Mochi Covered Dark Chocolate Truffles a la Betelnut

If you love dumplings and chocolate, this recipe is for you. Chefs Alexander Ong and Michael Siegel of Betelnut restaurant invited me for a lesson on how to make Siegel’s tasty creation, a mochi (sticky rice) wrapped dumpling that contains a filling of chocolate ganache. When I arrived at the San Francisco restaurant, Siegel was ready with all of his mis en place. We joked as he whisked, steamed, cut, and wrapped the dumplings. Siegel made it look so easy that for the first time, I felt like I could master Japanese wagashi-style confections and teach others too as well.

I had invited my dear friend Carolyn Jung of Foodgal.com to join us that afternoon, but I hadn’t fully explained what Siegel’s mochi dumpling was about. Carolyn had to squeeze our get together into her schedule, and when she arrived at Betelnut and discovered that the dumplings contained chocolate, she nearly exploded with glee.

“You didn’t tell me that he put CHOCOLATE into them!” she said. Oh. I told her they were truffle dumplings but the dumpling part got more to me and I overlooked the chocolate attraction to her!

When Carolyn tasted Siegel’s trio of mochi dumplings, she could barely contain herself to share them with the rest of us. I turned away for a few moments and when I returned my gaze to the mochi plate, it was empty.

RECIPE

Mochi Covered Dark Chocolate Truffles

These dumplings are little tricky to make as ideally, you want the wrapper to stick to the chocolate. It’s fine if they don’t but Japanese wagashi is a lot about aesthetics. Blue Star brand Mochiko sweet rice flour is sold in boxes at Asian markets and some supermarkets (look in the ethnic food aisle). For the chocolate, I used Trader Joe’s pound plus as it’s my go-to chocolate for recipe development and practice cooking. Tapioca starch is sold at Asian markets and a heavy use of it here prevents sticking.

This mochi-wrapped dark chocolate truffle recipe has been adapted for home use. Betelnut has some equipment that home kitchens lack. I took that into consideration when developing this dumpling recipe for your use.

Makes 20 dumplings

Ganache
2 medium navel oranges, gently scrubbed, washed and dried
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 pound dark or bittersweet chocolate

Dough
12.97 ounces (2 1/4 cups) Blue Star brand Mochiko Sweet Rice flour (made by Koda Farms)
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups water
Tapioca or potato starch

1. Use a vegetable peeler to remove just the orange part of the peel. Avoid the white pith as you create long orange strips.

2. Put the peel in a small saucepan. Add the cream and heat over medium-high heat. When the mixture bubbles at the edge, remove from the heat, cover, and let steep for 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, use a heavy knife to reduce the chocolate to a finely chopped texture. Transfer to a bowl.

4. Strain the scalded orange cream, pressing on the strips to extract the most flavor. Transfer to a clean saucepan, heat over medium-high heat again. When hot and nearly boiling, pour over the chocolate, stirring with the whisk to melt the chocolate and create a smooth mixture. Set aside to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

5. Cover the ganache with plastic and refrigerate for about 45 minutes, until firm but not hard. Use two teaspoons to form 20 rough shaped balls, each about 3/4 inch wide. Deposit each one on a parchment-paper lined tray. Refrigerate for 15 minutes if the balls are too soft to handle. When you can handle them, roll each one between your hands to create a relatively smooth ball. Cover with plastic and refrigerate. These can be refrigerated for up to 48 hours before you wrap them.

6. Whisk together the sweet rice flour, sugar, and water. Set the batter aside.

7. Get the steamer going with water. Meanwhile, find a 7 or 8 inch square baking pan that will fit into your steamer tray. Spray it with cooking spray, then line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper. [Per Kevin's comment below, give the parchment a light spraying of cooking spray too.]

8. Pour the batter in to a depth of 3/8 inch thick, cover with foil. (You’ll be using about 1/3 of the batter.) steam over moderate heat (lower your flame as you don’t want a powerful rolling boil) for 15 minutes, until translucent and tacky to the touch; remove the foil to check. Detach the tray and set aside to cool 5-8 minutes. Remove the ganache balls from the refrigerator and set aside.

9.  Put a heavy dusting of tapioca starch on your work surface. Use your fingers to pull up on the parchment and remove the layer of mochi. Invert it onto the dusted work surface. Peel off the paper. Dust the top with more starch. Use a wooden dowel rolling pin to gently even out the layer of mochi. Aim for a thickness of 3/8 inch.

10. Use a 3-inch ring mold to cut out circles of the dough. They don’t have to be perfect. While the dough is still slightly warm and supple, take each circle in your hand, put a ganache ball in the center. Then flip the whole thing over so the wrapper covers the ball. Pull down on the wrapper to pull it over the chocolate. Pinch together the edges to close. Turn the dumpling upside down and twist off and discard any excess.

If the dumpling is lopsided, round out it shape by gently squeezing around the circumference of the dumpling as Siegel demonstrates:

Place the finished dumpling in a plastic container or on a plate. Repeat before steaming more batter for another round. You will steam 3 times. Should there be boo boos with the wrapper and you run out, roll the leftover ganache balls in unsweetened coco powder and eat them as straight ahead truffles.

11. Store the dumplings in an airtight container at room temperature for up 36 hours. Enjoy as is.

Related links:

• Asian dumpling pantry items
• Mochi Master Michael Siegel
• DIY wooden dowel rolling pin for dumpling making
• More on how stalwart Betelnut restaurant keeps things fresh and fun (on Carolyn Jung's Foodgal.com)

Comments

[OysterCulture]

Have I died and gone to heaven? This sounds amazing!

