Home made daifuku mochi

There has been a craze for mochi ice cream lately, I'm sure you've noticed the self serve bars in Whole Foods. Black sesame and mango are my favorites. 

However, not being a big fan of ice cream in general, I prefer classic mochi. The sweet and chewy goodness covered densely with black sesame seeds and/or filled with red bean paste, also called anko, made from adzuki beans. 
The first time I've had mochi was when my friend Y. from Taiwan made it for us: we've cooked 'the dough' in the microwave and then simply rolled the pieces in finely chopped peanuts.  

I often make Ceca's "adzuki chocolate bites", since I can easily justify having two-or-three at once with their high protein/low sugar content. Wrapping them with mochi would be instant transportation to Japan! 

I've used the following proportions for red bean paste: 

• 1 cup adzuki beans
• 1 cup walnuts
• 4 Tbsp cacao
• 1 tsp of Nespresso instant coffee (makes a big difference, believe me! I've learned this trick from Nigella Lawson's recipes and tutorials where she adds instant coffee powder to most recipes which call for cacao)
• 5-6 chopped dried pitted dates
• maple syrup to adjust the sweetness (~1tsp)

Cover adzuki beans with water and leave overnight. Bring them to boil the following day and simmer for ~30min or until they are soft. Either add a pinch of sea salt while cooking adzuki beans or add a pinch later in the food processor while making the paste. Drain the water and put them in the food processor. Put the rest of the ingredients and blitz until you get the texture that you prefer. I wanted to have a smooth paste, as shown in the first photo above, so I've processed it for a bit longer. Leave in the fridge so that it is easier to shape later while you proceed to make mochi wraps next. 

I have followed the instructions in this video to make mochi wraps, but have reduced the amount of sugar by half. It was still silky and easy to handle: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWjdBDe9dS8

• 1 cup sweet rice flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup fine granulated sugar

You can roll-out mochi into the wraps with the thickness of your choosing. I've liked how my red bean paste turned out so I wanted to have more of it and made the wraps slightly thinner. 

I didn't have potato starch but have used the same rice flour when rolling out mochi to prevent it from sticking. It worked well (I've read this tip somewhere else before and it came in handy here). 

Bonus:  You can also make a purple "monster mochi" :) with purple potato (or red+blue natural coloring). 

Speaking of purple deserts... I've come across this video from 'Eater' the other day, deep-fried malasadas which get their purple hue from poi: 
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZXRu_-juqY/?taken-by=eater

Bon ap,

m