Looking for a unique dessert to present to your guests? Try this sweet version of sushi rolls to brighten your palate and your table.
There are two methods to follow when creating this sweet sushi dessert - use either real rice and slivered fruits and nuts or use rice crispy treats for your base rice with candies and chocolates for garnish. Either way, maintaining your sweet sushi's "look" is most important .
Fruit sushi rolls
- Fruit roll sheets (made in your dehydrator or pre-bought fruit roll-ups)
- Prepared sugared rice or for a really sweet experience, try rice crispy treats made a bit moist. (Garnish sweet rice with chopped nuts or sesame seeds.)
- Honeydew melon, peeled and cut into strips to mock cucumber strips.
- Mango, peeled, pitted and cut into strips
- Strawberries, cut into slices
- Other Fruits, peeled, pitted/seeded, cut into strips
Assemble as you would a savory sushi roll using sugared rice and fruit for filling and fruit roll sheets in place of nori.
Other ideas for creating a sweet version of sushi:
- Use thin sheets of dark chocolate or thin, flavored gelatin sheets for creating sweet sushi hand rolls!
- For nigiri, shape marshmallow into eel or shrimp shapes and paint with food coloring.
- Use dark chocolate ribbons for nori ties.
- Use orange crystallized sugar for roe.
- Melted white chocolate with a touch of green food coloring makes for great “wasabi” (even a hint of mint flavoring is nice).
- Thinly sliced dried apricot or cantaloupe makes beautiful pickled ginger.
- Chopped dried papaya and dates make for great salmon-looking or mock tuna bits.
The recipes below are for the main ingredients of sweet rice and for using your dehydrator to create your own fruit roll sheets. Alternatively, you can purchase fruit roll sheets at your grocery store.
Homemade Fruit Roll Sheets
Basic beginning recipe
- 3 cups strawberries
- 3 cups applesauce
- 1/8 cup honey*
or
- 2 cups bananas
- 2 cups applesauce
- 1/8 cup honey*
*Honey will keep the dehydrated fruit sheet from becoming too crisp.
- Use (any flavor) applesauce as the base.
- Flavor with fresh pureed fruit, powdered flavored gelatin, or with coconut shreds or nuts.
- Mix ingredients into the applesauce or sprinkle coconut, nuts or fruits slices on top before drying.
Using your dehydrator:
- Spray a fruit roll dehydrator shelf sheet very lightly with cooking spray.
- Spoon applesauce mixture onto fruit roll shelf sheet, to make individual, small roll-ups. Spread to 1/4 thickness, so they’re about 4" in diameter. 6-8 of this size will fit on one plastic sheet.
- Dehydrate at 140° for approximately 5-7 hours or until top of fruit roll is tacky.
- Remove, roll-up with plastic wrap between layers and place in a zip-lock bag for storage.
Alternately, the entire fruit roll sheet may be covered with the applesauce mixture, dehydrated and then, cut into individual serving sizes.
Sugared Rice
- 1 cup uncooked rice
- 1 tablespoons butter or margarine
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup raisins or chopped dates
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- Combine rice, butter, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, juice, water, raisins or dates and sugar in 3-quart saucepan.
- Bring to a boil; stir once or twice. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed.
- Fluff with a fork. Replace cover. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes.
When you visit your favorite sushi restaurant, look to your favorite ingredients for inspiration. Try to create new, sweet versions of a California roll, hand roll or sashimi pieces. Be creative with some common kitchen utensils to enhance the look of your sweet sushi. Using vegetable peelers and graters will give dried fruits and other foods new texture, identity and interesting shapes.
