mochi

I've tried to make mochi a couple of times before: with Anna we heated the mixture in the oven and it came out a good consistency but glued into a baking tin - sprinkled with sesame seeds it tasted good, but...  another time I followed a youtube tutorial and steamed them, but they came out kinda hard and not soft and sticky...  The easiest way seems to be with a microwave and we don't have one.

I met this recipe on the internet the other day, and found that it had wonderfully detailed instructions, so thought I might give them another go at some point.  Then discovered some red bean paste still in the freezer and a packet of glutinous rice flour in the pantry, S was at football and I was making lebkuchen and thought 'why not now?'.


(makes 10)
100g glutinous rice flour
50 grams sugar
100 ml water
plenty of potato starch or corn starch for dusting / making a bed

10 tsp sweetened red bean paste
toasted sesame seeds

Mix the rice flour, sugar and water in a heatproof bowl that fits inside the steamer.  Place the bowl in the steamer and cover the bowl with a heatproof plate.  Close the steamer and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring once or twice during that time, until the mixture is thick and slightly translucent.

While the rice flour mixture is cooking, pour a generous layer of potato/corn starch in a good-sized, rimmed container, and keep more starch on hand.  When the rice flour mixture is ready, pour it onto the starch; it will be super sticky.  Pat the dough to flatten it slightly and cut into 10 even pieces.

Take one piece of dough, stretch it out and flatten it gently, and place it on the palm of your hand.  Put ~1tsp red bean paste in the middle (and a sprinkling of sesame seeds as an alternative), and wrap, and pinch the dough around it, trying to be neat and not make any holes or let the bean escape.  If there is any stickiness left on the outside squish into some toasted sesame seeds.  Place on a starch-dusted plate and repeat with the other nine - try and work quickly as the dough is harder to work with when cool.

Let rest for an hour to set and cool to room temperature before serving.  Leftovers should be covered and stored at room temperature, but they don't keep longer than about a day.


These are way better than previous attempts - the trick is to cook the dough well first, and then to use plenty of starch to stop everything getting too stuck together.  In future I'd like to try sesame or dessicated coconut on the outside instead of using so much starch, and to experiment with different fillings (such as the fresh strawberries in the original recipe).  And to try putting coconut milk or powder in the batter, and/or green tea powder in the batter too - green tea mochi are my favourite.  Could try with cocoa powder also.