← Nouns Cooking · Dessert Parlour

Ingredients

• 6 small strawberries, hulled and patted dry
• 150 g sweet red bean paste (anko), smooth or chunky
• 120 g shiratamako or glutinous rice flour
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 170 ml Water
• 3 tbsp potato starch or cornflour, for dusting

Method

1. Divide the bean paste into six balls. Flatten each in your palm, set a strawberry on it, tip down, and wrap the paste around it, leaving the tip just showing. Chill while you make the mochi.
2. Whisk the rice flour, sugar and water in a microwave-safe bowl until smooth, like thick cream.
3. Cover loosely and microwave for 1 minute. Stir well with a wet spatula, then microwave for 1 minute more and stir again.
4. Microwave for a final 30 seconds, until the dough is glossy, slightly translucent and very stretchy.
5. Dust a tray generously with starch and tip the hot mochi onto it. Dust the top and cut into six pieces with a starch-dusted scraper.
6. Working quickly while the mochi is warm, stretch a piece into a circle, set a wrapped strawberry tip-down in the middle and pinch the edges together underneath. Brush off the excess starch.
7. Eat the same day, at room temperature.

Tips

• Mochi is very chewy: cut it into small bites for young children and older people, as it is a choking hazard.
• Don't refrigerate the finished daifuku; the mochi hardens in the cold.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Just One Cookbook Chopstick Chronicles