The Simplest Way to Make Daifuku Mochi at Home | Mochi Making Journey (Part 8)

Hello, hello friends and happy new year! And what can be more appropriate then celebrating with some mochi! If you’ve been following along on our Mochi Making Journey, we have been deep in this game, trying to create legit mochi at home.

Quick recap: we tested mochiko flour in the microwave, steaming and cooking straight on the stove. Later we found out about shiratamako flour, which is the same rice processed differently, which gives a slightly more springy bite. Both rice flours will result in soft mochi, but not the chew we were looking for. That led us to the technicality that by using rice flour, we were making dango and not mochi.

So we tried starting with the glutinous rice itself, with the KitchenAid stand and even the Tiger Mochi machine. While we certainly achieved some real chewy mochi, most of them were too chewy for daifuku mochi and not smooth enough for our liking.

Luckily, through this mochi series, we’ve made some critical mochi friends who’ve let us on to our latest secret: the blender.

Tips for Making Better Daifuku Mochi

  1. When soaking or cooking your rice, use the best tasting water you have available. Mochi only has so many ingredients, so use the best quality stuff you can find, including the water.
  2. Don’t skimp on the sugar. If dietary concerns limit you, simply consume less mochi at a time (I know it’s difficult!). The sugar is necessary for the texture, shelf life, and flavor of the mochi. Especially for those who are used to bolder flavors, mochi without sugar will taste like, what it is: plain rice.
  3. Work with the mochi as soon as it’s cooled enough to handle. It’s most pliable while hot and will cool rapidly. If necessary, you can reheat mochi that’s gotten too hard/firm.
  4. If you plan on serving the mochi immediately after making, pre-scoop your fillings and allow them to set up in the fridge the night before. Otherwise you can freeze them, which makes assembling really easy, but you’ll need to let them thaw out before serving.
hojicha mochi, lemon mochi
hojicha & lemon mochi

Soft & Chewy Homemade Daifuku Mochi Recipe

Adapted from youtube.com/watch?v=dJno1VdIOwE

This process takes 2 days as you need to soak the rice the day before. That’s also a good time to make any fillings. Makes around 8-10 pieces. You can double the recipe, but you cannot easily halve it, as most blenders need a minimum quantity to effectively work.

Materials

  • Blender or Food processor
  • Microwave or Steamer
  • Microwave/Steamer-safe bowl
  • Plastic Wrap (for microwave)
  • Spatula
  • Plastic bench scraper (optional)
  • Cupcake liners (optional)

Ingredients

How to Make the Best Homemade Daifuku Mochi Guide

  1. (The day before) Wash rice until the water runs clear.
  2. Drain rice and then soak with water overnight, 8-16 hours.
  3. Pre-scoop/ball your filling and place in the fridge/freezer.
  4. (Day of) After rice is soaked, pour water and rice and sugar into blender, blend on high until smooth.
  5. Oil your microwave/steamer safe bowl. Pour mochi batter into it.
  6. Microwave: Cover mochi bowl with plastic wrap and cook on High for 4 minutes. Allow it to sit in the microwave 5 minutes after cooking to continue steaming.
  7. Steam: 15-20 minutes or until fully cooked. The color of mochi should change from white to almost shiny and opaque.
  8. Carefully remove mochi and give it a quick stir.
  9. Piece out mochi dough and then assemble. For detailed instructions and photos see Part 4.
  10. Storage: Store in an airtight container in a cool place. Do not refrigerate unless you have to (mochi dries out in the fridge). Consume within 2-3 days, best on the first day.

Thoughts on the Blender Method

Other similar methods use a food processor or run cooked rice through a meat grinder in addition to pounding. We have yet to try those methods but find that this one is the simplest and we’re able to achieve both the soft and chewy texture we were looking for. There’s still some tweaking to be done, when we compare this mochi to our favorite local shops’ mochi, our mochi skin is not as thin. Likely we’ll need to increase the sugar and maybe water, but this is the closest we’ve come yet! What do you think? Let us know in the comments if you have any other recipes you think we should try!

By the way, we even discovered that our beloved local mochi shops, Benkyodo and Shuei-Do both use rice flour themselves. Don’t forget that Benkyodo is closing within the next few months, so show them some love if you can! Till next time, onwards mochi friends~

Tools Used To Make This Dish*
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