Today, we want to show you how to prepare delicious chocolate-coated mochi truffles. They're as tasty as easy to make, not to mention vegan and gluten-free. You'll love them!
These irresistible truffles consist of an outer coating of indulgent dark chocolate and a chewy heart of Japanese mochi dough. It's a simple yet delicious combination!
The mochi dough is made with glutinous rice flour, also called mochigomeko or mochiko for short. Glutinous rice flour is milled from mochigome, a type of Japanese sticky rice.
The awesome thing about glutinous rice flour is that it turns incredibly sticky, soft, and chewy when cooked with water. This flour is used to make traditional Japanese mochi balls, small and plumpy sweet rice cakes.
After trying mochi balls with chocolate filling, we decided to pair mochi dough and chocolate again to make some glorious truffles.
Our recipe is based on the classic truffles covered with chocolate but uses a ball of sweet mochi dough as a filling. In the steps below, we'll show you how to make the mochi dough from scratch, shape it into balls, and coat it with melted dark chocolate.
Because our recipe uses only glutinous rice flour, icing sugar, and water for the mochi dough and dairy-free dark chocolate for the coating, it's 100% gluten-free and vegan. Perfect for everyone to enjoy!
We'll also give you the option to flavour the truffles with extracts and garnish them with toppings for a fancier look. We made ours with orange essence and decorated them with melted chocolate, but you can have fun experimenting with your favourite ingredients.
So, prepare a big batch of these wonderful mochi truffles and pack them as lovely gifts or serve them as an after-dinner treat. And if you'd like to try more delicious recipes with mochi dough, check out our ube moffles, mochi cookies, and mochi muffins.
Ingredients
| Japanese Glutinous Rice Flour (mochiko) | 85 g |
| Icing Sugar (or sugar-free erythritol) | 30 g |
| Water | 145 mL |
| Dark Chocolate 70% | 100 g |
| Orange or Almond Extract (optional) | 1/2 tsp |
Step 1
Let's start by making the mochi dough for the truffles filling.
Make sure you're using glutinous rice flour, aka mochigomeko or mochiko, and not regular rice flour.
You can find mochi flour at your local Asian food store or online.
Mix glutinous rice flour with icing sugar in a pot, pour in the water and stir well until there are no lumps.
If you want to cut down on the sugars, you can swap icing sugar with the same amount of sugar-free sweetener erythritol.
Step 2
Now, heat the rice flour mixture over low heat, stirring it continuously with a metal spoon.
When it starts to thicken and form lumps, keep stirring it and cooking it for 4 more minutes until it turns into a smooth and uniform dough.
The mochi dough will be very stretchy, sticky, and hard to stir, but keep at it to ensure the rice flour is cooked through.
Step 3
Dust your worktop with plenty of starch and spoon the hot mochi dough right onto it.
Then, dust the top of the dough with more starch.
The starch makes the mochi dough less sticky so that you can handle it with ease.
Now, let it cool down while you prepare the chocolate.
Step 4
Chop the dark chocolate into small chunks and add them to a heatproof bowl.
At this point, you can also add any flavouring of your choice, like orange essence, almond, or vanilla essence, or soluble coffee.
Then, melt the chocolate in the microwave or bain-marie. For more tips on how to melt the chocolate, check our tips section below.
Now, dust your hands with starch and pinch off a small handful of mochi dough, about 20g (0.7 oz).
Pull and pinch the edges of the dough together in the centre, as you would do for a dumpling.
Then, roll the dough into a ball between your palms.
If you need more help with this step, check the recipe video on this page.
Step 5
Now, dip the mochi ball into the melted dark chocolate (1).
Delicately roll it around until it's completely covered in chocolate and gently lift it with the help of two forks (2).
Hold the mochi truffle over the bowl, let excess chocolate drip off, and carefully place the truffle onto a tray lined with baking paper.
At this point, you can garnish the truffle with toppings like orange zest, chopped roasted nuts, desiccated coconut, coffee beans, or freeze-dried berries.
Step 6
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have used all the mochi dough and the chocolate.
Always dust your hands with a little starch before making the mochi balls, and, if needed, re-heat the chocolate when it gets too hard.
Transfer the chocolate-coated mochi truffles into the freezer for 30 minutes or until the chocolate has hardened. Then, remove them from the freezer and store them in the fridge.
You can optionally use any leftover melted chocolate to decorate the truffles, as we did.
Tips
To melt the chocolate in a bain-marie, sit the chocolate bowl into a pot with a little water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Bring the water to a gentle simmer and stir the chocolate every now and then until it's completely melted, then remove it from the heat.
For the microwave option, heat the chocolate at max temperature for 20 seconds, take it out of the microwave, stir it, and put it back. Repeat a few more times until the chocolate has completely melted.
Once ready, store the chocolate mochi truffles in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week or freeze them for three months. Before serving, let the frozen truffles thaw completely so the mochi filling will be soft and chewy again.