamer for 15 minutes and stir the dough halfway through.
  8. Careful: the dough is hot and very sticky. Don’t touch it with bare hands; work with the spatula.
  9. Dust a worktop or a sheet of baking paper generously with cornflour (cornstarch). Tip the dough onto it, dust the top with cornflour too and roll it out with a rolling pin into a sheet about 2 mm thick.
  10. Leave to cool for 10–15 minutes. Cut out circles with a cutter about 9 cm across, press the scraps together and roll them out again — you should get 12 circles. Cover the circles with cling film so they don’t dry out.
  11. Brush the excess cornflour off the dough circles — on the side that needs to stick together it would get in the way.
  12. Divide the anko into 12 pieces of 10 g and spread each into a thin disc about 5 cm across. Place it in the centre of a dough circle.
  13. Take only 2–3 balls out of the freezer at a time. Put a ball in the centre of a circle, quickly draw the dough up around it, pinch it closed into a little bundle and press firmly. Thin disposable gloves help — the dough doesn’t stick to them and the warmth of your hands won’t melt the ice cream.
  14. Turn the mochi seam side down and put it in a paper case in a muffin tin. Keep the tin in the freezer between batches. If the ice cream starts to soften, stop and let the balls firm up for 15 minutes.
  15. Leave the finished mochi to harden in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours in advance. The mix must be thoroughly chilled.

Total time: 11 h 3 min

Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines

  1. Pour the chilled mix into the CREAMi tub no higher than the MAX line, put the lid on and freeze level for 24 hours.
  2. Put the tub in the machine and run the Ice Cream program. If the ice cream is crumbly, run Re-spin (many users add a tablespoon of milk first).
  3. Leave the ice cream in the tub to firm up in the freezer for an hour — soft ice cream won’t hold a ball shape.
  4. Line a muffin tin with paper cases (or a baking tray with baking paper). Using a cookie scoop (about 30–40 ml), scoop 12 balls of ice cream, put them in the cases and freeze for at least 2 hours until completely hard.
  5. While the balls freeze, make the dough.
  6. Dough: in a microwave-safe bowl, mix the glutinous rice flour with the sugar. Gradually pour in the water, stirring until the dough is smooth and free of lumps.
  7. Cover the bowl loosely and microwave (about 1000 W) for 1 minute. Stir with a wet silicone spatula, microwave for another minute, stir again and finish with 30 seconds. The cooked dough is glossy, slightly translucent and very sticky. Without a microwave, put the bowl in a steamer for 15 minutes and stir the dough halfway through.
  8. Careful: the dough is hot and very sticky. Don’t touch it with bare hands; work with the spatula.
  9. Dust a worktop or a sheet of baking paper generously with cornflour (cornstarch). Tip the dough onto it, dust the top with cornflour too and roll it out with a rolling pin into a sheet about 2 mm thick.
  10. Leave to cool for 10–15 minutes. Cut out circles with a cutter about 9 cm across, press the scraps together and roll them out again — you should get 12 circles. Cover the circles with cling film so they don’t dry out.
  11. Brush the excess cornflour off the dough circles — on the side that needs to stick together it would get in the way.
  12. Divide the anko into 12 pieces of 10 g and spread each into a thin disc about 5 cm across. Place it in the centre of a dough circle.
  13. Take only 2–3 balls out of the freezer at a time. Put a ball in the centre of a circle, quickly draw the dough up around it, pinch it closed into a little bundle and press firmly. Thin disposable gloves help — the dough doesn’t stick to them and the warmth of your hands won’t melt the ice cream.
  14. Turn the mochi seam side down and put it in a paper case in a muffin tin. Keep the tin in the freezer between batches. If the ice cream starts to soften, stop and let the balls firm up for 15 minutes.
  15. Leave the finished mochi to harden in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Programme: Ice Cream

Total time: 34 h 48 min

Stages

Preparation
35 min
Cooking
8 min
Cooling
30 min
Resting
30 min
Ageing in the fridge
4 h
Churning
30 min
Hardening in the freezer
5 h
Total time
11 h 13 min

Serving and storage

Take the mochi out of the freezer 5–10 minutes before serving so that the dough softens and the ice cream loosens — straight from the freezer the wrapper is firm. Eat in small bites and chew thoroughly: mochi dough is very sticky and every year in Japan someone chokes on it, most often older people. For young children and older people, it is better to cut the mochi into pieces. Serve with halved fresh strawberries.

Wrap each mochi in cling film and store in a sealed container in the freezer; they keep for 2–3 weeks. Don’t put them in the fridge — the dough hardens in the cold and the ice cream melts.

Tips

  • Spread the anko with damp fingers or between two pieces of cling film — it sticks less and the disc will be thinner.
  • You can replace the filling with shop-bought strawberry ice cream or leftover strawberry cream ice cream. Pieces of strawberry are harder to shape — smooth is better.
  • Work quickly and in a cool kitchen. Thin disposable gloves stop the dough sticking and the ice cream melting from warm hands.
  • Look for flour made from glutinous (sticky) rice — in Asian shops sold as shiratamako, mochiko or “glutinous rice flour”. Ordinary rice flour won’t make a stretchy dough. On a gluten-free diet, check the packaging of both the flour and the cornflour to make sure they are gluten-free.

Why it works

Anko is made from adzuki beans cooked with a large amount of sugar — sugar makes up about a third of its weight, which is why it doesn’t freeze rock hard. Strawberries bring a lot of water into the filling; the milk powder and dextrose bind it so that the balls aren’t icy.

Sources