Daifuku

Daifuku is a small, thick cake consisting of mochi (a dough made from glutinous rice) filled with anko (sweetened bean paste). It belongs to the category of traditional Japanese sweets known as wagashi, which are often served alongside green tea. There are several variants of daifuku, such as the pale-green yomogi daifuku, in which the mochi is flavoured and coloured with powdered mugwort, and ichigo daifuku, which contain a fresh strawberry as well as anko.

The dough is made with glutinous rice flour, sometimes sold as mochiko or "sweet rice flour". It is commonly available at most Asian food stores, though you may have to ask which one it is if the packages only say "rice flour". Be cautious of the "sweet rice" label; it sometimes means something quite different than glutinous rice, and the flour might not be usable for making mochi. The correct flour for this purpose is extremely fine and powdery and looks more like cornstarch than like ordinary rice flour, which is grainier and handles very differently.


Ingredients:

1 cup mochiko
2/3 to 1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar

Arrowroot starch

1 cup tsubushi-an, or whichever variety of bean paste you prefer


Process:

Mix the first three ingredients together in a small saucepan, stirring until all lumps are broken up.

Heat over a medium-high flame, stirring constantly.
The cooking process should only take three or four minutes; make sure and pay close attention so it doesn't burn.
The mixture will start to thicken quite rapidly, starting from the bottom of the pan.
Keep stirring.
Before long, it will start to resemble large lumps of rubber cement.
Keep stirring!
The next stage turns into a more cohesive mass, which is quite sticky and stretchy.
When you can pull it away from the sides of the pan and it stretches out like chewing gum, remove from heat and set aside.

Dust a cutting board with a thick layer of arrowroot starch.
Scrape dough from pan onto the board, and roll it around in the starch.
Slice into 12 even pieces with a Very Sharp Knife.

Divide the bean paste into 12 equal portions and roll each one into a ball.

Take a piece of mochi in your hands and pat, pull, and flatten it into a small pancake shape.
The dough should feel quite squishy and elastic; use the starchy board to keep it from getting sticky.

Place a ball of anko in the middle of the pancake; fold and tuck the mochi over and around the filling and pinch the edges together to seal it. Gently pat into a thick, round, slightly flattened cake.
Set the finished daifuku on the cutting board, smooth side up, and make 11 more.


Notes:

These are best eaten the same day. If there are leftovers, pop them in the freezer; they are also delicious frozen - like a Japanese ice-cream sandwich.

Mochiko/glutinous rice flour varies widely in absorbency from brand to brand, so you may need a much greater quantity of water to make the batter thin enough. Experiment with adding extra little by little until it looks right.


The shaping process: