CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY MOCHI RICE CAKES
Chocolate Strawberry Mochi 초콜렛 딸기 모찌
Fresh strawberries dipped in dark chocolate and wrapped in rice cakes. What could be a more romantic Valentine’s Day gift? These no-bake Mochi are vegan, gluten free and dairy free.
Mochi is a rice cake made with sticky rice flour. There are a variety of mochi. The most popular one is made with red bean paste, but, I prefer dairy free dark chocolate. This Strawberry Mochi is popular in Japan and South Korea. It is perfect for a homemade Valentines’ Day gift for someone you love or just for yourself! I can eat these all day!.
Watch my Chocolate Strawberry Mochi recipe video
We eat lots of different kinds of rice cakes in South Korea. I remember eating a lot of mochi before my university entrance exam. Because the texture of rice cakes is sticky, if you eat lots of them, you will get stuck to the university you want to get into! Haha. It is a kind of myth, but, the university entrance exam is held nationally on the same day. It is important for students to do well if they want to get into their chosen university.
Koreans are crazy about education. Apparently, that is the main reason Korea became rich quickly after the Korean War in 1950. High school children get a lot of pressure about going to good universities. We have lots of private tuition after school. And I mean lots. High school students don’t usually get home from studying until well after 10pm.
From my point of view, high school students in England have much easier lives than Korean kids. Not everyone is designed to study and go on to higher education, so, it is good that not every child feels the pressure here like in Korea.
I didn’t know how to make mochi while I was living in Korea. When I came to England, I missed rice cakes. I watched a Korean TV program about how to make rice cakes in a microwave. What a great idea!
I made it straight away. The first one I made wasn’t mochi. It was a simple sticky rice cake. And then, I tried a few different recipes!
I tried strawberry mochi in Japan when I went there for a holiday with my husband. We went to Tokyo for a short break. It was brilliant! I loved Tokyo and all the food I ate! We stayed right by the biggest city centre, Sibuya. I love Japanese food, especially ramen. Everything I tried was super delicious. There was a huge department store right by the hotel we stayed. There was a food court downstairs and there were lots of bakeries. All the cakes and pastries looked perfect.
We were busy sightseeing, so, we didn’t get to the food court until the last day. We tried lots of sweet desserts. OMG! Japanese patisserie is way better than any European ones! Can you believe it? We scoffed lots!
Anyway, enjoy these beautiful mochi with a cup of your favourite coffee. Happy Valentine’s Day!
- 8 Strawberries
- 150g Dairy Free Dark Chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- 340g Glutinous Rice Flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 170g Sugar
- 400ml Hot Water
- 300g Potato Starch (Not Potato Flour)
- Hull the strawberries, wash them and dry them with kitchen towels.
- Microwave the dark chocolate for 1 minute. Stir the chocolate until it has completely melted.
- Dip the strawberries in the melted chocolate and place them on a sheet of baking paper. Put them in the fridge until they set.
- Put the glutinous rice flour, sugar and salt in a big bowl and mix them well. Add the hot water a bit at a time and mix them with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth sticky paste.
- Microwave the mixture for 2 minutes on a high setting. Mix them vigorously. It will be very very hot if you touch it. Best to use a wooden spoon.
- Microwave the mixture for another minute on a high setting. Again, stir vigorously until you have a smooth, shiny, very sticky paste.
- Dust Potato starch on a clean work surface and spoon the mixture onto it. Knead the mixture and keep adding potato starch if it gets too sticky. The more you work the mixture, the tastier the texture gets. Shape it into a sausage and divide into 8 pieces.
- Flatten a piece of the rice cake into a circle half a centimetre thick. Place a chocolate covered strawberry in the centre of the circle and wrap it up. Shape the rice cake into a ball and dust with a little more potato starch. Enjoy with a cup of coffee.
2pots2cook
February 16, 2018 at 5:45 amSo delicate and inviting ! Beautiful work ! Thank you so much ! Pinning, needless to say 🙂
Hyeon Jeong
February 16, 2018 at 9:47 amThank you very much for your lovely comment. These rice cakes are one of my favourites. 😋