Japanese Strawberry Mochi – Ichigo Daifuku (いちご大福，草莓大福）

INTRODUCTION

Sticky rice or glutinous rice are very common in Asian cuisines. The rice was grinded into flour to make varieties of cakes and sweets.. Chinese have cakes that made from glutinous rice flour like Hainanese E-bua, tortoise longevity cake, tang yuans and etc.; Malay have kuih koci, ondeh ondeh etc. and Japanese have its own mochi.

All these cakes have one common similarity. Some sweet filling wrapped with glutinous rice flour dough. I have always liked mochi as it is soft sweet and slightly chewy.

As per Wikipedia,

“Daifukumochi (大福餅^?), or Daifuku (大福^?) (literally “great luck”), is a Japanese confection consisting of a small round mochi (glutinous rice cake) stuffed with sweet filling, most commonly anko, sweetened red bean paste made from azuki beans. Daifuku comes in many varieties. The most common is white-, pale green-, or pale pink-colored mochi filled with anko. Nearly all daifuku are covered in a fine layer of corn or potato starch to keep them from sticking to each other, or to the fingers.Some are covered with confectioner’s sugar or cocoa powder.Though mochitsuki is the traditional method of making mochi and daifuku, they can also be cooked in the microwave.. A variation containing strawberry and sweet filling (Ichigo Daifuku), most commonly anko, inside a small round mochi. Creams are sometimes used for sweet filling. Because it contains strawberry, it is usually eaten during the springtime. It was invented in the 1980s. Many patisseries claim to have invented the confection, so its exact origin is vague. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daifuku)

What i am sharing today is the Ichigo Daifuku, some strawberry wrapped with red bean paste and glutinous rice flour dough. For this illustration , I did not go until the extent of preparing my anko (red bean paste) using the Japanese method but instead use the ready made red bean paste available in the stores. I also did not go to the Japanese supermarket to by the Japanese glutinous rice flour (mochiko), instead, I used the normal glutinous rice flour from Thailand..

Preparation is not difficult at all if you are using microwave. If you do not have the microwave, you can either steam the batter or cooked it in a non stick pan until a soft dough is formed.. Don’t worry, the outcome will be the same.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 5 Ichigo Daifuku

100 grams of Mochiko flour or glutinous rice flour
100 grams of Anko or red bean paste
100 grams of water
20 grams of castor sugar
2 tablespoons of potatoes starch or corn starch
Drops of red permitted food colouring

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Clean the strawberry, pat dry and cut off the part attached to the green leaves. Take about 20 grams of red bean paste, shape round, slightly flatten by palm, place a strawberry on top, seal the edges and make it as round as possible. Set aside for later use. If your strawberry is big, you may need a bit more red bean paste to wrap the strawberry.

In a microwavable bowl, put the glutinous rice flour, water, sugar and food colouring. Stir and until well mixed.

Heat the batter in the microwave oven for 1.5-2 minutes. After one minute, give it a stir.

Dust the working surface with some potato starch. Transfer the cooked dough to the flour surface. Use a scissor to divide the dough into 5 pieces. Take one dough, shape round, lightly flatten, put a red bean paste on top of the flatten dough, seal the edges and roll on the potatoes starch again.. The dough can be rather sticky and hot to handle but you have to do it quickly. When the dough is cooled, it will not be sticky and cannot form a ball. Pat your hand with potatoes starch before shaping.

CONCLUSION

Is it not this is a simple recipe to try? Remember that if you do not have a microwave, pan fried the batter over the stove using non stick pan or steamed it in a greased pan. It may take you 5-10 minutes slightly longer. Feel free to add flavour to your mochi such as green tea powder, pandan essence, milo flavour etc..

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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