Spring has finally come along and that means its cherry blossom (sakura) season. During this season, a popular treat to have is sakura mochi. Even though sakura mochi has always been a piece of pink rice cake wrapped around red bean paste and then garnished with a piece of preserved cherry blossom leaf, the style of making this treat varies between different areas of Japan.
The Kanto region uses glutinous rice flour for their rice cake and the Kansai region uses rice cake flour or glutinous rice. This time, I decided to make the Kanto version of sakura mochi but no worries, I’m going to make the other style in a few days so make sure you come back and get that recipe too !
Ingredients (makes 8):
50 mL glutinous rice flour
170 mL cake flour (see note below)
140 mL cup water
30 mL sugar
200 mL red bean paste (divided into 10 equal portions and shaped into logs)
1 drop red food coloring (optional)
oil for cooking
8 sakura leaves (optional)
No cake flour? For 1 cup of cake flour, put 2 tablespoons cornstarch in an empty measuring cup and add all-purpose flour to the top. Sift the mixture 2-3 times to evenly distribute the cornstarch.
Let’s get cooking:
1. Sift the flour, glutinous rice flour, and sugar into a large bowl. Slowly pour the water into it a little at a time until a smooth batter forms. You can add a drop of red food colouring if you want them to have the pink of sakura flowers. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
2. Heat a lightly oiled frying pan on low heat. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of the batter onto the pan in an oval shape.
3. When the dough looks dry, flip it over to the other side and let cook for another 20 seconds. Let aside to cool.
4. When the cooked mochi wraps are cooled, place a portion of the red bean filling inside.
5. Wrap your mochi around the red bean in the way you like, you can either roll it all up into a log or sandwich it in a cresent shape. Then wrap a sakura leaf around the filled mochi for garnish if you have some lying around.
