Me n V have a crazy love for mochi with crunchy peanut butter filling. And we’re not alone in this. Our friend T regularly smuggles us these delicacies from Sacramento, California.
I kept thinking… it has to be easier than this. So we asked the internet, which gave us this:
Peanut Butter Mochi
3 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 (16 ounce) box mochiko (sweet rice flour)
Katakuriko (potato starch), for dustingFilling:
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honeyTo make filling, combine peanut butter and honey; refrigerate until firm, a few hours or overnight.
Bring water to a boil; add sugar and stir until dissolved. Add mochiko a little at a time, stirring constantly. Continue stirring over medium heat until lumps are dissolved.
Place dough on a surface dusted with katakuriko. Allow to cool slightly. Sprinkle with more katakuriko and knead a few times until smooth. Form into a log.
Pinch off a 1 1/2-inch piece of dough and flatten into a circle. Place a teaspoon of filling in the center. Fold edges around filling and pinch to seal.
Makes about 2 dozen mochi.
The experiment was a rousing success! When they were fresh enough to be still warm, they lacked the perfect bounce and flavour, but after a while in the fridge, they firmed properly and were scrumptious.
Caveat Stickum
In shaping, you must take care to have your fingers properly potato-starched to handle the warm mochi dough, or else the mochi reaches out and grabs you and will not let go under any circumstances. I had to be escorted to the sink and washed and scraped and scoured at one point (there’s no pics of this ’cause both our hands were then sticky). Vanessa was a pro from the very start, and did not get attacked.
We hope this wee photo collection elucidates the method.
