60. Japanese Matcha Green Tea Mochi – Gluten Free

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, cake, Food, gluten free, Green Tea, healthy baking, ice cream, international baking, Japan, pandan, traditional food, Travelling and tagged with aduki beans, anko paste, around the world in 80 bakes, azuki, baking, cake, dairy free, dessert, egg free, Food, gluten free, glutinous rice flour, Green Tea, healthy, Japan, japanese, Matcha, Matcha Mochi, mochi, mochi filling, mochi flavours, recipe, red bean paste, rice flour, snacks, vegan 07/03/2014

Mochi are like no other cake I’ve ever tasted. At first I thought I didn’t like them, with their chewy jelly exterior and smooth paste interior, that’s just not as sweet as I’m used to in my sugar spiked desserts. However once you get past your preconceptions of what a cake should taste and feel like, you’re going to love Mochi. I can guarantee it.

Matcha Mochi

The first time I experimented with Mochi was on a food adventure around Hong Kong. (Although they are a traditional Japanese sweet treat.) My friend Bobo and her Mam took us on a whistle stop tour of the real Hong Kong. Rolling from Dumpling Soup and Dim Sum, to Duck and Eel banquets. Sampling Chinese Milk Tea, Egg Tarts and Pineapple Cakes and everything in between. Including impressive dry ice tapioca desserts presented with a flourish of icy smoke clouds. This was my kind of trip! Although I must admit I didn’t manage to eat noodles for breakfast. A regret I still carry with me today. Unfortunately I’m much more of a tea and toast kinda gal!

Golden Temple – Hong Kong

Bobo and me catching the rays in the temple gardens

Delicious fried rice and dumplings

The Japanese English Breakfast – I’ll have a salad with my toast please

Snow Cones in Japan

But Mochi were something else. Deceptively bland on the outside in their floury cloak. When you tentatively choose your mochi you immediately realise how soft and squidgey they really are . Take a bite and there’s a perfect balance of sweet bean paste to rice gel dough. I always thought that Mochi would be difficult to make at home, when in fact they are possibly one of the quickest bakes I’ve ever made! The assembly is the trickiest bit and even then it’s a bit like playing with Play Doh so it’s actually quite fun!

My Mochi Mountain at Confidential Canapé Collective

You can apparently buy red bean paste (also called Anko) pre made (if you can find it!). I couldn’t find any so made my own, and as per usual, made it up as I went along! I chose dried Aduki beans from my local health food shop. These beans are also know as Azuki or Adzuki beans. They are much smaller than kidney beans and apparently rather good for you. They’re classed as a ‘superfood’ which is a bonus. (Just in case you’re interested they are high in soluble fibre, and rich in other nutrients such as B vitamins, potassium, magnesium, zinc, iron, copper and manganese.)

Tender Aduki Beans after 2 hours simmering

You do need to plan this one in advance if using dried aduki beans. You must soak them overnight in cold water. Change the water the next day, then bring them to the boil and simmer them for 2 hours. Once they are tender they’re ready to make into a paste. I didn’t realise that you’re supposed to remove the skins by passing them through a sieve, so I ended up with rather more textured paste than some Japanese confectionery would use… This is called Tsuban (red bean paste). If you sieve your beans you’ll end up with smooth Koshian paste. Once you’ve mastered Anko making, you can use it to fill lots of other Japanese desserts such as Dorayaki (Japanese Red Bean Pancake) or Red Bean Ice Cream (I’m adding these to my list right now!).

Anko – Aduki Sweet Red Bean paste

Once your beans are tender, drain the water and stir in the sugar. Then add a splash of water (half a cup) and allow to simmer . As the water evaporates the paste thickens. When you can draw a line along the bottom of the pan with a spoon the paste is ready. Allow it to cool and blend with a hand blender to a smooth paste. If you make too much you can freeze it for future use.

The very runny rice flour sugar and water batter ready for microwaving

Technically this is a non-bake bake. You only need to microwave the glutinous rice flour, sugar and water for 3 minutes 30 seconds to produce a wonderfully gelatinous dough! It’s amazing how many Mochi you can eek out of the small amount of flour, water and sugar.