[Eve]

So pretty. Is it hard to avoid getting chocolatey fingerprints on the mochi?

[Andrea Nguyen]

Lou Anne -- these truffles are quite amazing.

Eve -- keep the chocolate on the chilled side and you won't have to worry about fingerprints. Good question!

[Sabrina]

Thanks for posting the recipe. I have to try this out!

What does the mochi taste like. I have tried making mochi before and they turn out ok, but texturally not as good as store bought fresh mochi. I tried making mochi with the Thai glutinous rice, with mochiko, and have tried using different combinations of both, but have never mastered it to my liking. I found ones made with mochiko to be tougher/chewier.

Have you found that to be the case?

By the way, I absolutely love your Asian Dumplings book. I ordered it last week and can't wait to try the recipes.

[Nate @ House of Annie.com]

Neat! I wanna try making this.

Can you develop instructions on making the mochi in the microwave?

[Tuty @Scentofspice]

Thanks for sharing this, A. BTW, what did you do with the leftover cooked dough? I hate to waste.

[Andrea Nguyen]

@Sabrina: Thanks!

@Nate: The microwave oven method results in unevenly cooked mochi. I'm not a microwave oven user except for the occasional reheating of rice. The oven sits in my garage.

@Tuty: I cut the circles relatively close to each other. The remaining dough can be patched together for another round but can be rather Frankenstein-ish. The alternative is to cook the batter in a saucepan but it is SUPER hard to tame. Choose your poison.

[medical consultation]

that looks so very delicious..

[Kevin]

Andrea,
This recipe sounded great, and I had to try it. The ganache filling came out perfect. But the mochi was extremely sticky, and I could not remove the parchment paper at all. I tried steaming the second pan longer, but still the same result. Perhaps I need to add more rice flour or steam even longer. Even after completely cooled, it was still sticky. Suggestions?

I noticed in your photo that you used plastic wrap instead of parchment paper. Would that make a difference?

[Andrea Nguyen]

Kevin -- This is sticky, tricky stuff. I used parchment no plastic. Did you spray the pan with cooking spray? Do that, line the pan with parchment, then spray the parchment too.

It's sticky, which is why you need lotsa tapioca starch on your work surface.

Glad that ganache turned out for you. I love that stuff!

[Kevin]

Thanks, Andrea. I tried again, and they turned out great!
One other question, have you tried other flavorings such as Frangelico or Kahlua? I love hazelnut and coffee flavors in my truffles and candy.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Yay!!! Congrats. I'm typing this with a bit mochi smile.

I've not tried the ganache with liquor but why not? Look for a gianduja (hazelnut) truffle like this one from Ina Garten:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/hazelnut-truffles-recipe/index.html

[upsorn]

Andrea,
How come the store bought mochi stays fresh and soft longer than the homemade one? Mine stayed soft for only two days - not refrigerated and one day in the refrigerator. Is there a missing ingredient or any step that I missed?

Thanks

[Andrea Nguyen]

Upsorn: I'm not sure but wonder if there's some corn syrup in the commercial dough? Look at the ingredient listing. It's not natural for mochi to sit around for long without hardening.

[Upsorn]

Andria,
You are a genius. I used corn syrup instead of sugar and the result is what I’m looking for. My Mochis are now three days old and there is no sign of them getting harden. I’m not going to eat them. This is just a pure experiment. I didn’t refrigerate them though, do you think this is why they stay soft? I’m going to make another batch tonight. This time I will put some in the refrigerator once they are completely cool. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks again.

Thanks,
Upsorn

[redring]

my red bean past mochi say they have maltose, sugar,glutenous rice , starch, palm oil, red bean past and flavor. :) Im thinking its the palm oil in these that keep them soft. Upsorn did you swap out one for one with the corn surup? I only have the small steamer that sits on my rice maker. is there a kitchen hack for this? Meaning to make tamales i dont have to own a huge steamer I can use my canning pot and my metal strainer. Can I sub somthing like that with these? a pan of watter in the oven maybe? thanks!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Redring: I think you can do the canning pot but keep the heat medium-low and the lid partially off the pot. Upsorn may have subbed the corn syrup for the water. That's a lot of corn syrup. Maybe use 1/4 cup of syrup plus 2 cups water.

[redring]

Thanks you! cant wait to make these!

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[UpSorn]

Sorry for the late reply and any confusion in my last post. I used 1 teaspoon (plus or minus) per one cup of flour. Also I used less sugar than the recipe calls for to compensate the corn syrup. I didn’t make the second batch like I said. Let me get back to this and I will tell you what I do and how long it keeps. Instead of using a rectangle pan to steam the dough, I use 12-cup cupcake pan. This way I don't have to roll out and cut it. I sprayed each individual cup and dusted with rice flour. This method is just a lazy and cheap girl invention nothing fancy. I used what I have at the time. For the person that doesn’t have the big steamer, I will wreck my brain and come up with something for you later.

Feel free to try this and please share your result with us if you don’t mind. Isn’t making Mochi so much fun?

Thanks Andrea for starting this chat.

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[online doctor consultation]

This looks like a really great recipe. I'll have to try it!

[Janine]

In Japan I had Mochi covered ice-cream. From a vending machine no less!! It was amazing! I am a mochi-hollic and I can't wait to try these chocolate mochi.