Sakura Mochi Cooking Tips Tip 1: Gradually add color Salt-pickled cherry blossoms – Nihon Ichiban / Amazon.Salt-pickled cherry blossom leaves – Nihon Ichiban. ![]() It’s impossible to find in Asian grocery stores because other Asian cuisines don’t use these ingredients. They are still hard to find if you don’t have a well-stocked Japanese grocery store nearby. The aroma is due to an organic compound called coumarin, found in cherry blossoms and plants such as cinnamon bark and tonka beans. The leaves are mildly sweet and faintly smell of cherry blossoms. Then, you can preserve the leaves for a year with a little bit of salt water. The tender young leaves that sprout in May are hand-pickled, blanched in hot water, then pickled in salt water for a few days. They are completely edible and the aroma and flavor of the salt-pickled cherry blossom leaves contribute to the final dish. The salt-pickled cherry blossom leaves are essential to make sakura mochi and are not used for wrapping the mochi or for decoration purposes. What Are Salt-Pickled Cherry Blossom Leaves? Wrap the glutinous rice balls with cherry blossom leaves, and top with cherry blossom flowers.Stuff the rice balls with sweet red bean paste and shape them into a cylinder shape.Partially mash the cooked rice and divide it into 8 balls.Cook the glutinous rice just like regular steamed rice.Rinse the glutinous rice, measure the water, and mix in sugar and red coloring.Salt-pickled cherry blossoms (optional) – for decoration.Salt-pickled cherry blossom leaves – Please read this ingredient below.You can use chunky “ tsubuan” but koshian is typically used for sakura mochi. Sweet red bean paste (anko) – Get “ koshian“-the smooth kind.Red food coloring – I use powder kind, but you can use gel.Short-grain glutinous rice – Please make sure it’s Japanese short-grain glutinous rice or mochigome, NOT the long-grain type other Asian cuisines use.Instead of using domyojiko (the coarse glutinous rice flour), we’ll use mochigome (Japanese short-grain glutinous rice), which is much easier to get outside of Japan. ![]() In this recipe, we make Kansai-style sakura mochi. Now you know that there are two types of sakura mochi. Even though it’s called “flour”, the grains are just slightly smaller than regular short-grain glutinous rice and they are visible. In the Kansai region, people use domyojiko (道明寺粉), which is made of glutinous rice that has been steamed, dried and coarsely ground. The presentation looks more like a tiny rolled-up pink pancake that reveals sweet red bean paste in the middle. People in the Kanto region use shiratamako (白玉粉)-a type of glutinous rice flour-as the main ingredient for the mochi. You can find two styles of sakura mochi in Japan: Kanto (Tokyo)-style and Kansai (Osaka and Kyoto)-style. Soft yet chewy, the flavor of the mochi balances beautifully between sweet and salty while bringing forth the fragrant note of cherry blossom. This delicate pink-blushed mochi is a signature treat for Girls’ Day (known as Hinamatsuri) on March 3rd, but we also enjoy it throughout the spring season in Japan. Sakura means cherry blossoms in Japanese and both the flowers and leaves are used in Japanese confectionery and savory cooking. It typically comes in an ellipsoid shape and blanketed by a salt-pickled sakura leaf. Sakura mochi (桜餅) is a type of wagashi (Japanese confectionery) made of light pink colored glutinous rice with sweet red bean paste filling. ![]() ![]()
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