Custard Mochi (Daifuku)

Custard Mochi (Daifuku) is a sweet and chewy Japanese dessert! Made with custard wrapped in glutinous rice cake, it is a treat you won’t be able to resist. While it’s traditionally eaten around the Japanese New Year, the sweet treat can be enjoyed at any time of the year!

Mochi is a sweet and sticky confection made with glutinous rice cake that’s stuffed with a sweet filling. It’s absolutely irresistible. There’s a reason this Japanese dessert has taken the world by storm in the past few years. In the US, you can even find ice cream mochi at many mainstream stores like Trader Joe’s and Walmart.

I love the frozen confection as much as the next person, but there’s honestly nothing better than fresh mochi filled with red bean paste or in this case custard. Unfortunately, the latter is much harder to find where I live. I tried the real thing when I visited Japan over three years ago, and I decided it was about time I learn how to make it on my own!

Traditionally, in Japan, the glutinous rice is steamed and pounded until it’s smooth and elastic before it’s shaped into mochi. Today, we’ll be making things easy on ourselves and taking out those steps (it’s not as authentic when you aren’t in Japan anyway, right?)

Mochi may look intimidating to make, that’s certainly how I felt at first, but it’s actually a lot easier than you think. The great thing about this mochi recipe is that the rice cake can be made in the microwave in four minutes. See? SO easy! Honestly, the hardest part about this recipe is trying to resist eating all of the mochi in one sitting.

Here’s What You’ll Need to Make Mochi

• Milk
• All-purpose flour
• Egg yolks
• Granulated sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Salt
• Mochiko sweet rice flour
• Yellow food coloring
• Potato or corn starch

How to Make Custard Mochi (Daifuku)

1. Add the milk to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat to boiling.
2. Slowly whisk in the flour, eggs, and sugar. Heat on low heat until bubbling and thick.
3. Pour the custard through a sieve to remove any clumps. Let custard cool in the fridge for 1 hour.

4. Scoop custard into frosting bag and pipe onto a cookie sheet into 8 dollops.
5. Freeze for one hour.

6. Whisk together the mochi ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap.
7. Microwave for 1 minute, remove plastic then stir. It will not be smooth after stirring it.
8. Replace the plastic wrap and continue microwaving in one-minute intervals until mochi is no longer white. It will have more of a translucent quality and will feel gummy. This usually takes 3-4 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, enough to handle with your hands.
9. Place the mochi on a cutting board generously coated in potato starch. Sprinkle potato starch on top of the mochi. Shape the mochi into a half-inch thick disk.

10. Divide the mochi into eight pieces. Coat your hands with potato starch and roll each piece into a ball, and then flatten into a disk. Place a dollop of custard in the middle. Use your fingers to pinch the mochi closed around the custard.

What is mochi filled with?

There are a variety of fillings you can put in mochi including red bean paste (anko), white bean paste (shiroan), ice cream, custard, strawberries, and even cookie dough!

Can you make mochi with regular rice flour?

Rice flour is made from medium or long-grain rice, but sweet rice flour (mochiko) is made from glutinous short-grain rice. It may be tempting to want to substitute regular rice flour, but the recipe will not yield the same results if you do not use sweet rice flour. Rice flour has a very different texture and flavor and it will not hold together the same way.

You’ll also love these Japanese recipes:

• Fluffy Japanese Pancakes
• Japanese Milk Bread
• Steamed Japanese Pork Buns (Nikuman)
• Pork Tonkatsu
• Easy Homemade Ramen

If you make this recipe, let me know what you think! I’d love it if you could add a star rating ★ and a comment below. Be sure to follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook, too!

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5 from 12 votes

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Custard Mochi (Daifuku)

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Freezing Time

1 hr

Total Time

1 hr 45 mins

 

Custard Mochi (Daifuku) is a sweet and chewy Japanese dessert! Made with custard wrapped in glutinous rice cake, it is a treat you won't be able to resist. While it's traditionally eaten around the Japanese New Year, the sweet treat can be enjoyed at any time of the year!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: custard, mochi, rice cake

Ingredients

Custard

• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 4 egg yolks
• 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• dash of salt

Mochi

• 1 cup Mochiko sweet rice flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• dash of salt
• 3/4 cup water
• yellow food coloring
• potato starch or cornstarch

Instructions

Custard

1. Add the milk to a small sauce pan and heat over medium heat to boiling.

2. Slowly whisk in the flour, eggs, and sugar. Heat on low heat until bubbling and thick, about 5-10 minutes.

3. Pour the custard through a mesh sieve to remove any clumps. Let custard cool.

4. Scoop custard into frosting bag and pipe onto a cookie sheet into 8 dollops. Freeze for one hour.

Mochi

1. Add sweet rice flour, sugar, salt, water, and a few drops of food coloring to a microwave safe bowl. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap.

2. Microwave for 1 minute, remove plastic then stir. It will not be smooth after stirring it. 

3. Replace the plastic wrap and continue microwaving for 1 minute intervals until mochi has a translucent quality and feels gummy. This usually takes 3-4 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, enough to handle with your hands.

4. Place the mochi on a cutting board generously coated in potato starch. Sprinkle potato starch on top of the mochi. Shape the mochi into a half inch thick disk.

5. Using a knife or bench cutter divide the mochi into eight pieces. Coat your hands with potato starch and roll each piece into a ball, and then flatten into a disk. Place a ball of frozen custard in the center. Use your fingers to pinch the Mochi closed around the custard.

6. Mochi can be kept at room temperature for several hours, stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or two weeks in the freezer.

Recipe Notes

• I highly recommend eating the mochi while it's fresh, but it can be stored in the refrigerator for two days or in the freezer for two weeks.
• If the mochi tends to get dry while you're working with it, you can place it in the microwave for a couple of seconds until it's easier to work with.

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