Sunday, June 8, 2008

Fruitti Daifuku

P1230115
Strawberry daifuku mochis

Mochis flavored with macha (green tea powder), red bean and custard I have eaten but not fruit mochis. I first read about ichiko daifuku mochis (strawberry glutinous rice sweets) on Bento's blog and then Guambat's blog. Remember the strawberries Yolanda brought back from LA? They made delightful mochis, especially when chilled, wrapped in a layer of koshi-an or red bean paste followed by another layer of glutinous rice dough. A couple of days ago I made more daifukus, filling them with mangoes, kiwis and even red dragonfruit. Surprisingly, they didn't taste as good as strawberry daifukus. I had made the glu wrapper too soft but the real problem I think was fruits like mangoes and kiwis go mushy easily. Next time, I'll stick to red bean filling or firm fruits like strawberries.

P1230296a

My friend Tina insists that to make good mochis, you must use Japanese glutinous rice flour which is not available here. Since I can't tell the difference if I don't have anything to compare with, I just used our local glu rice flour. Although making the mochi dough is easy (it is like making Chinese che fa bun, those glu balls with a filling of sugar and ground peanuts), wrapping the mochi isn't because the dough is very sticky and to get an equally thick layer of glu dough around the piece of fruit is not easy. You can see I've had some struggle with my mochis because they don't have a smooth skin.

I have reduced the sugar to as minimal as it can get because there's enough sweetness from the red bean paste. I recommend that you reduce or increase the amount of water to get the texture you like, but remember the mochis taste better chilled and they do get firmer in the fridge. Also. do experiment with different fillings, including peanut butter and chocolate.

Daifuku Mochis

The filling:
firm fruits
red bean paste

For dusting: 1 cup cornstarch

The mochi skin/wrapper:
1 cup glutinous rice flour
1 to 2 T fine sugar
3 /4 cup water (or 1 cup if you like your mochi soft)

1. Mix the above mochi wrapper ingredients into a smooth batter. For green tea mochis, add 1 t macha (green tea powder) to the batter. You can either microwave the batter for 3 min, take out and give it a stir and microwave another 2 min, or you can steam it in a shallow dish for 15 min. The cooked dough will be tranlucent-white.

2. While the batter is being cooked, get ready your filling and the plate of cornstarch which is necessary to keep the mochis from sticking to each other. If using fruits, cut the fruits into small thumb-sized pieces and wrap them in red bean paste or chilled peanut butter, rolling them as round as you can. You can also use plain red bean paste.

3. When cooked dough is still hot, use a tablespoon to scoop and another spoon to help scrap the dough onto the plate of cornflour until all dough is portioned into small tablespoon lumps on the cornstarch. Don't make the glu dough too big if your filling is small; you don't want to eat too much glu dough. Now dust your fingers and palms and flatten a piece of dough (will be still quite hot so be careful) and put in the filling, then wrap dough up and seal the opening with a tight pinch. Repeat until all dough is used up. Chill the mochis before serving.

14 comments:

Moodie Foodie said...

Wow Terri, this is very impressive! So eye + mouth-tantalising...*drools*

LilyAnette said...

absolutely simple and delightful! Makes mine so Amateur! Anyway, glad you are doing all these and giving me more ideas!

Denise ^ ChickyEGG said...

I always see this Fruit Daifuku on overseas'blog, and I was so amazed with that.
Now, I see urs, i want to jump from my place!
a) U made 1 step before ME
b) if U are my mum, probably I m walking with chin up high! too proud of U
c) Beautiful !

Anonymous said...

Ichigo daifuku is my favorite. I love making them too. You don't have to use Japanese glutinuous rice but I recommend you use Japanese red bean paste because Chinese red bean paste is wetter.

I also use lint-free cloth to flatten red bean paste,this can remove excessive water from red bean paste. It only works for Japanese paste because Chinese red bean paste will end up sticking on the cloth.

Anonymous said...

Very nice mochi. We used to buy durian mochi in taiwan. Weird combo I know.I only made choc mochis but.. Erm... Peanut butter banana ones would taste nice. ^^ . Your mochis look like jewels dusted with sugar. yumalicious..

Anonymous said...

wooohoooo...those little things are so pretty with fruit in there. really different from our typical ones. gosh i just want to open my mouth and ask you to pop on in straight away.

must make soon. would like to try and see if i can do something with the recipe so that can eliminate the prob you say.

Agnes @ rB said...

They looked so pretty and irresistable!!! My sister loves them the most and she wanna try with basic ones. Any recipes? :)

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

moodie: can u get this in melb?

lilyann: no, truly urs look much much better!

denise: b) proud if i can make daifukus?? aiya, so low ur standards. these r really very easy to make!

c) thank u :)!

linda: om, u make ur own bean paste?! i salute u...

frequent reader: u got me excited! banana n peanut butter would be great as filling, thank u for the idea, keep them coming!

nee: u will def be able to solve the prob, just remember to tell me!

agnes: use my recipe and fill the mochi with red bean paste, vary the mochi by adding macha. hope it turns out well for u!

Denise ^ ChickyEGG said...

oh no.. IF I fail my daifukus , i better cover up my face !
I think is the wrapping tt need some skill! otherwise, like u say, eat dough only !

jimctang said...

it 's really hard to overcome the disturbance caused by seeing those photos. well, still worthy of watching more. maybe one day i will get used to it.

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

denise: u will do fine...

jim: :)) thank u, i intend to keep 'disturbing' u.

Unknown said...

This is pretty cool, you should add the recipe for the Anko or Azuki bean paste, though I personally prefer the Koshi-An (white bean paste). A malaysian chef that I worked with showed me how to make the anko one time though he didn't measure anything so I am still trying to perfect it on my own at this point. It need constant siring a a med-low heat for hours, so people may prefer to just buy the pre-made stuff. I like doing everything from scratch myself. Manju is my favorite Japanese treats, the Pink Habutai - Pink mochi with smooth white lima beans is by far my all-time favorite.

On another note I am really enjoying your site keep up the good work!

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

gara: i'm one of the lazy ones who prefer to but the anko in cans...thanx, u keep in touch:)

Kikukat said...

Wow. I'm impressed. I'm Japanese but I can't make daifuku like you. Here in Hawaii, some recently popular fillings are brownie squares and pieces of different chocolate candies like Nestle Crunch.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...