Mango Mochi Ice Cream

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My mango mochi ice cream combines sweet rice dough with a creamy mango filling, creating a soft and chewy dessert. Perfect for anyone who loves fruity treats, I’ll guide you through making this easy, no-special-equipment-needed dessert at home. In 30 minutes, you’ll master my recipe for this Japanese mango ice cream dessert, and you’ll have a new favorite to share with everyone!

If you’ve never made these, you have to try this at least once. I’m hooked, and I’ve made this recipe and variations of mochi ice cream for years. It’s sweet, starchy outside with the creamy filling that’s totally irresistible, and my kids love these as much as I do.

Which is where my homemade mango ice cream mochi recipe comes in! My version is so easy to make, you may never buy store bought mochi again!

Mochi, a traditional Japanese rice cake, is crafted from glutinous rice – also known as mochigome. I love how the sweet rice flour comes together – it’s soaked, steamed, pounded into a sticky, dough-like consistency, then formed into various shapes. These shapes can eaten as is, or filled with sweet or savory ingredients, making it a versatile treat.

While making mochi dough from scratch at home may seem intimidating, I promise it’s quite easy! This is basically a mango ice cream filling wrapped in mochigome dough.

I love how it’s a little sticky when you first bite into it, and then the soft, sweet, cold, rich ice cream melts in my mouth and the mango flavor is on another level. And it’s also great if your teeth are sensitive to cold, the mochigome dough is perfect.

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🥘 Ingredients

You can find the full list of ingredients along with step-by-step instructions for this mochi mango ice cream recipe in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here’s what you need:

Glutinous Rice Flour: I love the texture of glutinous rice flour. Its key function is to give mochi that signature chewy texture. I don’t recommend substituting this ingredient. Its high starch content helps create the texture needed for this dessert. Despite the name, it is actually gluten-free.

Sugar & Water: I used regular white sugar or cane sugar, which sweetens the mochi dough. Water helps the dry ingredients mix and your dough form.

Corn Starch (or Cornflour): Cornflour is used to prevent the mochi from sticking to everything while you’re rolling it out to cut out the dough circles.

Mango Filling: I love using mango ice cream as the mochi filling, but homemade mango ice cream (essentially, fresh mango blended with cream) or mango sorbet can also work. The mango filling is stuffed inside of the mochi and makes up most of the recipe.

Orange Food Coloring: This ingredient is optional but gives the mango cream mochi a more mango color on the outside (vs. a whiter color).

🔪 How To Make Mango Mochi Ice Cream

Mango mochi balls are easy to make, just follow the instructions carefully to prevent some common mistakes. Check out the expert tips section for more help and my secret tips for getting this recipe right every time.

Line Muffin Tray, Prep Mochi Ice Cream Filling: I use a 12-hole muffin tray, and I prefer using muffin liners for easy cleanup. Make sure to line 8 holes with muffin liners and set aside. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out 8 balls of ice cream and place each ball into prepared muffin liners. Place the ice cream balls in the freezer.

Mix Ingredients: In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the rice flour and sugar. Pour in the water and mix until smooth. If using food coloring add a drop and mix until well combined.

Cook In Microwave: Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove and stir with a rubber spatula, cover and heat again for another minute to a minute and 30 seconds. (Total cooking time will depend on the strength of the microwave.). The mochi will turn from white to almost translucent in color.

Place On Parchment Paper: Sprinkle corn starch over a silicone sheet or parchment paper. Place the cooked mochi dough onto the corn starch.

Roll Dough: Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out thin, dusting with corn starch (cornflour) if it’s a little sticky.

Cut Dough Into Balls: Using a circular cookie cutter, large enough to cover the ice cream balls, cut the dough into 8 circles. Cover a tray with plastic wrap and place the dough circles on to it with a piece of wrap in between each layer. Chill the cut circles in the fridge for 10 minutes. (Note: Some people may use a mochi ice cream kit for this step, but I’ve found that a large round cookie cutter is more budget-friendly and works just fine!)

Assemble Mochi: Remove ice cream from freezer and mochi from fridge. When the dough is cold and the ice cream balls are frozen hard you can start to put it all together. Start by placing one dough circle on your work surface and add an ice cream ball into the center of the dough.

Encase The Ice Cream Ball With Dough, pinching the ends together. Place the dough covered ice cream ball back into the muffin liner with the seam side down.

Repeat & Freeze: Repeat with remaining ice cream balls and dough. Once complete, place the muffin tray with the mango mochi ice cream balls back into the freezer and freeze until ready to serve, at least 2 hours before serving.

📖 Variations

I’ll show you how to change the flavors in this recipe to just about anything you like or even make this with plain fruit filling instead of ice cream! Here are some of my favorite flavors to try:

Different Flavored Ice Cream: Make your mochi strawberry, peach, vanilla, berry, passion fruit, chocolate, or any flavor you like! Any ice cream can be used to make mochi. I will sometimes use my homemade lychee ice cream for a lychee mochi recipe!

Coconut Mochi: Give this mochi and even more tropical flavor with coconut flakes. Roll the assembled mochi mango balls in shredded coconut before freezing.

Homemade Mango Cream: To make this Japanese mango ice cream mochi with fresh mango and cream, blend 1 peeled and diced mango + 1-2 cups heavy cream in a blender until smooth, add sugar to taste if needed, then transfer to ice cube trays and freeze until hardened. Then use that as your mochi filling!

Fresh Mango Mochi Recipe: Mango mochi daifuku is basically fresh fruit or fruit purees wrapped directly in mochi. Fresh mango chunks, freeze-dried mango, or mango puree can be wrapped in your mochi dough for a fresh fruit mango filling. Alternatively, you can use mango flavored powder to mix into your mochi dough directly, add fresh chunks of fruit mixed with your ice cream, or you can use a mango flavored custard as a filling as well.

Vegan Mochi: Make this recipe vegan by substituting vegan or plant-based ice cream. I love using this mango nice cream recipe instead of regular ice cream for a vegan twist!

🧊 Storage Directions

Freezer: I store my fresh mochi in the freezer immediately after assembly. This is because the dough can become tough and the ice cream will melt if left out for more than a few minutes. It can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can’t store this in the fridge or it will melt.

To Serve: Prior to serving, I take my fruit-flavored mochi out and let them sit for 5-15 minutes at room temperature. That way, it will be soft and chewy and not too hard to bite into.

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