The very hot and thick gel dough. You can see my fingermarks where I tried to remove the piping hot dough out of the bowl with my bare hands. Be careful!

Sift one cup of glutionous rice flour (I used my left over Pandan flavoured flour from my Pandan Chiffon Cake. It’s got to be glutinous rice flour as this is the sticky kind. It’s still gluten free despite it glutinous qualities.), followed by 1/4 cup of sugar, 2 tsp of matcha green tea powder, and 1 cup of cold water into a microwave safe bowl. Whisk gently until you have a very smooth thin batter. You could choose other flavourings or colours such as jasmine, taro or coconut. Add your preferred flavouring before cooking!

Sweet treats to eat with Matcha Green Tea at Japanese Tea Ceremony

Kimono dressing

Geisha me before our Japanese Tea Ceremony

Japanese Tea Ceremony – Matcha Green Tea and tiny sugar sweets to help wash down the frothy bitter tea

Cover the bowl with cling film and microwave on high for 3 mins 30 secs. The dough will thicken and inflate. Check it and then microwave for a further 30 seconds if it needed to be a bit firmer. Et voila you have a extremely green jelly dough ready to shape!

The bright green dough scooped safely out of the bowl with a knife

IT WILL BE VERY HOT when you take it out of the microwave! Most recipes tell you to shape it whilst it’s hot. I can assure you it’s much easier to work with when cool and less likely to sizzle your hands, so be careful.

Lots of rice flour everywhere to stop the dough from sticky to everything

Dust your worksurface with rice flour (other recipes say to use potato starch or cornflour, but as I had rice flour to hand I used that and it was fine.) You’re going to want to dust your hands too as the jelly dough sticks to everything! Mine was a vivid green so it looked like I’d been slimed. I’m still finding green goo in my kitchen… Take a small amount of dough (about 1cm x 5cm) and flatten it out using your finger tips on the worksurface. Press it into a round shape about 3mm thick.

Fold in the edges to seal in the red bean paste

Dollop a nice large marble sized pea of red bean paste in the centre of your dough and fold the dough over the paste to seal it in. Turn the Mochi over and roll it in a cupped hand or on the work surface to encourage the sealed edge to stick together and create a smooth round finish. Roll it in a little more rice flour and pop it into a mini cupcake cake case. Roll and repeat until you’ve used all of your paste and dough!

Shape shape shape your mochi

You could choose other pastes or ice cream to flavour your mochi with. Next time I’m going to try matcha ice cream centres!

The finished Mochi sitting pretty

I had to make a second batch of dough as I’d been a bit too enthusiastic with my portion sizes first time round. My Mochi were more dough than paste which isn’t as tasty to eat.

The first batch - I had rolled some too thin so the red bean paste is lurking periliiously close to the surface of some mochi

The first batch – I had rolled some too thin so the red bean paste is lurking periliously close to the surface of some mochi

It could be the complex combination of it’s jelly like texture or the smooth savoury yet sweet paste filling that make Mochi so memorable. Or perhaps it’s the unusually satisfying bite that they possess. Once you’ve tried them I’m sure you’re going to want to try them and experiment with more flavour combinations. They’re small so you probably want to eat at least 2 in a sitting!

A mouthful of mochi! Yum yum yum!

This dough recipe was enough to make 16 small mochi. I had enough paste left to make another batch so made a second batch of dough. Good news Mochi are gluten free and low in sugar so they’re relatively health conscious snack or dessert too. It’s best to store Mochi in an air tight container. They will keep for a couple of days if you don’t eat them all straight away!

You can see the Matcha Mochi are a bit darker in colour and more rounded in shape 🙂 My Mochi Mountain at Confidential Canapé Collective

I made my Mochi to share with friends at out Confidential Canapé Collective which we hosted at my new house. I really enjoyed making and eating these little sweet treats. I definitely prefer my Mochi with matcha in the dough. It gives a richer yet subtle flavour whilst tinting the dough naturally with a dark green hue. I was surprised by how many disappeared that night and some friends even took a couple home for later. Therefore I can confidently declare my Matcha Mochi a success! I can’t wait to attempt Matcha ice cream next!

