Sy’s murmurs and mumbles

I needed to make a snack for a thing I was going to, and I decided to make mochi. I’ve never made mochi before. I don’t even like mochi.

But the day before, I’d seen a mochi recipe that actually looked like it might be sorta good (even though I don’t, as a rule, enjoy most mochi) [ Mango Mochi Recipe ] , so I made a snap decision to give it a try.

Mochi is a very very popular confection/pastry/type-thing in Japan and China, and probably other places, too. It’s a little odd by western standards. It can be plain or filled with a red bean paste/fresh fruit/ice cream/other filling. It’s definitely a beautiful treat:

The dough that it’s made of doesn’t taste funny or bad, it just doesn’t taste much. At all. Like anything. But it’s  very very chewy. So that’s…… weird, for westerners. My goal with mochi, then, is to make it as flavorful as possible, and use great fillings, to make it more palatable for first-timers (read: folks who didn’t grow up with this treat).

I used the recipe on the above site (Which is think is flawed, the rice is measured in g, while the liquid in mg, and, extrapolating from other mochi recipes, the amount of sweet rice flour to liquid is supposed to be about even.) I added equal amounts, by weight, of the rice flour, and the liquid ( I used mango nectar, mango-orange juice and fresh squeezed lemon juice!), and it was waaay sticky. Like a very very thick dry ball that couldn’t be mixed. The picture on the website, however, showed a thin batter. Hmm. I added a whole lot more liquid, until it vaguely resembled a batter, then popped it into the micro for 5 minutes, loosely covered. 

I tried to make the mochi while the mochi was still warm – bad move. I made some more later when it was completely cool, and it was tons easier. The stuff sticks to EVERYTHING! Fingers, knives, plastic wrap, tables, you name it. After a couple of failed attempts to use plastic wrap to shape them, (it stuck to the plastic wrap like you can’t believe) I tried to look online to see if there was a proper way to handle the goop to get it to behave. I didn’t find anything helpful. OK THEN, time to come up with my own idea. I lightly oiled a piece of plastic wrap (quite lightly) and tried it that way. The dough didn’t stick to it! I made the first mochi, and found that the slight oil that clung to the mochi didn’t prevent the coconut from sticking to the ball. Whew. Repeat x30! 

I’ll have to make this again, and take more careful note of the ingredient amounts. I am very interested in making a mochi that first-timers will enjoy very much, and to my mind, that means making the dough as flavorful as humanly possible! I’ll have to share, next time I make it. 

Here are the pics from the process!

Coaxing the Mochi dough out with a knife ( I should have used a plastic spoon for this)

Dallop of mochi dough on VERY LIGHTLY oiled saran wrap

Wetting fingertips, this stuff is sticky as heck.

Stretch #1

Stretch #3 or 4 - it's flat enough now. I wetted my fingers often.

Mango chunk!

Working the mochi dough around filling from safely beneath the saran wrap.

Enclosing going well...

Success!

Gently rocking from side to side, to help the edges stick well and not break open

Thank goodness for that tiny bit of oil...

Plopped into the coconut

The final product! Upper one has cornstarch on it instead of coconut.

Bitten Mochi!