Spring is in the air! Let’s celebrate the season by making this strawberry cream mochi. Mixing the rich flavors of heavy cream with fresh and ripe strawberries is a match made in heaven. This recipe is a favorite during the spring season in Japan, but now you can make it right in your home kitchen. Although seasonally fresh strawberries are the best, you can also make this with frozen strawberries!
What is Daifuku?
In Japanese food culture, there are a wide variety of sweet pastries that are traditionally eaten with green tea as a light snack. These sweets are also for specific holidays and times of the year, which usually correspond with their traditional growing and harvest season. Daifuku is a particular kind of wagashi. It comes with a thin mochi outer layer and then stuffed with a sweet filling.
We have shown you how to make Strawberry Daifuku before, but this new recipe is different because we are also using heavy cream for a different experience. For those of you who love good old strawberries with whipped cream, this strawberry cream mochi is going to be your new go-to sweet snack!
Many Kinds of Mochi
Mochi has taken the world by storm. Most people are aware of how pleasantly satisfying this chewy rice product is. But there are many many more different kinds of mochi than just the ice cream balls and other sweets that are currently in Western markets. Mochi is a staple of traditional Japanese recipe for thousands of years. Now, it can be a healthy alternative to white bread pastries in many versatile ways.
For those that like donuts, check out our recipe for Mochi Donuts, with just a bit of matcha green tea powder for extra flavor. Another springtime recipe that is wildly popular in traditional Japanese food culture is Cherry Blossom Mochi, which is wrapped in freshly picked cherry leaves! Even in wintertime, you can use delicious mochi treats to chase away the blues: our Sweet Potato Mochi are both sweet and substantial, the perfect way to fuel up during the cold season.
Strawberry Cream Mochi Cooking Tips:
- If you are not a massive fan of red bean paste, increase the amount of cream. Then, you can cut out the paste.
- Be extremely careful handling mochi. It can be scorching hot after cooking.
- Make sure all the ingredients are cold when assembling. Otherwise, it’s hard to make it into a ball, and it might fall apart.
Strawberry Cream Mochi
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp Heavy Cream
- 1 cup Koshian (Red Bean Paste)
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ½-1 cup Katakuri Powder (Potato Starch)
- 6 Strawberries
Mochi:
- 2/3 cup Shiratamako (Glutinous Rice Flour)
- 1/3 cup Sugar
- ½ cup Water
Instructions
- In a small bowl, beat heavy cream with hand mixer until it forms firm peaks.
- Using piping bag, squeeze out 6 cream balls on saran wrap lined plate. Put it in the freezer for at least 30 minutes until firm.
- In a medium bowl, mix koshian and salt with spatula. Wrap around the cream ball and put them back in the freezer.
- In a small pot, mix all the ingredients of mochi. Add water gradually to the mochi mix until powder dissolves.
- Once dissolved, heat it over medium heat until the mixture becomes gooey, slimy, mochi-ish texture.
Sprinkle generous amount of katakuri powder over a large baking pan or wooden/marble surface in your kitchen.
- Put mochi over the powdered surface and sprinkle more powder over the mochi. Mochi can be really hot, so be careful when touching it.
- Once mochi is cool enough to touch, cut mochi into 6 parts.
- Place cream ball on each mochi and wrap it by extending mochi gently with your fingers to form a mochi ball.
- Decorate with strawberry.
