In celebration of Spring I decided to make Strawberry Daifuku Mochi. Mochi is primarily made of glutinous rice flour. There are two kinds of glutinous rice flour you can find in the market. The first one is the “mochiko” or sweet rice flour and the second is “shiratamako”. Both are used in making all kinds mochi based sweets but shiratamako will give you the elasticity that you need in this mochi.
For this recipe you will need red bean paste (koshian), strawberries, shiratamako. potato starch, sugar and water. You can make your own red bean paste but I just bought mine pre-made. You can find this in the refrigerator section of any Asian foodstore.
First, wash and remove the stems from your strawberries and pat dry. Divide your red bean paste into 6 equal sized balls. Flatten each ball and wrap the strawberries in it tip side down. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
Get a baking pan or any wide and flat surfaced container and sprinkle some potato starch on it. Set aside.
Combine the shiratamako. sugar and water and mix well, make sure that everything is well combined and your flour is dissolved. Place in a heat proof dish and steam for 15 minutes.
Remove from steamer and give it a few stir using a spatula dipped in water. Pour mixture in your prepared pan and sprinkle more potato starch on top. Warning, the mixture will be very hot. Work quickly and divide the sticky dough into 6 equal portions.
Take one and flatten it into a disk then wrap the red bean coated strawberry, again with the tip side down. Smoothen the outside and set aside. Repeat with the remaining strawberries.
