Daifuku Mochi with Anko (bean filling)

daifuku mochi with anko filling

Mochi is a Japanese glutinous rice cake. It is traditionally eaten and made together with family and friends during New Year (but is eaten in all kinds of dishes throughout the year). Today I make daifuku mochi with anko (red bean filling).

Rice pounding

By cooking mochigome glutinous rice and then beating it with large hammers, very sticky dough is created; mochi. The dough is turned into flat balls or diced into rectangles.

Mochi can be eaten in savory or sweet dishes. This episode about mochi from the Japanese channel NHK explains very precisely what mochi is and how it can be eaten. I think roasted mochi that was first dried in the freezing cold or mochi in soup seems very tasty.

Daifuku

Stuffed mochi is called daifuku which means something like “great luck.” Daifuku mochi is usually filled with sweet red bean paste, but it can also contain, for example, strawberry or ice cream! You can fill them with sweet black sesame paste or mango, chocolate and then roll through the sesame seeds. The dough can be made with coffee or chocolate milk (that recipe is coming up)…. mochi makes me very happy 😉.

Want to see how I make mochi in the microwave? Check out my video here:

For more mochi examples check out my inspiration board “Japanese food” on Pinterest here.

daifuku mochi with anko filling in cupcake sheets.

Tropical Japonica

According to this wiki, sticky rice is made of “tropical japonica” in Indonesia; a rice plant (sub)group that is used in Japan to make mochi and was brought to Indonesia by the slave trade.

I could not get Japanese mochi flour (mochiko flour) at my local Asian shop so I use Indonesian ketan flour. That will probably taste the same as mochiko because it is from the same plant. When I find mochiko I will test the flavor immediately.

Anko – Red bean paste

I’ve also made sweet red bean paste (anko) myself; but in a fast way. I get canned aduki beans. Like all beans, it takes a long time to soften aduki beans when they are still raw. I want to make a relatively easy and fast recipe for my daifuku so use already cooked beans. The filling is still delicious.

Preparing Anko - Red bean filling from aduki beans.

When I make anko, I always make more than necessary. Anko can be frozen easily. For later use to make dorayaki for example or if you want to make more daifuku mochi later.

I make red bean paste to fill 16 mochi. My recipe for mochi makes 8 cakes. So you have half of the bean paste left to freeze. If you don’t think that is necessary, then halve the ingredients for the red bean paste in the recipe down below.

Daifuku Mochi with red bean filling and gula jawa

This is my recipe for daifuku mochi with red bean filling that is sweetened with gula Jawa (Javanese sugar). I make my mochi dough with ketan flour I get at my Indonesian shop.

The amount of dough in this recipe is sufficient for 8 daifuku mochi. I manage to make all 8 daifuku while my dough is still warm; that is important for folding. My daifuku mochi with red bean filling is ready in 1 hour.

Ingredients

  • 250 grams of aduki beans from a can drained
  • 180 grams of gula Jawa
  • 120 ml of water
  • pinch of salt (if necessary)
  • 100 grams of ketan flour
  • 165 ml of water
  • 70 g sugar
  • three tablespoons of tapioca flour or corn flour (corn starch) to form the mochi

You also need:

  • baking paper
  • cupcake
  • a dish that can endure the microwave
  • blender
  • microwave

Anko – red bean paste preparations

  1. Drain the aduki beans and rinse well under running water
  2. Place on medium heat and add 120 ml of water and bring to the boil while stirring occasionally.
  3. Meanwhile, melt 180 gr of gula Jawa with a tablespoon of water
  4. Add the melted gula Jawa to the beans and simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, while stirring, to reduce the beans until it looks like thick porridge.
  5. Pour the beans (carefull they’re hot) in a bowl and let cool. It will become even firmer.

