how to make strawberry mochi Strawberry Mochi is one of the many tasty treats from Japan. Similar to a mochi creme patissiere but with a delicious strawberry filling. If you like desserts and Japan, then this is the perfect dessert for you! This quick and easy recipe will soon be your favorite! You will find it to be deliciously sweet and fruity. Best of all, it’s super simple and has only a few ingredients!
A beautiful bite of spring, wrapped up in a sweet bean paste and mochi package! Check out more spring forward vegan desserts here and 5 of our favorite Vegan Desserts here.
FOR THE MOCHI
- 1 1/ 2 cups glutinous rice flour
- 1/ 4 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1/ 3 cup cornstarch
- 12 strawberries
- 2 teaspoons beet and hibiscus powder, dissolved in 2 teaspoons water
FOR THE BEAN PASTE
- 2 (15 ounce) cans white kidney beans
- 1/ 4 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons rice malt syrup
METHOD
- STEP 1Make the bean paste: Press the beans through a fine strainer to get a very smooth texture. Transfer to a pan with sugar. Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally. As the paste is heated and sugar is dissolved, the paste will become loose. Add rice syrup, continue stirring all around so that steam gets out and the paste thickens again. Continue cooking until water has evaporated, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, allow to cool down. Flatten paste and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
- STEP 2Make the mochi: Combine the rice flour and sugar in a microwave-proof bowl. Add water and mix until combined. Microwave for 1 minute, stir, then microwave for 1 more minute. Stir, then heat again for 30 seconds. Mix in the beet and hibiscus powder, stirring until it thickens and comes together.
- STEP 3Flour work surface with cornstarch. Put the mochi on top and cut into 12 pieces. Flatten the mochi into a circle (use more cornstarch if needed).
- STEP 4Wrap the strawberries with bean paste. Put some cornstarch on your hands. Place flattened mochi dough and put the covered strawberry on top of it (with the tip facing down). Wrap it and pinch the bottom closed.
HOW TO MAKE HEALTHY STRAWBERRY MOCHI AT HOME (MADE IN THE MICROWAVE)
Here’s an easy, 3-ingredient STRAWBERRY mochi recipe you can make in the microwave in under 5 minutes, using half a pound of fresh strawberries
INGREDIENTS USED TO MAKE STRAWBERRY MOCHI
Fresh Strawberries – frozen works, too!
Glutinous Rice Flour – this goes by many names. You’ll see Glutinous Rice Flour and Mochiko Flour (my favorite brand) in Asian grocery stores, and Sweet White Rice Flour in most other stores. ***Please note that regular white rice flour or brown rice flour is NOT the same thing as glutinous rice flour!!!
Sugar– you can use any granulated sugar of choice. I used honey powder, but for vegan options, you can also use brown sugar or coconut sugar. You can also use sugar-free substitutes such as monk fruit sweetener.
MORE STRAWBERRY RECIPES
WHAT TO USE FOR FILLING
- Sweetened Red Bean Paste (a.k.a. Koshi An): You can find Sweetened Red Bean paste in most Asian grocery stores, and online (Amazon). There are Fine and Coarse kinds (I used coarse).
or,
- Sweetened White Bean Paste (a.k.a. Shiro An) – the white bean version of the sweetened red bean paste.
HOW TO MAKE
How to Make Healthy Strawberry Mochi
STEP 1
Puree or mash strawberry until liquidy. In a microwave-safe bowl (preferably glass, like pyrex), mix the sweet rice flour with the sugar (I used honey powder) and strawberry puree **please note: these photos were taken during my recipe-testing phase. You’ll need a larger bowl than what I use here since I was making a smaller batch.
STEP 2
Mix all the ingredients together
STEP 3
Microwave the combined dough in the microwave for 2 minutes. Use a solid metal spoon to stir the cooked mochi mixture. Return to microwave and heat for an additional 1 minute.
STEP 4
Drop the hot mochi dough onto a surface floured with corn starch. Handle with care, or use vinyl gloves, as the mochi dough will be HOT. Unfortunately, you have to work quickly to shape the mochi before they cool.
Use kitchen shears/ scissors to cut the mochi into 5 pieces.
