Ingredients
(makes 12)
Brown dough
Rice flour : 50g
Dark brown sugar : 40g
Boiling water : 60ml
Glutinous rice flour : 20g
Water : 20ml
White dough
Rice flour : 50g
Sugar : 20g
Boiling water : 60ml
Glutinous rice flour : 20g
Water : 20ml
For Childrenʼs Day, (5 May), ʻKashiwa Mochiʼ is traditionally eaten ‒ but in Hokkaido the leaf-shaped, brown-and-white, ʻBeko Mochiʼ is more common. These two-tone rice cakes are often made at home in Hokkaido and in Tohoku. They can be semi-circular or round, made with a mould or with your hands. Despite having the same name, Beko Mochi from different regions can be quite different. What an interesting sweet! It seems to have changed over the years precisely because people keep loving and making it. Try making this delicious chewy confection with its sweet, subtle hint of sugar cane.
Preparation
Cut twelve 15×10cm rectangles of baking paper.
Method
- First, make the brown dough. Put dark brown sugar in a microwave-safe bowl, pour in boiling water, and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Add rice flour and mix well (photo 1). Quickly cover with plastic wrap, then microwave for 1 minute (photo 2).
- Put the resulting dough on a damp cloth, then knead until smooth.
- Add water to glutinous rice flour a little at a time, mixing, until a soft dough forms.
- To make the white dough, follow steps 1 to 3 but instead use the second ingredients list.
- Knead the two doughs together until smooth, then enclose in plastic wrap (photo 3).
- Roll brown dough and white dough into two long sausage shapes. Twist the two together, then divide into 12 parts (photo 4). Form each into a leaf shape and draw on veins with a skewer (photos 5 & 6).
- Put each leaf onto a rectangle of baking paper, then steam for 10 minutes (photo 7).