Mochi dough

  1. Mix ketan flour and sugar in a bowl that can withstand the microwave
  2. While stirring with a whisk, pour in the water little by little until you get a smooth and thin (milk-like) batter
  3. Heat this up in the microwave for 40 seconds and stir. Repeat heating up and stirring until the dough is very sticky, thick and shiny. The time that the dough needs to be in the microwave depends on the thickness of the bowl.
  4. Spoon the dough (while still hot) on an oven plate layered with baking paper that is covered with tapioca flour
  5. Flatten the mochi (dust your hands with tapioca flour first) to a thickness of 1,5 – 2 cm.
  6. Cut circles and scoop a teaspoon of bean paste in the middle and fold up. This must be done while the dough is still warm, so hurry up 😉
Ingredients for daifuku mochi with anko filling

Red bean paste (Anko)

I rinse the canned beans very well a few times. Most of the salt in the water is then gone. This way I keep control over the flavor. If it is still too dull add a pinch of salt. My beans are fine, I do not add anything.

I cook my beans and melt my sugar (gula Jawa).

Melting gula Jawa and cooking beans for daifuku mochi with anko filling

Melting gula Jawa is dangerous in the sense that melted sugar becomes caramel, so hati hati!

Melting gula Jawa

While the beans are simmering in 120 ml of water, my gula Jawa melts over medium heat.

Now that the sugar has melted, I pour it with the beans and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes over medium heat. I stir regularly. Then I pour the beans into a bowl to cool. The beans are also very hot, so pay attention.

Cooling daifuku mochi with anko filling

I am impatient today so cool my bean paste in ice water. You can also first cool the anko on the counter and then in the fridge. It will become a lot firmer.

Cooling daifuku mochi with anko filling

Now that my anko is still half warm, I grind it with my emersion blender until pasta, or less fine, as I do. I leave some bigger pieces for an extra nibble.

Mochi dough

When the anko has cooled down I can start the dough. It is important that the dough is still warm when you start folding daifuku. So I work fast.

I mix the ketan flour and sugar in a bowl that can withstand the microwave.

Mixing flour and sugar for mochi in microwave

Then I pour in the water little by little so I get a smooth, very thin (milk-like milk) batter.

Mochi batter

Then the dish can be placed in the microwave and I heat it for 40 seconds. Then I stir the batter well and heat my batter 3x 40 seconds and 1x 20 seconds; I stir well between each session.

The number of heating times depends on the thickness of the bowl. After 2x 40 seconds my batter looks like this. It is still wet, but it is coming together well.

Mochi batter 40 seconds in microwave

After heating 4x my batter looks like this. It already shines well, but there are still some wet spots in there. I mix (kneed with the spoo) it again well.

Mochi batter 80 seconds in microwave

After a final boost of 20 seconds in the microwave, my mochi dough is shiny and elastic and done. It is also very elastic and it is difficult to remove from my spatula.

Mochi batter 120 seconds in microwave

I cover a baking sheet with baking paper and sprinkle it generously with tapioca flour (cassava flour), but it can also be cornflour (corn starch). I scoop the entire batch of dough still steaming hot on the flour; all in one piece.

Mochi batter on layer of tapioca flour

With hands dipped in the tapioca flour, I push the dough flat and form a slice of about 1,5 to 2 centimeters in thickness.

Mochi dough made flat

I use a cookie cutter to cut my mochi in circles. You can also remove a piece and roll it in the size of a ping-pong ball. Then make some space in the center to add the filling.

Mochi dough cut out with cookie cutter

I scoop a teaspoon of my cooled anko in the middle and fold it close. First from top to bottom, then the sides.

I place each daifuku in a cupcake mold. And serve on a dish. The dough tastes better after an hour or so. It gets the chance to rest and absorb the flavors well.

Daifuku

Do not place them in the fridge. They dry too much. Do you want to keep them longer, freeze the immediately.

Leftovers

Before I forget: I am left with some dough because I cut the pieces with a circular cookie mold. I cut the leftover pieces even smaller and serve as they are. That’s how you can eat mochi too, I saw on youtube and we don’t have to throw anything away.

Coffee and chocolate

I think my mochi addiction has been totally fueled. I have already experimented with coffee through the dough and chocolate filling. That recipe is coming soon.

Now I’m also going to make savory mochi without sugar. I want to make it for miso soup for example. I can not wait. Itadakimas!

Schaal met 8 daifuku mocho

Want to see more sticky rice recipes on this site, check this link.

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