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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Wagashi: Microwave Jello Mochi

You'd think that with the moniker "Miss Mochi" I'd feature a lot more mochi recipes than I currently have. Well, I start craving mochi around the holidays, so watch out for a lot more mochi recipes!

This recipe uses a microwave tube pan specially designed for mochi with a removable bottom. You don't need one, you can just use a square pyrex with an overturned coffee cup in the middle. I do love the microwave tube pan, because the removable bottom makes it easy to remove the mochi. Plus it's less than $6 online!

I was kind of apprehensive to use jello in mochi. As I've made it clear on this blog, I'm not too fond of jello. My mother is the ravenous jello freak that keeps requesting jello for holidays, whereas I find it kind of weird. However, jello does not impart any sort of texture change to the mochi, just the color and flavor.

Microwave Tube Pan
Unlike traditional mochi, which must be steamed for a good 30 minutes, this is a very quick recipe because it uses the microwave. While the microwave is not the ideal appliance for a lot of foods, it steams the mochiko quite effectively.

Use any jello flavor that strikes your fancy, I think a lime mochi or fruit punch mochi would be fun and exciting! I used mango and strawberry flavors for these ones. For extra flavor combos, replace the water with fruit juice, like orange jello + mango juice!


This is even at Ralph's
Microwave Jello Mochi

1 cup of Mochiko (glutinous rice flour*)
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 3 ounce package of jello
1 cup of hot water
katakuriko for dusting (potato starch)
*A gluten free flour, it is named glutinous rice flour because of its stickiness

Mix the jello powder and the sugar together in a large bowl, then add the hot water. Whisk until dissolved, then slowly whisk the mochiko into the mixture until it has been completely incorporated and there are no dry clumps.

It looks lighter before steaming
The batter will be quite thin and pourable. Pour the mixture into a microwave tube pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray (PAM works great), and wrap tightly in plastic wrap to keep the steam in. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Uncover and let cool for about 15 minutes.

Now you have two choices: Round hand-formed mochi, or cut mochi. For hand-formed mochi, wait for the mochi to cool enough that it's hot and malleable but cool enough to handle. Dust katakuriko on your palms, and grab some mochi. Roll it into a ball with your hands, and dip it in more katakuriko and keep rolling until it is not sticky anymore but ball shaped. Repeat with the rest of the mochi, working fast so that it doesn't cool and become hard to roll.

The cooled mochi is darker
Don't want blistered hands or want a cool shape? Wait until the mochi is completely cooled and invert onto a pan covered in katakuriko. Cut with a plastic knife or a knife wiped with cooking spray into bite sized pieces and then roll the pieces in katakuriko and brush off excess. You can even take a cookie cutter wiped with cooking spray and cut out simple designs like diamonds or flowers before rolling in katakuriko. Make sure to wait for the mochi to completely cool before cutting it, or else the edges will be raggedy as the mochi will stretch more (Hence why my cut examples are not very aesthetically pleasing).

I don't have any cookie cutters, but I think small flowers would be a beautiful touch.

See Also:
Ichigo Daifuku Mochi
Beni Imo Daifuku Mochi


18 comments:

  1. Just made this today with my daughters. Thank you for the great recipes. Now that I have the microwave pan, can I also use it to make regular mochi? Or does that need to be steamed 30 minutes as it says in one of your other recipes?

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    Replies
    1. Of course you can use it to make regular mochi! I wouldn't use my existing recipes, just because I've never never tried them in the microwave.

      However, here is a great article that features a great master recipe for microwave mochi, as well as variations for making chocolate mochi and such. I've used this recipe for making ichigo daifuku in a snap, and it works really well.

      http://archives.starbulletin.com/2002/08/07/features/story1.html

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  2. have you tried this with sugar free jello? for diabetic children would enjoy this.

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    Replies
    1. Honestly I'm not a fan of artificial sugar so I have not.

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    2. That being said, I don't see why it wouldn't work, so I'd definitely give it a try. You can also reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe, especially if you find it too sweet. I think the rice has a lot of natural sweetness and less sugar sometimes is more to my taste.

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    3. Mochiko and sugar would not be the best in a diabetic diet, even if you used sugar-free jello. I would be careful with that.

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    4. @anonymous yeah that is what I was thinking, but I don't have a lot of experience with juvenile diabetes (I'm assuming it's type 1)

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  3. for a diabetic, use crystallized cane or liquid cane. This is a less processed form of sugar and takes more energy for your system to digest therefore decreasing the sugar staying in your body. Over processed products absorb into your system where less processed products, such as unbleached flour and crystallized cane, take more energy to burn off.

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  4. when I was teaching and it came time to read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I made this for the students. It was the closest thing I could do that reminded me of Turkish Delight. I dusted it with powdered sugar. the kids loved it! I lost the recipe so thank you for posting this.

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  5. I have found you can use Splenda in this and it works great. My mother and husband both have type 2 diabetes and they thought it turned out wonderfully.

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  6. Do you have a version of this that can be done without a microwave? I am assuming that I would use the same amount of plain gelatin that I would use for a 4 cup recipe if I wanted to do juice and gelatine instead of Jello? If I use home-ground rice flour, should I gring the black kind that is glutenous?

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    Replies
    1. No, but there are versions on the web that are baked, you can also try steaming it.

      However, if you don't want to use Jello, and you don't want to microwave, you don't need to use gelatin at all. You can make a simple mochi with fruit juice, gelatin is not needed for texture. 2 cups mochiko, 2 cups juice, 1 cup sugar (cut down the sugar depending on how sweet the juice you are using is). Just steam for about 30 minutes, or bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1 hour in a greased 9" square pyrex.

      The rice absolutely needs to be glutinous rice. I have no experience with home-ground black glutinous rice and whether or not it will affect the finished product.

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  7. I have a Question I love to cook and try new things is this a dessert type of thing Never have used This product but have like you said a Norm in my mothers home....Thank You...Didn't want to sound silly but Wondering Mind wants to know lol

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    Replies
    1. Traditionally wagashi would be served with tea, so sort of a tea time snack. I would consider it a sweet snack or dessert, yes.

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  8. was wondering if you know of a way to flavor it if you use unflavored jello. I was wanting to try to make lychee flavored mochi but finding lychee flavored jello is hard and expensive.

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    Replies
    1. Use lychee juice instead of water! You will have to play around with the unflavored gelatin amount, because you obviously will need less powder than if you were using regular jello.

      Don't want to use the microwave or fool around with gelatin? You can make a simple mochi with fruit juice, gelatin is not needed for texture. 2 cups mochiko, 2 cups juice, 1 cup sugar (cut down the sugar depending on how sweet the juice you are using is). Just steam for about 30 minutes, or bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 1 hour in a greased 9" square pyrex.

      Both will give you a nice lychee flavor! If you want, you can even make, say, a mango jello mochi and wrap it around a piece of lychee.

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