Daifuku

These are so good! Daifuku (which means great luck) is a Japanese sweet treat made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. The outside is a glutinous rice cake called mochi. For daifuku, it generally means it’s filled with anko, which is sweet red-bean paste. The most common mochi are white, pale green or pale pink. A current popular trend for daifuku is a filling of fresh strawberry covered in strawberry jam or anko ; covered, of course, in mochi. Daifuku come in two common sizes, one about the diameter of a half-dollar coin; the other is palm-sized or in my case, i follow the size of the strawberry. Some versions of daifuku contain other types of fruit, mixtures of fruits and anko, and crushed melon paste. Daifuku is usually covered in a fine layer of corn or taro starch to keep them from sticking to each other or to the fingers as you eat them. Some are covered with confectioner's sugar or cocoa.You can make various daifuku--just change the filling.

Ingredients:



1 cup shiratama-ko (glutinous rice flour)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup water

1 1/4 cup premade anko

12 fresh strawberries - choose all the same size
Katakuri-ko (potato starch) for dusting

Method:

Make 12 small anko balls and wrap strawberries in.

Put water and sugar in a heat-resistant bowl and mix well.

Add shiratama-ko flour in the bowl and mix well.

Put the bowl in microwave and heat the dough for two minutes. Stir the dough.

Heat the dough in microwave until the dough inflates. Stir the mochi quickly.

Dust a flat pan with some katakuri-ko starch. Also, dust hands with some katakuri-ko.

Remove the hot mochi from the bowl to the pan by hands. Dust hands with more katakuri-ko starch and divide the mochi into 12 pieces by hands. The mochi is hot and sticky, so be careful not to burn your hands. Make 12 flat and round mochi.

Fill mochi with prepared strawberry anko balls.

Repeat the process to make daifuku cakes.

Makes 12 daifuku.

Serves