Daifuku is a Japanese dessert that involves wrapping a glutinous rice flour (mochi) dough around a sweet filling. Most of the time the filling for Daifuku is red bean (anko) paste but sometimes a strawberry gets wrapped in there as well for extra deliciousness. I think that these Japanese cakes are the cutest things ever especially when they’re cut in half because you can see the layered cross section of the strawberry, red bean and mochi wrap.
Ingredients (makes 8):
1 cup glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
1 1/4 cup red bean (anko) paste
8 small strawberries
1 – 2 tablespoons cornstarch for dusting and rolling
Method
1. Split the red bean paste into 12 equal pieces and wrap each piece around a strawberry then set it aside in the fridge to firm up.
2. Mix the water and sugar in a small bowl; set aside. Put the glutinous rice flour in a large bowl and gradually stir the water/sugar mixture into it making sure it incorporates.
3. Put the bowl into the microwave and heat it for 2 minutes. Then, remove it from the microwave and stir the mixture. Return the bowl into the microwave again and heat it for 30 seconds – 1 minute until the dough inflates. At this point, take the bowl out and quickly stir the dough (mochi).
4. Dust a baking sheet and your hands with corn starch. Then using a rubber spatula, transfer the hot dough (mochi) from the bowl onto the pan. Careful it’s going to be super hot! Divide the mochi into 8 pieces. If it gets too sticky, dust your hands with more corn starch. Flatten each piece into a 1/2 cm thin circle with your fingers and place a redbean/strawberry round in the center of each.
After a few I realized that it’s actually easier to put the wrap on top of the strawberry and then wrap downwards so the seal is on the bottom and it looks smooth on the outside.
5. Stretch the mochi dough around the redbean/strawberry to incase it.
6. Roll the completed daifuku lightly in cornstarch until it’s no longer sticky on the outside.
7. Slice (well you don’t actually have to but I just like looking at the layers inside)!
Final thoughts
Mother deer asked me why they were oddly shaped and had really messy looking sealing (on the bottom) when she saw them. I ended up challenging her by saying “let’s see you do better on your first time making them” to that she laughed and took a piece to eat. Even though these didn’t turn out as perfect as the ones I saw in Japan, lil’ bun was quite proud of this creation because we put a lot of tender love and care into making them.
At first I thought these were going to be difficult to make since I’ve never worked with mochi dough before and thought that it would be hard to work with since it’s sticky but it really wasn’t because the cornstarch helped A LOT. The hardest part was actually trying to manage the hot dough because you need to work with it while it’s warm or it won’t be as pliable (good thing working in cafes for so long has gotten me used to heat!).
As for how the daifuku tasted? Well, they had a layer of chewy mochi wrap followed by red bean paste and then a surprise at the end when you bite into the sweet juicy strawberry in the center…so I can honestly say that I have never had anything like them before. With that being said, I’d probably make them again in a heartbeat!
Love mochi? Try my Chinese mochi recipe!
Those look so good!
thanks!