The Untold Truth of Mochi Ice Cream

From Mashed:

Mochi ice cream may be a late 20th-century invention, but the idea of pounding sticky rice into flour and then turning that into a sweet or savory pastry case has been around for centuries. Vision Times says Japan's mochi-making tradition could date as far back as 300 BC, when the treat was made with red rice and then served to the Emperor and nobility. Mochi was also made to be presented as a temple offering to the gods.

While mochi is a uniquely Japanese delicacy, it may surprise you to know that the frozen version of the treat is as American as Baskin Robbins. CNN says mochi ice cream was born in a Japanese-American bakery in 1980s Los Angeles. Frances Hashimoto and her husband, Joel Friedman, were running Hashimoto's family business: a fourth-generation family bakery named Mikawaya.

During a trip to Japan, Friedman came across a sweet treat he'd not seen before — a ball of sweet bean paste encased in a glutinous sticky dough. "That treat stuck with me," Friedman told CNN. "I remember thinking it was a cute idea but something wasn't quite right about it. We were already making pastry with mochi, which is rice dough. So we thought, why not make a treat like what I had in Japan. But instead of filling it with bean paste, we'll put in ice cream." (Read more.)

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