STEP 5
Wrap the mochi dough around the prepared filling and dust the finished mochi with more corn starch
STEP 6
Let cool before enjoying~
Strawberry Mochi is a chewy, sweet Japanese dessert. The Japanese call it ‘ichigo daifuku’ (苺大福) or describe it as a confectionery piece, ‘wagashi’ (和菓子) in Japanese. This dessert has a well-balanced sweet and sour taste and is perfect as an edible cute gift for your loved ones. Beautifully handmade ichigo daifuku with red bean paste | Image from Instagram In this article, we’ll explore its origins and learn how to create daifuku with the help of traditional recipes. By the end of this article, you would be able to recreate this Japanese wonder in the comfort of your own home kitchen. Jump to: What is it? What does it taste like Calories Ingredients Without Bean Paste How to Make Pink Colored Mochi Cooking Tips How To Store Strawberry Mochi Recipe (Ichigo Daifuku) WHAT IS IT? Strawberry mochi is a doughy ball of glutinous rice flour stuffed with sweet red bean paste, and an entire juicy, tart strawberry. While the fruit is usually covered completely by the rice flour, you may see it sold in some innovative wagashi shops with the berry appearing in the middle of the dough ball. Unlike traditional daifuku, this dessert uses fruits and was first created in the 80s. Therefore, ichigo daifuku is a fairly modern dessert! While strawberry mochi is widely known to originate from Japan, the recipe’s popularity in Hawaii gives rise to claims that the Hawaiians invented it. Supple strawberry mochi with anko paste | Image from Instagram HAWAIIAN VARIETY Indeed, the Japanese originally brought daifuku to Hawaii. The story goes that Hawaiians, who love using fruits in their cooking to combat the hot summers, infused sweet, fresh fruits into traditional daifuku. When you try one of these cool desserts, it does not seem like an impossible claim! Strawberry mochi in Hawaii is softer, and its form is not as structured as a Japanese wagashi. Apart from fruits, the Hawaiians also experimented with stuffing fun ingredients like sweet lychee, and savoury peanut butter into the daifuku. As a result, some unique wagashi flavours that we know today are from Hawaii. MODERN RENDITIONS Other modern variations of this dessert that is trendy now include infusing strawberry mochi into ice cream and cakes. To imagine what the ice cream tastes like, think about how the berry is packed with cold ice cream before being wrapped with the glutinous rice flour skin. Vanilla ice cream is most often used. Then there is also the popular strawberry mochi cake, which is actually not a cloyingly sweet dessert. Each mouthful is crumbly soft with fruit, a pleasant mix of cake and daifuku. Tasty ichigo daifuku with ice cream inside | Image from Instagram WHAT DOES IT TASTE LIKE Ichigo daifuku blends the sweetness of the fruit with the tartness of the rice cake. Think of biting into a strawberry, but instead of being immediately greeted by the juice, you’ll first taste the soft, chewy glutinous rice flour. The sweetness of the fruit is neutralised by the earthy rice flavours of the daifuku skin. In fact, many people liken it to marshmallows! CALORIES The average strawberry mochi is about 100-150 calories, making it a considerable choice for a snack for those who are mindful of their calorie intake. This Japanese dessert goes perfectly well with matcha latte | Image from Instagram INGREDIENTS In order to make strawberry mochi, you’ll need glutinous rice flour and fresh strawberries. FRESH STRAWBERRIES First, let’s look at how to choose fresh strawberries. As they are the centrepiece ingredient of the dessert, we need to make sure we pick the best ones for our dessert. Look for bright red berries. The fruits do not continue to ripen after they are picked, so what you see is what you get. Look for fresh green leaves and plump berries with no signs of green mold. The berries at the top and bottom of a box should help you tell whether they are fresh. GLUTINOUS RICE FLOUR Now, for the flour to make strawberry mochi. If you’re able to buy shiratamoko from Japanese groceries shops, you’ll be able to make really soft daifuku. Shiratamako is a type of glutinous rice flour (also called sweet rice flour) made from mochigome, a type of glutinous rice. Substituting with mochiko or other glutinous rice flour is possible, but the texture may turn out slightly chewier and tougher. OTHER INGREDIENTS Other ingredients include sugar, coconut milk, unsweetened condensed milk food colouring, and cornstarch. We recommend buying white refined sugar, as raw sugar may change the colour of the daifuku. Apart from the fruits, the ingredients above for strawberry mochi are the same to make the red bean mochi recipe. WITHOUT BEAN PASTE While strawberry daifuku is usually sold in stores stuffed with red bean paste then wrapped completely with soft glutinous rice flour, you can also make ichigo daifuku with other types of paste, or no paste at all. One way is to use white bean paste. Some recipes also make use of white kidney beans, meshed to make a fine best paste. Other recommendations to make strawberry mochi without bean paste: try matcha, which is Japanese green tea powder. The bitter green tea powder acts as a great counterfoil to the sweetness of the fruit. Another conventional favourite is to use dark chocolate. Smother the berries into dark chocolate, then wrap with soft glutinous rice flour paste. This makes it a very romantic, seductive gift for a loved one! Feeling adventurous? You can even use cream cheese to substitute for bean paste. Using cream cheese, biscuit, and jam, you can mix this together into a paste and slather it all over the strawberry. The result is strawberry mochi that tastes almost similar to cream cheesecake!
