-
1
Put the shiratamako into a heat-resistant bowl.
-
2
Crumble the powder with your fingers.
-
3
Then add in the jyoshinko, caster sugar, and salt.
-
4
Whisk together.
-
5
Add in half of the water to the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated before adding another half.
-
6
Dissolve the mixture into the water, being careful not to form clumps.
-
7
At this point, the mixture will be silky smooth.
-
8
Dissolve the red food coloring in a little bit of water (not listed) and add to Step 2.
-
9
Mix well.
-
10
Hull and wash the strawberries.
-
11
Pat dry well.
-
12
Make the ganache cream.
-
13
Warm the heavy cream in a double boiler.
-
14
Add the baking chocolate (or finely chopped chocolate bar) and slowly melt.
-
15
Once melted, add the mizuame.
-
16
The mixture will become shiny.
-
17
Add liquor if you prefer.
-
18
Cover a small metal tray (but large enough to line up 15 strawberries, as seen in the photo at Step 7) with plastic wrap in a way that's easy to remove later.
-
19
Pour in the ganache.
-
20
Once the ganache has cooled slightly, line up the strawberries.
-
21
Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour, until the ganache hardens.
-
22
Since the strawberries will be wrapped in the chocolate later, be careful not to let them chill too long because the ganache will become too hard.
-
23
Use a scraper or something similar to divide the ganache into 15 portions, then wrap up the strawberry as shown in the photo.
-
24
Spread the mochi on your palm and wrap the strawberry in it with the pointy end facing down.
-
25
Once it's sealed closed, dust with katakuriko one more time and place it in a cupcake liner.
-
26
Microwave at 600 W for 4 minutes then stir with a whisk.
-
27
At this point it's not really that warm.
-
28
Microwave for 2 minutes.
-
29
Switch to a heat-resistant rubber spatula.
-
30
Now the mixture will be warmed in some places, but not all the way through.
-
31
Microwave for another 2 minutes.
-
32
Now the mixture will be piping hot and sticky.
-
33
Lastly, mix very well with a rubber spatula.
-
34
Plop the piping hot Step 11 onto the tray with katakuriko from Step 10.
-
35
Flatten and stretch it out with a spatula.
-
36
Divide it into sections using a scraper or something similar.
-
37
Since ganache has a gluing effect, I spread the katakuriko on the outside, but if you're just using anko, it will lose it's stickiness, so it's unnecessary.
-
38
Once the hot mochi mixture has cooled down a bit, hold it in the palm of your hand and wrap it over the ganache covered strawberries.
-
39
If you do this while the mochi is too hot, the ganache will melt.
-
40
It's a good idea to cover your hands with katakuriko while wrapping.
-
41
Obviously, since my hands were busy, I couldn't take a photo of this process.
-
42
Spread the mochi on your palm and wrap the strawberry in it with the pointy end facing down.
-
43
Once it's sealed closed, dust with katakuriko one more time and place it in a cupcake wrap.
-
44
Let it cool for a little while to let the ganache settle, and then enjoy.
-
45
They're also super chewy the next day.
