How To Make Warabi Mochi At Home
Warabi mochi is a Japanese confection made of warabi or bracken starch. It is a type of fern, and the starch comes from the rhizomes or the underground stem of the plant.
Warabi mochi is chewy but also has a jelly-like texture at the same time. It is covered in a nutty soybean powder, what is known as Kinako, and served with Kuromitsu, brown sugar syrup. It’s usually served chilled, meaning that it’s the perfect dessert to enjoy during the hot summer months, or when you want to cool off.
It is a traditional confection that has been enjoyed since the 8th century in Japan. Originally, warabi mochi was a sweet that only those with high status could enjoy, because it was an expensive dessert.
Strictly speaking, warabi mochi is not really mochi, because it is not made from rice. However, Warabi, bracken has a sticky and chewy texture like mochi, so that’s why Japanese people refer to it as mochi.
While warabi mochi can usually be found year-round in grocery stores, Japanese confection shops usually only sell them during the summer. It can also easily be made at home too. Just mix the three ingredients of warabi starch, sugar, and water together, and cook them in a pot until they form a sticky mixture.
Warabi starch is not an ingredient that is common overseas, so you might want to know more about it. There are two kinds of Warabi Starch that you can find.
1. 100% Warabi starch
2. Warabi starch mixed with potato starch (contains less than 5% of warabi starch)
100% Warabi starch is very sticky and has a brown or black dark color. The latter still has the aroma of Warabi, and the consistency of the starch is more firm.
However, 100% warabi starch is quite expensive and hard to get, even in Japan. For this reason, we are using the second option or the mixed warabi and potato starch mixture for our warabi mochi recipe. If you cannot find either of these starches in your local supermarket, you can also use Kudzu starch which can easily be purchased from the Japanese Taste website.
Dust the warabi mochi in kinako powder, and then drizzle kuromitsu sugar syrup on top for a sweet and refreshing Japanese dessert. Enjoy the hot season with Warabi Mochi!
Overview
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Total servings: 4
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 50g Warabi Mochiko (bracken starch)
- 40g Sugar
- 260ml Water
- 3-4 Tbsp Kinako Powder
- 3-4 Tbsp Kuromitsu (Brown sugar syrup)
0 comments