Kurumi Mochi: Traditional Japanese Walnut Rice Cake

“Mochi Gashi (餅菓子)” is the word for Mochi-like confectionery whose main ingredient is rice (glutinous or non-glutinous), and the representative examples are “Daifuku (大福)” and “Kashiwa Mochi (柏餅)“.

Other than Daifuku and Kashiwa Mochi, there are many varieties of Mochigashi in Japan, which include what I introduce here “Kurumi Mochi (くるみ餅)”.

Kurumi Mochi (くるみ餅) or Yubeshi (ゆべし)

I bought a “Kurumi Mochi (くるみ餅)” this time. As you know, “Mochi (餅)” is a plain white rice cake made by pounding steamed glutinous rice “Mochi Gome (餅米)”, while “Kurumi (くるみ)” means “walnut” in Japanese.

Thus, Kurumi Mochi, also known as “Kurumi Yubeshi (くるみゆべし)”, is a Mochigashi confection whose main ingredients are sticky rice and walnut. 

These Kurumi Mochi rice cakes are individually packed not to stick to each other.

Kurumi Mochi comes in several types, and this one consists of walnut bits and a Gyuhi. 

“Gyuhi (求肥)” is one of the essential ingredients for Wagashi. It is a kind of rice cake made by heating and kneading a mixture of glutinous rice flour, sugar, and starch syrup.

As for this Kurumi Mochi, walnut bits are embedded throughout a sweet soy sauce-flavored Gyuhi. 

The cake is soft, chewy, and a little sticky, with a faint soy sauce aroma and refined sweetness.

Kurumi Mochi, or Kurumi Yubeshi, has several hundred years of history, and even now, the sweet is widely enjoyed in Japan. It is available at many supermarkets and Wagashi specialty shops.

Ingredients

Lastly, according to the ingredient list on the back of the package, this Kurumi Mochi mainly consists of sugar, starch syrup, glutinous rice flour “Mochiko (もち粉)“, dextrose, walnut, starch, soy sauce, and salt.

(Reference Page: Wikipedia ゆべし )