Warabi Mochi: Traditional Japanese Mochi-like Bracken Cake
“Mochi (餅)” is a traditional Japanese food made of glutinous rice that’s been steamed and pounded, which usually has a white color and is characterized by its stickiness.
Mochi is not only used in Japanese cuisine, but the plain rice cake can also be the main ingredient in sweets.
If the name of Japanese confections includes the word Mochi, in many cases their ingredients include Mochi rice cake or glutinous rice, like Daifuku Mochi.
However, there are some exceptions where some Japanese sweets have the word Mochi in the name, but they are made without using rice.
If I give representative examples of such Japanese sweets, Kuzu Mochi and Warabi Mochi are especially famous. As I wrote about the former in this article the other day, this time let me talk about the latter Warabi Mochi.
Warabi Mochi (わらび餅)
As its name indicates, “Warabi Mochi (わらび餅)” is a simple jelly-like confection traditionally made from bracken-root starch called “Warabiko (わらび粉)” and sweetened with sugar.
It is chewy like real Mochi rice cake and typically served with Kinako roasted soybean flour and Kuromitsu black molasses syrup.
Origin
It is said that the origin of Warabi Mochi dates back to about 1100 years ago, and a legend holds that an emperor at that time loved Warabi Mochi so much that he conferred a court rank on it.
Recipe
In modern times, Warabi Mochi is sometimes made using potato starch “Katakuriko (片栗粉)” in place of Warabiko.
Therefore last, for people who want to try the Wagashi sweet casually, let me introduce a Warabi Mochi recipe using Katakuriko flour from Cookpad.com.
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Katakuriko | 25 grams |
| Sugar | 30 grams |
| Water | 200 cc |
| Iced water | A proper amount |
| Kinako | A proper amount |
| Kuromitsu or the like | A proper amount |
- Put the Katakuriko potato starch, sugar, and water in a bowl and mix well
- Transfer the mixture into a pot and heat it over low heat stirring constantly
- Once the color of the mixture has changed to almost transparent, turn off the heat and place the pot on a wet kitchen cloth
- Stir the mixture well until doughy, then put the dough into iced water to cool down
- Cut the dough with hands into bite-size chunks
- Remove wetness from the pieces and put them on a plate
- As a finishing, put some Kinako flour and Kuromitsu syrup on the pieces and enjoy!
(Reference Page: Wikipedia わらびもち )
