Strawberry Mochi Recipe (2024)

Many of you asked me to make something pink, something with strawberry, or mochi on TikTok – why not combine all of them together in one recipe into a pinky strawberry mochi!

Strawberry Mochi

Mochi (餅, もち), a chewy, sweet Japanese dessert, is made with glutinous rice flour.

The Japanese refer to it as ‘ichigo daif*cku’ or as confectionery, ‘wagashi’ in Japanese. You can make an edible cute gift for your loved ones with this lovely pink dessert.

Today, we’ll learn a bit more about this amazingly delicious yet simple dish, dive into the origins of mochi, explore a bit about the usual ingredients used, and of course, prepare a batch together with our easy recipe.

What Does Strawberry Mochi Taste Like?

The combination of sweet fruit and chewy rice cake makes strawberry mochi tastes strawberry gummy candy with a creamy filling.

Daif*cku’s earthy rice flavor balances the sweetness of the fruit and the cream filling.

Imagine biting into a strawberry, then tasting the chewy, soft marshmallow-like rice cake instead of the strawberry flesh 😋.

Can Mochi Be Vegan?

According to Choosing Nutrition, mochi is mainly vegan since it is made up of glutinous rice and red bean paste (Yes, traditionally mochi has a red bean paste filling.

But I prefer substituting it with whipped cream. You can also use your favorite ice cream as the mochi filling.)

Some people use dairy in their mochi skins, but this can be substituted with your preferred dairy free milk – I have been using soymilk and oat milk to make mochi skins all the time~

Some tips for making strawberry mochi:

1. Glutinous Rice flour is a must-have

SO many of you have asked me if you use substitute glutinous rice flour with all purpose flour or regular rice flour.

I’m sorry, but the answer is no. It’s just like you can’t use a pear to substitute an avocado when you try to make guacamole.🍐🥑

Glutinous rice flour, also known as sticky rice flour, brings mochi skin a specialstretchy taffy-like texture.

If we substitute glutinous rice flour with wheat flour or regular rice flour, we will end up with a thick doughy flour paste.

You should be able to find glutinous rice flour in most Asian markets. It’s also sold on Amazon:

2. Butter makes the mochi skin stay soft even after refrigerated

30g of butter definitely makes our mochi muchhigher in calories. And the kneading butter step could befrustrating, especially when you don’t have non-stick food handling gloves.

Therefore, you may see some easier mochi recipes skipping the butter.

However, butter does make a big difference in this recipe.

– Mochi skin without butter can be super sticky.

People using a butter-free mochi recipe would have to pour the steamed dough directly to a thick layer of corn starch to avoid stickiness.

What’s more, if you store these butter-free mochi in the fridge overnight, they will turn hard and dry, which will never happen to my mochi.😎

3. Why is my chocolate mochi so sticky?

It’s more than normal for a mochi dough to be sticky. Mochi is made from glutinous rice flour, which was famous for its stickiness.

But it wouldn’t be fun to have mochi dough sticking to your fingers when you eat it.

That’s why we always coat the mochi with cooked glutinous rice flour.

Raw glutinous rice flour taste earthy, which could ruin the taste of the mochi skin.

To get glutinous rice flour, you simply pan fry about 5 tbsps of glutinous rice flour over medium low heat without oil, until they turn slightly yellow and smell like popcorn, transfer out to cool down.

In Chinese, we call these cooked glutinous rice flour 手粉 (hand powder).

Apply some hand powder on your hands, on the surface of the mochi dough, on the working surface, and on the ladle to prevent from stickiness.

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Some recipes would tell you to use raw glutinous rice flour/corn starch as the hand powder.

However, according to livestrong.com,“eating raw cornstarch may cause stomach upset such as gas and bloating”.

It’s the same for glutinous rice flour. So it’s highly recommended to cook it before using it as hand powder.

4. Rich filling, thin skin.

Tasty mochi skin should be chewy but won’t stick to your teeth; should be thin but won’t break easily when you pick up the mochi.

Here is an extra tip for you: wrap your pin roller with food wrap. In this way, you can roll your mochi skin into as thin as possible without it sticking to your pin roller.

Without the rich filling, a mochi has no difference from a piece of plain rice cake.

In this strawberrymochi recipe, I used my favorite filling: whipped cream plus strawberry fruit and strawberry jam.

If you like chocolate or boba pearls, you must also like my chocolate mochi filled with dark chocolate ganache and boba!

It’s also common for people to wrap an ice cream ball as the mochi filling.

