Join us in cooking a fun and tasty Japanese recipe for kids – Japanese Mochi Ice Cream! A fun addition to homeschooling is learning about countries all around the world by choosing interesting recipes to make with the whole family! My kids love to be in the kitchen, and we really enjoy making desserts as a family. Even if you don’t homeschool, you can enjoy an experience in creating something delicious with your children.
During our world geography study, I thought it would be a good idea to try a new Japanese recipe for kids. (Another fun one if you haven’t done it before is making Sushi!) We watched this short video on fun facts about Japan.
After watching this brief video, we began the cooking process. The first step to making mochi is to find an Asian grocery store (or order off Amazon) The special flour used to make it called Mochiko:
To make the mochi, you need the ingredients listed below. We tried this recipe which worked out somewhat well. The dough was a bit sticky, and I would recommend possibly adding more of the Mochiko flour to make it less so. We did triple the recipe so that it would make 12 mochi balls instead of 4.
Ingredients:
- ice cream of your choice
- ½ cup milk (118ml)
- ⅓ cup sugar (68g)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp neutral flavor oil
- food coloring (optional)
- ½ cup Mochiko, or glutinous rice flour (85g)
- potato starch
- plastic wrap, parchment paper, muffing cups, and a baking sheet
Making the Recipe
Follow the instructions in the link – first you freeze balls of Ice Cream in the freezer. We let ours sit overnight, but they could be done in as quick as 20 minutes.
Then, heat the milk and sugar together in a pot on the stovetop until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat and add the vanilla extract, coconut oil and food coloring of your choice. We chose pink for Valentine’s Day! Next, mix in the Mochiko flour.
Turn the heat back on to medium and continue to stir for about 3-5 minutes. It’s ready when the dough is smooth, thick and elastic. This transformation took us longer than 5 minutes, but it could have been the temperature on the stove. The dough looked sticky and thick.
Place starch on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Use lots of starch so the dough doesn’t stick! Then you’ll want to spread and flatten the dough over the paper. Place the whole baking sheet in the fridge for 20 minutes or longer until the dough cools off. put more starch on the top as well!
Once the dough cools, you can shape it over the ice cream balls. Our dough was pretty sticky, so we ended up just covering the tops of the ice cream with it, but they still tasted delicious! Once you have the balls covered, place everything in the freezer for 20 minutes. Then, you can eat your mochi!
So if you are learning about Japan in your homeschool or you want to get creative in the kitchen, check out this pretzel recipe! We hope you’ll try this Japanese recipe for kids (and adults!).