Ichigo Daifuku Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shiratama-ko (rice flour)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup water
• *For filling
• 1/3 cup water & 1/2 cup sugar & 1/4 cup dried anko powder
• or 1/2 cup premade anko (sweet red bean paste)
• 6 strawberries
• *katakuriko starch for dusting

Preparation:

Heat 1/3 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar in a pan. Add 1/4 cup of anko powder in the pan and stir well. Set aside. Wash strawberries and remove the calyxes. Wrap a strawberry with about a spoonful of anko and rounds to make a ball. Make 6 balls. Put 2/3 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar in a heat-resistant bowl and mix well. Add shiratama-ko flour in the bowl and mix well. Put the bowl in microwave and heat the dough for two minutes. Stir the dough. Heat the dough in microwave until the dough inflates. Stir the mochi quickly. Dust a flat pan with some katakuri-ko starch. Also, dust hands with some katakuri-ko. Remove the hot mochi from the bowl to the pan by hands. Dust hands with more katakuri-ko starch and divide the mochi into 6 pieces by hands. The mochi is hot and sticky, so be careful not to burn your hands. Make 6 flat and round mochi. Put a piece of strawberry and anko filling on a mochi piece and wrap it by stretching mochi. Rounds the daifuku. Repeat the process to make more daifuku cakes.
*Makes 6 daifuku cakes

Special thanks to japanesefood.about.com