← Nouns Cooking · Japanese

Ingredients

• 100 g Warabi mochi starch
• 50 g Sugar
• 400 ml Water
• 4 tbsp Kinako (roasted soybean flour)
• 2 tbsp Sugar

Method

1. Mix the kinako with the 2 tbsp sugar and spread half of it over a tray or plate.
2. In a non-stick pan, whisk the warabi starch, sugar and water until completely smooth, with no lumps.
3. Set over medium heat and stir constantly with a spatula. It turns cloudy, then starts to form clumps; keep stirring hard for 5–7 min, until the whole mass is glossy, translucent, very thick and stretchy.
4. Scrape it onto the kinako tray, dust the top with more kinako and let it cool for 30 min, in the fridge if you like it chilled.
5. Cut into bite-sized pieces with a knife or spatula dusted in kinako and toss in the rest of the coating. Serve the same day, with a drizzle of brown sugar syrup if you like.

Tips

• Pure bracken starch is rare and pricey; most warabi mochi flour is a blend with sweet potato or tapioca starch, and tapioca starch alone also works.
• Contains soy (kinako). Do not chill it overnight; it turns hard and loses its wobble.

Sources

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

Just One Cookbook Japanese Cooking 101 Chopstick Chronicles