Things that I used to make my Mochi

Matcha Green Tea Mochi Dough Recipe

Really quick to prepare! Makes enough dough for approx 16 small mochi

1 cup of glutinous (sticky) rice flour – I used pandan flavoured flour but you could use plain and add other flavours
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of caster sugar
2 tsp matcha green tea powder

Mochi Filling Red Bean Paste (Anko) Recipe

Takes a bit of preparation: Soak over night and boil for 2 hours

Makes enough to fill approx. 30 mochi

100g dried Aduki beans
cold water
50g sugar

Red Bean Paste Instructions

Soak the dried beans in cold water over night
Drain the water.
Cover the beans in cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 2 hours til tender.
Drain the water. Stir in sugar. Add half cup of water. Simmer til very soft and water is evaporated.
Blend with hand blender to a smooth paste.

Mochi Instructions

Whisk the ingredients together into a thin batter
Cover with cling film and microwave for 3 minutes 30 seconds and then a further 30 seconds if needed to firm the dough up further
Allow to cool before scooping the dough onto a rice floured surface (use more flour as needed to prevent sticking)
Take small pieces (1x5cm) of the dough and shape into rounds
Place a marble sized dollop of your chosen filling in the centre of the dough
Fold the edges over the filling. Press the edges to seal
Turn the mochi over and roll in a cupped hand to seal the edges further.
Dust with rice flour and place into paper case
Leave to set at room temperature for an hour
Eat!

Coconut Crazy! Homemade Italian Coconut Gelato

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in @laurenprince, Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Cookery, dessert, Everday Cooking, Food, gelato, ice cream, Italy, Lauren Prince and tagged with camping, coconut curls, coconut custard, coconut gelato, coconut halves, coffee, colosseum rome, cream, desiccated coconut, dessert, dessicated coconut, difference between ice cream and gelato, dried coconut, Eggs, espresso, Food, frozen dessert, gelato, holidays, home made, how to make basic gelato, how to make coconut decoration, how to use kitchenaid ice cream attachment, ice cream, ice cream maker, italian, Italy, kitchenaid mixer, milk, recipe, shaving a coconut, Sugar, thomson al fresco, trevi fountain, vegetarian 16/03/2013

Homemade Italian Coconut Gelato complete with coconut curls

My favourite ice cream in the whole entire world has got to be Italian Coconut Gelato. Now that’s a bold statement I know, but having sampled real Italian Gelato and having lived very close to a Gelato shop in Newcastle I think I’ve tried quite a few flavours and this is without doubt top of my list every time. Yeah chocolate is always lovely but a bit too much of an obvious choice sometimes for my liking. I do love cherry gelato and pistachio is tremendous too but coconut is what is usually what I crave when looking for a cold fix.

I’ll have half a dried coconut please

I seem to be developing an obsession with coconut, finding ways to incorporate it into all foods. Be that coconut milk, oil, dessicated and dried. In the creation of this gelato I discovered the wonderful ingredient of dried coconut halves which saved me the effort of breaking into a fresh coconut with a hammer and fork (my only suitable kitchen implements I think for such a job!)

Trevi Fountain adventuring in Rome with my Dad

I visited Rome just last year for the first time with my Dad. It was gorgeous. We spent a few days wandering round, bouncing from the Trevi Fountain to pasta cafes to St Paul’s basilica. Pausing to absorb the beauty and history of our surroundings and to take on more fuel in the form of pasta and gelato. I dragged my Dad to many cake shops and the beautiful and oldest gelataria in Rome, Giolitti. Not that I heard him complain once 🙂

What a view from the top! Colosseum, Rome

The main difference between ice cream and gelato is the taste and texture. Gelato freezes at a higher temperature than ice cream. This gives a much more intense flavour than you get from eating ice cream which is colder and numbs your tastes buds slightly. The warmer the temperature the more you can taste! Gelato is also made with less fat, so good news it’s better for you than ice cream! (Depending on how much you eat of it of course). Gelato is also much softer and smoother in texture than traditional ice cream. All the better for eating!