You can wrap 2 scoops of ice cream with a plastic food wrap, shape it into a ball, freeze it overnight so that it won’t melt too fast when you try to wrap it into the mochi skin.

The easiest mochi filling is actually strawberry covered with red bean paste, because this filling won’t melt like ice cream and it’s very easy to be shaped (compared with whipped cream).

EQUIPMENT you will need:

• Kitchen scale or measuring cups

• Blender (Skippable if you are going to make white-skin mochi)

• Microwave (Or a steamer)
• Hand mixer (Or a stand mixer)

• Non-stick food handling gloves (Optional)

• Non stick silicone mat (Optional)

• Rolling Pin (Optional)

INGREDIENTS List:

For the mochi skin

• 90gstrawberries(rinsed, stems removed; About ½ cup of diced strawberries.)
• 90gmilk(or plant milk, I used oat milk; About ⅓ cup + ⅔ tbsp)
• 40gsugar(About 3 tbsps)
• 100gglutinous rice flour(About 14 tbsps)
• 30gcornstarch(4 tbsps)
• 20gunsalted butter(About 1½ tbsp)

For the filling

• 150gheavy whipping cream(About ½ cup + 2 tbsps)
• 15gsugar(About 1⅕ tbsp)
• 4tbspstrawberry jam(or you can use fresh fruit that’s cut into small pieces instead)

Extra

• 50gglutinous rice flour(About ½ cup; to prevent from getting sticky)

Step by step INSTRUCTIONS:

– Preparation

1. Cook 60g glutinous rice flour over medium heat for about 5 minutes, whisking constantly, until it smells like popcorn. Set aside to cool down. (We will use this cooked flour to prevent from getting sticky later.)

2. Add 15g sugar to 150g heavy whipping cream, beat until stiff peaks form. Keep in the freezer.

*Update on December 3rd 2022: you can check out my newest gelatin whipped cream recipe for a more stabilized cream filling. Since the mochi skin is so soft, we will need the cream filling to be stronger to support the mochi’s round shape.

– Make mochi

1. In a microwave-safe container, weigh 100g glutinous rice flour and 30g cornstarch. Set aside.

2. Add 90g strawberries, 90g milk (or plant milk, I used oat milk), and 40g sugar into a blender. Blend until thoroughly smooth.

3. Pour the strawberry milk to the microwave-safe container with glutinous rice flour and cornstarch, stir until the mixture has reached a yogurt thick texture.

4. Cover the container with a microwave-safe food wrap. Use a toothpick to poke about 16 holes on the wrap.

5. Microwave for 3 minutes. Take out to check the texture. Poke a toothpick into the mochi, if the toothpick tip is dry, the mochi is fully cooked. If the toothpick tip is wet, cover the food wrap back, and microwave for 30 more seconds. (Or you can steam it over high heat for 30 minutes. )

6. Take the mochi out from the microwave, put 20g butter* (see note1) on the top. The mochi is very hot now, the butter will be melted quickly.

7. Put on non-stick food handling gloves, or rub some melted butter on your hands to prevent from getting sticky. When the mochi dough is not too hot to touch, knead the dough until all the butter has been absorbed.

8. Once there’s no butter left in the container, keep kneading the dough for about 5 minutes, until you can pull it as long as your forearm (about 10 inches). * (see note2)

9. Transfer the mochi dough on a nonstick silicone mat, or a working surface floured with cooked glutinous rice flour. Apply some cooked glutinous rice flour on the surface of the mochi dough to prevent from getting sticky.

10. Cut the mochi dough into 8 equal portions (about 32g per portion).

11. With your hands or a rolling pin (covered with food wrap to prevent from sticky), flatten the mochi doughs into 4-inch diameter circles.

12. Put a mochi skin on a soup ladle, or on a small round-shape bowl.

13. Take out the whipped cream from the freezer. Put about 2 tbsps. of whipped cream and about 1 tbsp. of strawberry jam in the middle of the mochi wrap. For the filling, you can also use ice cream balls, fresh fruits cut into small pieces, or red bean paste.

14. Pull the edges of the wrap together to cover the filling, press together the edges to seal well.

15. Keep in the freezer for 20 minutes for the best texture and taste, serve.

To store

• Keep the leftovers in the freezer for up to 7 days. Thaw at room temperate for 20 minutes before serving.

Notes:

1. Many recipes do not have this butter step. However, by adding butter to the mochi skin, the skin will stay soft and chewy after keeping in the fridge for 2 days. You can also use coconut oil to substitute butter.
2. If the mochi dough is too sticky to be kneaded, keep the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes until it cools down.

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