A “daifuku” is a Japanese dessert that is a rice cake with mashed bean inside it.
Yukimi daifuku is one that instead of bean in the centre, has ice cream.
To make it, thin white skins of steamed, pounded rice (mochi) are wrapped around mochi rice. The mochi shell is chewy and gummy, but not sticky.
They are bite-sized, and cream-coloured. They are sold in the fall and winter in packages of two or three pieces.
The flavours that the ice cream inside are available in chocolate, green tea and vanilla, strawberry, peach, red bean, lychee, mango, lemon, ube, and sesame.
They are now being sold in America as Mochi Ice Cream.
Storage Hints
Must be kept frozen.
History Notes
Yukimi Daifuku have been made since 1981 by the Lotte Company in Japan.
Language Notes
“Yukimi” means “looking at snow”; “Daifuku” is a pounded rice cake.