Heating the milk and cream to infuse flavour into the gelato base

The initial stage of heating the milk/cream gives you the perfect opportunity to infuse flavours. You can choose to infuse whatever flavour you fancy into your gelato. Some flavours will require a longer infusion time than others. A vanilla pod may take about 20 minutes over a low heat to impart it’s flavour fully, but something like coffee extract, tea bags, cocoa powder or other flavour extracts will give instant flavour and need little infusion time (maybe about 5 minutes).

You can infuse your base with your favourite flavours, such as vanilla, coffee, tea, lavender, rose, cinnamon, cherry, pistachio and much much more! If you’re going to choose a different flavour it would be wise to choose something with a low liquid content as adding water to the mix may cause ice crystals to form. Adding alcohol in small amounts should be ok, but remember alcohol doesn’t really freeze.

Another flavour option can be created by using a different variety of milk. Even better news for people with food allergies or intolerances! I used coconut milk here but you could just as easily use cows, goats, soy, almond or hazelnut. Each will give you a slightly different flavour and possibly texture. Some milks can become grainy when heated, so it may be wise to try heating up a small amount first to make sure it can stand the heat. before you commit to cooking an entire batch. Or have a fine sieve to hand!

Add your choice of flavour to your milk then heat the cream/milk until it starts to bubble. I added 80g of desiccated coconut to the milk and cream here to infuse even more coconut goodness.

Keep stirring it so a skin doesn’t form on the top. Allow it to cool slightly. Cream and milk have slightly different boiling points so keep a close eye on the pan, you don’t want it to boil over, or get a thick skin on your coconut cream!

Beat together the eggs and sugar for about 5 minutes

Beat together the sugar and eggs until smooth and fluffy. They will become a mellow yellow colour after about 5 minutes of beating with an electric whisk/mixer.

The discarded dessicated coconut - nothing will go to waste in my house! - gelato recipe

The discarded desiccated coconut – nothing will go to waste in my house!

Once the cream/milk has cooled slightly pass it through a fine sieve to remove your flavouring if needed. Squeeze all of you milk/cream out of the coconut so you don’t miss a drop of your infused cream. I kept my creamy coconut mixture to use later on.

Sieve your hot cream mixture if you need to remove additional flavourings like vanilla pods or dessicated coconut!

As the next stage is to make a smooth custard you can’t add any swirls of fruit/flavours at this point. Your custard needs to be smooth and pure so it can thicken fully. Hang on to any additional flavourings that you would like to add for later on. You can then swirl them in just before the final freeze. After about 5 minutes of beating, the sugar and eggs will inflate slightly and take on a pale yellow colour.

The beaten eggs and sugar – the custard base

Whilst continuing to beat the fluffy eggs and sugar slowly pour the hot coconut cream into the eggs. Add the hot cream gradually to avoid scrambling the eggs! Adding very hot cream at this stage will give you lumpy egg custard, I don’t think anyone would enjoy lumpy gelato although it may be an interesting texture on the palette!

Pour the hot cream into the eggs gradually whilst continuing to beat the eggs

Once you’ve poured all of the cream into the eggs, keep beating the mixture until it’s fully combined. When it’s ready the custard will start to thicken as the hot cream gently cooks the eggs. The custard will be smooth, fluffy and a very pale yellow in colour due to all those beautiful egg yolks! (Note my leftover egg whites in the jug. I’m saving them for another recipe later on…)

Fluffy coconut custard

Then all that’s left to do is thicken the custard a bit more. You can do this in a bain marie (in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot water) to avoid burning the custard and gently thicken the mixture. Or if you’re in a hurry, whack it all in a pan and heat the custard over a low heat and stir like mad so nothing burns/sticks to the bottom. The key is to keep stirring to distribute the heat evenly and allow the custard to cook thoroughly.

Thickening up the coconut custard in a bain marie

Not letting the precious coconut custard out of my sight as I thicken it in my home made bain marie

Once the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon it’s good to go! The custard needs to cool before you can freeze it and unfortunately this can take up to 6 hours…. Not great when you need a gelato fix right this second! A quick cheat is to carefully place your hot pan of custard into a bowl (or in my case a sink) of cold water to rapidly cool the custard. Keep stirring it every now and then to stop a skin from forming. You can chill it further in the fridge before cracking out the ice cream maker.

Coconut Custard coating the back of a spoon – thick enough to cool!

