Black Sesame Ice Cream Mochi

Making ice cream mochi has been on my to-do list for ages, ever since I got back from Hong Kong last year and really missed the readily available ones there. Mochi is the word for pounded glutinous rice, and ice cream is wrapped in a thin dough made of this which is deliciously sticky and a bit gooey. I used to eat them a lot when I was kid, in a variety of flavours but I haven't yet found a reasonably priced version here. I was put off by all of the recipes making the dough in a microwave, as I don't have one, but the craving for mochi became too much and I ploughed on with a trusty saucepan.

It was quite hard work. The flour was added to the water and as it needs a bit of cooking, a lot of vigorous stirring and unladylike swearing ensued to make sure it didn't stick to the pan like shit to a blanket. The dough was then flopped out to a well floured surface to squidge it into a vaguely uniform thin sheet; I cursed the boiling hot dough scalding my fingers and left it to cool to later wrap the ice cream up into.

I left an unholy mess behind. Of the mochi? I managed to make a grand total of 6 misshapen balls, delicious filled with black sesame ice cream. It is entirely possible I need more practise. And possibly to buy a microwave.

The black sesame ice cream worked a treat though, and came out a dramatic grey-black colour which I loved but some were put off by it.


Black Sesame Ice Cream

200ml whipping cream
350ml semi skimmed milk
2 egg yolks
80gr sugar
7 tbsp black sesame seeds (rather a random amount but I added incrementally till I got the right flavour)
1 tsp vanilla

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until they become creamy. Toast the black sesame seeds and grind finely. Add to the milk, then add the cream and heat till it comes to just under boiling and take off the heat. Add the vanilla and leave to infuse for half an hour. Add a few spoonfuls of the milk mixture to the eggs and stir well. Keep adding until all is incorporated, and then put back on a low heat, stirring and heating until it has thickened - do not let it boil. It should resemble custard. Strain the sesame seeds out and put the mixture in the fridge to cool thoroughly before churning into ice cream in your maker.

Mochi Ice Cream

70gr glutinous rice flour (you can buy this in Chinatown)
40gr sugar
1 tsp vanilla
100ml water
Ice cream
Loads of cornstarch

Using an ice cream scoop (or a melon scoop for smaller), make balls of ice cream and freeze them well.

If you have a microwave, place the dough ingredients into a bowl, mix well and cover. Nuke for 2 mins on medium, then stir and cook for one more. Mix well, it should turn shiny and smooth. Alternatively, place all of the above in a non-stick saucepan and prepare to stir like hell, heating it well and cooking for about 5 minutes.

Use plenty of cornflour on your work surface and flop your dough out onto it. It should be pliable but not too sloppy. Using your fingers, carefully push the dough out to make a thin sheet. Cut circles out of it with a pint glass and freeze the circles for half an hour. Wrap the ice cream balls in the mochi dough and freeze again.

Then clean your kitchen...

Pineapple, Lime & Chilli Sorbet

My ice cream maker hasn't been dusted off and busted out in a while. One might say I lost the love after the salted caramel butter ice cream. How could I top those heady heights? With a shadow of resignation, I got to work. For a while now I'd had the idea of pineapple and lime sorbet. Or mint? Pineapple and mint? Or lime? With gin? Tequila?

In the end, I settled on pineapple and lime with a hint of chilli and served with a few chunks of sweet strawberry, it worked a treat. Smooth, fluffy sorbet was heavily scented with pineapple, spiked through with lime and with a slow, confusing burn. Out of 8 of us who ate it a bewildered murmur went through the group. "Is there ginger in this?" "there's a strange hot-cold thing going on..." I smiled smugly at my secret, eventually revealing the truth.

Pineapple, Lime & Chilli Sorbet

Serves 8

1 ripe pineapple (give the inner most central green leaves a tug. If it comes out easily it's ripe.)
1 large lime
1 red birds eye chilli
100gr sugar
120mls water

In a saucepan, add the sugar and the water. Make a small slit in the chilli but do not slice through completely. Bring to the boil and simmer for a minute, take off the heat, remove the chilli and leave to cool.

Peel and core the pineapple, and chop into chunks. Place in a blender with the juice of the lime and the sugar solution. Blend vigorously until smooth - I left it blending away for about 3 minutes. Chill well, and then place in your ice cream maker. Alternatively, place in a container in the freezer, blending well every couple of hours a few times so that large ice crystals don't form.

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream

I'm not usually the type to go completely mental over ice cream. It's one of those things I can take or leave; maybe a Cornetto by the seaside is quite nice, but not essential. However, this all changed recently. I visited Browns of Brockley, a deli a short walk away from my flat and bought some apple crumble ice cream. After a cursory taste of this, I was raving about it to anyone that would listen, gazing at me with bored eyes until they tasted it themselves.

A couple of weeks later, I glimpsed this recipe. Salted butter caramel ice cream. Salted. Butter. Caramel. I bought an ice cream maker especially to try it.

The recipe is a total, utter ballache which I am sure is my fault and not of the recipe's. The caramel seized and I spent a good hour, if not more, stirring it, melting it back down. In total, it may have taken me 3 or so hours to make, but after one bite of my efforts I didn't care. It is amazing.

I replaced some of the sugar with maple sugar and salt with smoked, which gave a good dimension of flavour to it. If you haven't got any, use the recipe linked above. Be warned - melting sugar is not for the faint hearted. If it burns you, it HURTS.

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream

Makes 1 litre - you will eat it all

For the caramel praline:

50gr sugar

25gr maple sugar

3/4 tsp smoked salt (I used Halen Mon)

For the ice cream:

500ml milk, split in two

200gr sugar

50gr maple sugar

60gr butter

1/2 tsp smoked salt

250ml double cream, warmed

5 egg yolks

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. In a pan, melt the sugar for the praline, stirring occasionally to melt all the granules. Cook until it is mostly liquid and the caramel starts smoking a bit. As it's just about to burn, take off the heat, whack in the salt immediately and then pour the caramel on to the baking sheet. Wiggle it around a bit to try and get the thinnest sheet of caramel as possible. Set aside to harden.

Fill a big bowl to halfway with ice and a little water, and nestle a smaller bowl within. Pour 1 portion of the milk into the bowl and set a fine seive on top.

Caramelise the rest of the sugar as above. Once caramelised, remove from the heat and stir in the butter and the salt. When the butter has melted whisk in the cream. At this point, it seized into an unholy mess. If this happens to you, heat gently until it all melts back down. It takes a while. Stir in the rest of the milk and take off the heat.

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl and gradually pour the warm cream mixture, stirring as you go. Scrape this all back into the saucepan and heat and stir to around 70 degrees C, so just before it boils. It should thicken slightly. Pour the custard through the strainer onto the iced milk and stir to combine and to cool it down. Place this in fridge and chill until the mixture is fridge cold. Churn in your ice cream maker.

Before placing in the freezer, bash up the praline roughly. Stir this through the ice cream, decant into a container and place in the freezer. These caramel bits will liquify a little.

The end result is gorgeously creamy, sweet buttery ice cream with a little hint of salt. You'd be silly not to try it.