A popular spring dessert, Strawberry Mochi (Ichigo Daifuku) is a soft and chewy mochi stuffed with fresh juicy strawberry and sweet red bean paste. Indulge yourself with this beautiful and delicious Japanese delicacy!
Strawberry Mochi (Ichigo Daifuku) いちご大福 | Easy Japanese Recipe
If you love juicy strawberries, sweet red bean paste, and chewy mochi, you will love this Japanese dessert Strawberry Mochi (Ichigo Daifuku) (いちご大福).
Daifuku (大福) is a popular traditional Japanese sweet; it is soft mochi stuffed with sweet red bean paste. There are many varieties of Daifuku. They usually come with the same soft and chewy mochi exterior with different stuffing.
Modern Twist - Strawberry Mochi (Ichigo Daifuku)
During the spring time, Japanese confectionery shops sell a seasonal Daifuku, Strawberry Mochi (Ichigo Daifuku いちご大福), with a whole strawberry as the filling. The combination of fresh soft mochi, sweet red bean paste, and juicy and tart strawberry is a match made in heaven!
Strawberry Mochi was first created during the 80's, so it's considered a relatively new wagashi, like a traditional Japanese confectionery with a modern twist. Depending on regions and stores, some strawberry mochi have red bean paste filling while others use shiroan (white bean paste). Some mochi come with whipped cream and strawberry inside, instead of red bean or white bean paste.
As this seasonal mochi includes fresh strawberry, it is only offered during strawberry season in Japan between winter and spring.
To Make Strawberry Daifuku
Today's recipe is a classic strawberry daifuku. You can make your own red bean paste (recipe here) or use store-bought bean paste for short cut. The other ingredients are simple: shiratamako (glutinous rice flour), sugar, water and corn starch. And fresh juicy strawberries of course! Smaller ones are easier to work with.
Making daifuku is very much like a craft. The process can be fun and meditative. When working with mochi dough, make sure do not stretch it too thin to prevent tearing. Wrapping the sticky, elastic Mochi around around the berries is like working with edible play dough.
The daifuku keep well for a day or two in the refrigerator, although it can be hard to resist eating them all when made fresh. I hope you get to give these a try at home. Sweet, elegant and delicate, Strawberry Daifuku is just another delicious way to celebrate the season.
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Prep: 2 hrs, 30 mins
Cook: 30 mins
Yield: Makes 12 pieces
Daifuku or Daifuku Mochi is a type of wagashi, or Japanese sweet. Daifuku is a popular Japanese snack and usually served with green tea. Daifuku is most commonly filled with red bean paste, but some are filled with white bean paste (Shiroan). There are also mochi which is colored and flavored with kinako (soy bean flour), yomogi (Japanese mugwort), matcha green tea powder or a touch of red food coloring.
There are two types of the red bean filling: koshian (fine texture) and tsubuan (coarse texture). It's up to you which red bean paste you prefer as the filling, but many prefer tsubuan with its coarse texture and the azuki bean skin still kept in the paste.
Mochi is made of short-grain japonica glutinous rice (mochigome). Traditionally, mochi is made through a labor-intensive method. The glutinous rice is cooked and pounded with wooden mallets (kine) in a traditional mortar (usu). We call this mochi-pounding process "mochitsuki". The mochi is then formed into round or rectangular shapes.
It takes quite a bit of time to make mochi from scratch. You can also make mochi with shiratamako or mochiko (glutinous rice/sweet rice flour). The flour is mixed with water and steamed either on the stovetop or in the microwave. With this quick method, sticky tasty mochi is ready in no time.
What You'll Need
1 cup shiratama-ko (glutinous rice flour)
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
For Filling:
2/3 cup water and 1 cup sugar and1/2 cup dried anko powder, or 1 1/4 cup premade anko
Katakuriko (potato starch) or corn starch for dusting
How to Make It
Heat 2/3 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar in a small pot.
Add 1/4 cup of anko powder and stir well.
Cool the anko filling.
Make 12 small anko balls and set aside.
Put shiratamako in a heat-resistant bowl.
Mix water and sugar in a small bowl and gradually pour into shiratama-ko, stirring well.
Put the bowl in microwave and heat the dough for about two minutes.
Stir the dough.
Heat the dough in microwave until the dough inflates.
Stir the mochi quickly. Dust a flat pan with some katakuri-ko starch.
Also, dust hands with some katakuri-ko.
Remove the hot mochi from the bowl to the pan by hand. The mochi is hot and sticky, so please be careful not to burn your hands.
Dust hands with more katakuriko starch and divide the mochi into 12 pieces by hands.
Make 12 flat and round mochi.
Put a piece of anko filling on a mochi and wrap the anko by stretching mochi.
Round the daifuku.
Repeat the process to make more pieces.
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