After all this patience the end result is not far off! I recently bought myself an attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer. The ice cream maker! This was my very first experiment and venture into ice cream making. You will need to follow the instructions for your own ice cream maker as they’re all a bit different, but for the Kitchenaid, I had to freeze the special ice cream bowl in the freezer for 15 hours (it now lives there permanently for all ice cream making emergencies) . Once I had fitted the blade to the Kitchenaid mechanism it’s good to go. One important thing to note is that you should pour the custard in whilst the machine is running as the custard may freeze solid instantly and could break your Kitchenaid if you’re unlucky.

Freeze me up – KitchenAid Ice Cream attachment in action

It takes about 20 minutes in the Kitchenaid to freeze the gelato to a ‘soft set’ . I couldn’t resist a sneaky taste of it at this stage and it tasted pretty amazing. It will be quite sweet at this stage as when it’s set further in the freezer the sweetness is reduced.

Letting the KitchenAid do all the hard work freezing my coconut gelato – time for a cup of tea methinks

So with 20 minutes on your hands you’ve got plenty time to have a cup of tea and start the washing up. Once the gelato has reached the ‘soft set stage’ where it starts looking like slightly melted/soft ice cream you can stir in any additional flavours. I added 2 tablespoons of the left over desiccated coconut for good measure. You can see some of it lurking on the top of the blades!

Soft set coconut gelato ready for the freezer

You could probably eat it at the soft set stage if you like your gelato extra soft, or scoop it into a freezer container, smooth it down and leave it in the freezer to set fully for about 5 hours. As Gelato contains less fat it freezes much harder than ice cream, so you may need to take it out of the freezer to soften before serving. You could pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes if it’s a bit difficult to get it into a bowl.

Shaving a coconut to create coconut curls

Shaving a dried coconut to create coconut curls

Taking my trusty vegetable peeler I shaved the dried coconut halves into thin slivers to create some pretty coconut curls. I quite like the dark brown edges of the coconut rind against the white coconut flesh. It’s makes a tasty decoration too! Pop a couple of curls on the top of your gelato for a quick and sophisticated looking decoration.

Coconut Gelato complete with coconut curls

Sharing Coconut Gelato with friends – I didn’t eat it all myself. I promise!

I didn’t eat it all myself. I promise! My friends came round for tea and we all quickly cleared our bowls of gelato which marks it as a clear success! It was smooth, creamy and extremely coconutty. Just my kind of gelato! I liked it so much that when I was washing up after my friends left I decided to start making some more custard, but this time I experimented with Italian Espresso Gelato instead.

Coconut Gelato – it didn’t last long

Coconut Gelato – extreme close up

What I used to make Italian Coconut Gelato (Gelato di Crema)

Coconut Custard

1 x 400ml can of coconut milk (which is equal to 1 and 3/4 cups)
109ml of double cream (1/2 cup)
55ml semi skimmed milk (1/4 cup)
(you can use your own combination of cream/milk here to total 545 ml or 2 and 1/2 cups of liquid)
5 egg yolks
110g (or 1/2 cup) granulated sugar (I used vanilla infused sugar)
80g (or 1 cup) desiccated coconut (add your flavour to infuse at this stage)
Keep 2 tbs of the desiccated coconut back to add to the soft set gelato before putting it into the freezer.

Coconut Gelato Method Summary

Add flavouring and heat cream and milk until boiling
Beat eggs and sugar together until fluffy
Cool cream slightly
Pour hot cream into eggs and sugar while continuing to beat the mixture
Thicken the custard in a bain marie/pan until it coats the back of a spoon
Cool the custard until chilled throughly
Freeze the custard using ice cream maker for about 20 minutes until soft set
Set the ice cream in the freezer for about 5 hours

Many thanks to Thomson Al Fresco who supplied the ingredients for me to make this Italian Gelato creation! If this recipe has whetted your appetite for all things Italian you might enjoy camping in the beautiful Lake Garda, Lazio, Tuscany, Adriatic Coast or the Venetian Riviera. I’m already dreaming of my next Italian adventure.

If you want to make another Italian classic you could try making your own Espresso Gelato, using the same method but a slightly different recipe.

Espresso Gelato