Mochi
Soft, chewy rice cakes made from steamed glutinous rice flour, wrapped around sweet red bean paste and dusted in starch so they never stick to a thing — including your fingers.
About this dish
Mochi has been pounded in Japan since at least the Heian period, originally made by hand in a wooden mortar with a heavy wooden mallet, a process called mochitsuki still performed as a New Year ritual in many towns. The home version here skips the pounding crew and gets the same chewy texture from steaming a simple rice-flour batter, which is how most mochi is actually made outside of festival days.
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Lactose-free
Ingredients
- 250gSweet rice flour
- 60gCaster sugar
- 300mlWater
- 200gSweet red bean paste
- 50gPotato starch
Instructions
Whisk the rice flour, sugar and water together into a smooth, lump-free batter.
5 minTip: Any lumps now are lumps forever — the batter thickens fast once it hits heat, and there's no stirring them out afterward.
Steam the batter, covered, until it turns from cloudy white to glossy and translucent.
15 minTip: Translucent is the only sign that matters. Cloudy means raw starch still at the centre, and the texture will be gluey rather than chewy.
Dust a work surface generously with potato starch, turn the hot dough out onto it, and divide into 8 pieces.
10 minTip: The dough is shockingly sticky straight off the heat — a heavy dusting of starch is what lets you handle it at all, not an optional flourish.
Flatten each piece, wrap it around a ball of red bean paste, and pinch the seam closed underneath.
10 minTip: Pinch firmly and tuck the seam under — an open seam is where the filling escapes the moment someone bites in.