Persimmon Mochi
Persimmon mochi has a soft, sticky, and chewy mochi skin with a sweet jelly-like persimmon filling. Decorated with a real persimmon leaf, this mochi looks just like a real persimmon!
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- blender
- Steamer
- Non stick silicone mat (Optional)
- Rolling Pin (Optional)
- Mochi mold (Can be substituted with a ladle)
Ingredients
Persimmon Mochi Skin
- 170 g milk (¾ cups; *See Note 1 if you want to use persimmon juice instead of milk)
- 30 g cornstarch (3 tbsps)
- 45 g sugar (3½ tbsps)
- 100 g glutinous rice flour (15 tbsps)
- 3 drops food coloring - orange color (Gel, liquid, or powder food coloring)
- 20 g unsalted butter
Persimmon Mochi Filling
- 1 hachiya persimmon
- 300 g heavy whipping cream (1¼ cup)
- 30 g powdered sugar (4 tbsp)
- 10 g water (1 tbsp)
- 3 g gelatin powder (1 tsp)
Other
- 30 g glutinous rice flour (4 tbsps)
Instructions
Preparation
- Make gelatin whipped cream by following this recipe. Put the whipped cream into a piping bag, keep it in the fridge.
- Cook 4 tbsps of glutinous rice flour over medium heat for about 5 minutes, whisking constantly, until it smells like popcorn. Set aside to cool down. (We will use this cooked flour to prevent from getting sticky later.)
Make Persimmon Mochi Skin
- Add 170g milk, 30g cornstarch, 45g sugar, and 100g glutinous rice flour in a bowl. Optionally, add a few drops of orange food coloring to make the mixture orange. Stir with a whisk until the mixture is smooth. (*See Note 1 if you want to use persimmon juice instead of milk. )
- Cover the bowl with heatproof food wrap, use a toothpick to poke about 12 holes on the food wrap. Steam the mixture over high heat for 30 minutes until fully cooked - Stick a toothpick into the middle of the mochi dough and if it comes out clean, the dough is fully cooked.
- Take the bowl out from the steamer, put 20g butter on the top of the steamed mochi dough. Wait for a few minutes until the butter is melted.
- Roughly mix the butter and the mochi dough with a spoon. Transfer the mochi dough and the butter on a nonstick silicone mat, or a working surface covered with plastic food wrap.
- Once the mochi dough is not too hot to be touched, use your hands to knead the dough until all the butter has been absorbed. You can put non-stick food handling gloves to avoid from getting sticky. (If the dough is still to sticky to be kneaded, wrap up the dough with plastic food wrap, keep the dough in the fridge for 1 hour until it completely cools down. It will be less sticky after it's cooled.)
- Knead the mochi dough by pulling and folding it for about 5 minutes, until you can pull it as long as your forearm (about 10 inches).
- Cut the mochi dough into 6 equal portions. Flatten each small dough into 5-inch diameter circles. Cover with plastic food wrap until use.
Assemble The Mochi
- Take a mochi skin, dust some cooked glutinous rice flour on one side, line the mochi skin on a mochi mold (You can also use a soup ladle or small round-shape bowl) with the glutinous rice flour side facing down.
- Add about 1 tbsp of hachiya persimmon fruit in the middle of the mochi skin, pipe in about 2 tbsps of gelatin whipped cream. Pull the edges of the wrap together to cover the filling, press together the edges to seal well.
- Pinch off the dough where all the pleats meet, apply some glutinous rice flour, flip the persimmon mochi so that the smooth side is facing up.
- Place a persimmon leaf on the center of the mochi.
- Serve immediately. Store leftover mochi in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Video
Notes
Note 1: You can blend 150g persimmon flesh + 80g water into juice, weigh 180g of the persimmon juice and use it to substitute the milk. In this way, the mochi skin will have a persimmon taste too.
I used hachiya persimmon, which is very mushy and soft. You can also use fuyu persimmon, which is harder and crispier. Since we will blend them into juice anyway, you can use both hard and soft persimmons to make the mochi skin.
However, different types of persimmon contain different amounts of water. If it's your first time making persimmon mochis, it could be hard for you to adjust the amount of water based on the texture of the mochi dough mixture.
Therefore, I'd suggest you to just use milk plus some food coloring instead of the persimmon juice. In this way you are more likely to make successful mochi skin.
Note 2: If you can't find hachiya persimmon in your local stores, you can also use ice cream as the mochi's filling.
One thing to keep in mind, if you scoop the ice cream directly onto the mochi skin, it will melt fast before you are able to shape it into a ball.
To avoid a mess, you can make some ice cream balls with food wrap and freeze them overnight before wrapping them into the mochi skins.