How To Make Mochi (Coconut, Matcha, Mango, + Strawberry Daifuku!)
This mochi recipe can be used to make red bean, fruit, or ice cream filled daifuku or mini mochi bits to top frozen yogurt!
Beloved in both Chinese and Japanese culture, mochi is an ancient and sacred food. With the help of sweet, glutinous rice flour, it turns out making it at home isn’t that crazy– it’s even easy!
So What Exactly Is Mochi?
Mochi can be a lot of different things, so it isn’t only what’s pictured here!
Mochi is the product of a glutinous short grain rice called mochigome. “Glutinous” meaning it contains a high starch content, not gluten.
Traditionally, mochi is prepared in a labor intensive ceremony called Mochisuki. The mochigome rice is soaked overnight and steamed. Then, while hot, the rice is ground and pounded with mallets in a large mortar until it forms mochi. This preparation is done by a team of two people: one to stir and flip, and one to grind and pound. It’s really amazing to watch, but I won’t be making mochi this way at home any time soon (but ya never know.)
At home, I use mochiko, a sweet glutinous rice flour that hydrates and develops gluten for a similar sticky and chewy texture to pounded mochigome rice. Mochi made with mochiko can be used to make daifuku, like the ones pictured here, little mochi bits to top frozen yogurt or ice cream, dango 🍡🍡🍡(Dango even has its own emoji!), and a myriad of baked goods such as butter mochi.
Know Your Mochi Ingredients
Generally, mochi is 3 parts mochiko sweet rice flour, 3 parts water, and 1 part sugar. A pinch of salt helps the flavor shine!
Sugar plays a big role when it comes to flavor and texture: it keeps the mochi soft and pliable, and adds flavor. Too little sugar means the mochi will be rubbery and tough. Be sure to use confectioner’s sugar rather than granulated sugar to keep the texture smooth.
The addition of corn syrup keeps the mochi’s texture soft and smooth, and will also help keep it soft and pliable if it is stored in the refrigerator. During recipe testing, I felt that the texture produced by the addition of corn syrup was more true to what I feel mochi should be.
To add flavor, I use dry ingredients like matcha powder and freeze dried fruits (I get my freeze dried fruit at Trader Joe’s!) Flavor can also be added with juices or purees in place of water. Food coloring and flavor extracts can be added as well.
For dusting, I prefer mochiko or potato starch. Potato starch is superior because of its fine, smooth texture, but mochiko is easy because it’s usually on hand, already being inside the mochi! Alternatively, cornstarch can be used, but cornstarch is VERY clingy, meaning it easily forms a thick layer on the mochi giving you a mouthful of cornstarch. Since it doesn’t taste all that great, cornstarch is my least favorite option. During recipe testing I thought I was a genius when I decided to dust with confectioner’s sugar– but my moment of pride was short lived because confectioner’s sugar dissolves and turns wet and sticky on the surface of mochi. Coconut mochi can be rolled in dessicated coconut, which is lovely.