Ichigo Daifuku – Innards!
I’ve always been fascinated by wagashi, traditional Japanese confectionery. Wagashi is usually very sweet and served to complement bitter matcha tea. There are different types of wagashi and the themes for wagashi tend to change according to the seasons. I love the summer wagashi season because of the delicate goldfish-themed wagashi, particularly those created by Toraya, a confectionery company established in Kyoto.
However out of all the wagashi I’ve had, my favourite has to be the humble ichigo daifuku – essentially a whole(!) strawberry coated in red bean paste and then wrapped in soft, chewy mochi. The strawberry’s tartness is offset by the sweet red bean paste and the mochi wrapping adds a wonderfully soft textural element. There are variants of the ichigo daifuku such as yukimi daifuku (replace red bean paste with smooth whipped cream) but as I grow older, I tend to appreciate the more rustic flavour of red bean paste.
For years I thought that wagashi was difficult to make and that only a person with deft hands would be able to create it. But after an intense ichigo daifuku craving hit me one day (sometime this June to be exact), I did what any daifuku-crazed person would do – I decided to make my own.
I’ve since made ichigo daifuku more than 10 times (each time I made batches of between 5 – 20 daifuku, so perhaps more accurately 100 times?). After all the mochi-making, I can definitely say that it’s a confectionery where ‘practice makes perfect’. My first two attempts were delicious but I was so afraid of tearing the mochi, that each daifuku looked like a fat pillow. Also I wasn’t used to handling hot mochi (it is very, very hot!) and I couldn’t get a beautiful round shape. I think I got better after about 5 tries though. Perhaps my hands could tell that they were about to deal with hot, sticky mochi and desensitized my nerves to the pain?
Friends have asked about this elusive mochi-making process and after answering the nth question, I decided to post up this step-by-step account of how I make ichigo daifuku. The method I use is by no means conventional – I don’t have a steamer nor a microwave oven, which I’ve seen several others use. In place of these tools, I use my trusty Zojirushi rice cooker. It’s the most basic model i.e. makes rice only, but I’ve found it useful to make mochi. Clean-up is fairly quick too.
In terms of ingredients, there are only a few: shiratamako (a type of rice flour), sugar, strawberries, red bean paste, potato starch and water. The key to making good daifuku is the ratio of key ingredients: 1 part sugar, 2 parts shiratamako, 3 parts water.
The recipe I’ve detailed below makes about 20 golf-ball sized mochi (using small strawberries) but you can easily scale up or down. Ultimately, the number of daifuku you get depends on one variable really – the size of the strawberries.
Recipe: Ichigo Daifuku
Makes about 20 golf ball-sized daifuku.
Time taken: 2 hours
Filling Ingredients
20 small strawberries (i.e. slightly smaller than your thumb)
500 g red bean paste (there are two types, koshian is smooth and tsubuan is chunky. I prefer tsubuan for texture and have used it for this recipe. You could also make your own paste which I do sometimes. But that’s another post for another time.)
Mochi Ingredients
100 g white sugar (coarse or fine, doesn’t matter – just don’t use brown sugar)
200 g shiratamako
300 ml water
potato starch/katakuriko (as needed, about 50 g should be fine)
Method (Step-by-step with pictures!)
1. Dehull your strawberries. Wash them and then dry with a paper towel. (You can see in this picture the brand of tsubuan I used.)
2. As seen above, prepare some clingwrap because you’re going to start wrapping strawberries in tsubuan before putting them into the fridge. This step may seem superfluous but for beginners, is useful to ensure easy handling of the tsubuan when you start wrapping the mochi at a later stage. I also find that it allows the strawberries to absorb some of the sweetness from the red bean paste.
3. Take a piece of clingwrap (I cut mine into squares but it’s unnecessary). Put about 3 tsps of tsubuan on the clingwrap then place a strawberry on top. The picture above shows what I mean. Now you need to wrap the tsubuan around the strawberry. I like to leave the tip of the strawberry uncovered so that when you wrap the mochi later, a slight tinge of pink appears on the top. Depending on the size of your strawberry, you may need to add more tsubuan. This step takes about 1 hour.
4. Wrap the tsubuan and strawberry into a ball, as shown above. Repeat for all the strawberries. When done, you can leave the tsubuan-strawberry balls in the fridge and start making the mochi. Do not leave the balls for more than 12 hours or freeze them! This is very important – if you do, the strawberries become soft and won’t taste nice. Personal experience!
5. Start measuring out your shiratamako, sugar and water. You can see in the picture above what shiratamako looks like and the brand which I’ve used. I’ve heard that you can use mochi flour (mochiko) but I’ve never tried.
6. Put the shiratamako, sugar and water into the rice cooker. Stir the mixture around so that everything is evenly combined. Set the rice cooker to cook.
7. While the mixture is cooking, prepare a large baking tray and dust it with potato starch. The potato starch prevents the cooked mochi mixture from sticking everywhere so don’t be modest about the amount you use.
7. The mixture will slowly start to thicken. If your rice cooker is basic and you can’t control the temperature, chances are you will find that the bottom starts burning before the top part of the mixture is cooked. In that case, stir the mixture using a silicon spatula or rice cooker paddle.
8. After 10 – 20 minutes, the mixture will start to thicken considerably and turn slightly translucent. Take your strawberry balls out from the fridge. Now, take the mochi off the rice cooker and place it on the potato starch-lined baking tray. Be careful, its very, very hot and sticky!!!
9. If you’re very organised, you can divide the hot mochi into 20 separate portions using a pastry cutter dusted in potato starch. Personally, I advise against it because the mochi turns cold faster and becomes less pliable. Usually I pinch a hot, burning fistful (ouch!) and flatten it into a round shape with my fingertips and palm. Of course, make sure your hands are well-dusted with potato starch.
10. After you have a nice round(ish) shape, take the strawberry ball and unwrap it onto the mochi. Using your hands, you can wrap the mochi around the strawberry ball. See the picture above for reference. If you’ve ever made dumplings before, the process is very similar.
11. Close up any seams you can spot and then give the mochi a final shaping by cupping your hands around the mochi ball. Your first ichigo daifuku is done! Now time to get cracking on the remaining daifuku! (Yay?) The process of wrapping the mochi around the strawberry balls takes about 40 minutes to an hour. In any event, you’ll be at it for a while.
12. Finished product! Best eaten on the day it’s made but sometimes I like to chill it in the fridge for an hour. Try not to store it in the fridge for too long! (At most, overnight.)
Recipe Notes:
– If you’re using mineral water, you may need to use slightly more/less depending on the ‘softness’ of the water. I made this recipe using Evian once and found that I had to keep topping up because the mixture wasn’t pliable enough. I used about an additional 10% of water.
– If you have leftover strawberry balls and insufficient mochi (common if you’re starting out), you could use them for a dessert like anmitsu.
– I think it would be interesting to replace the white sugar with brown sugar and strawberry with chestnut for an autumnal daifuku. Possibly topped with kinako! Idea!
H.
DELISHUU 