Mochi = happiness

While we were still in Japan, one of the treats we would often get when we were out in town was mochi.  This is a Japanese dessert item, made of sweet rice flour.  Traditionally, it is pounded into a glutinous mass....this still happens at festivals and such.  Molly got to take a turn pounding some mochi at school one day, it was fun!  (I've just spent about 1/2 hour looking for that picture...it is no where to be found...grr...)

ANYWAY.

I bought some Mochiko rice flour at the commissary when we went, and finally today we tried making it into mochi!  

First, I took the red beans that I soaked last night, and then boiled this morning, then pureed, added sugar and fried them a little bit until they were dry and made a paste.  These went into the fridge after frying. 

Sophie made the mochi part by stirring together the rice flour and sugar and water, then microwaving it for about 8 minutes.  It was very sticky by then!

After cooling both the beans and the mochi, we took a little ball of beans, and wrapped some mochi around it.  The mochi is very sticky, so we dusted it with a mixture of corn starch and sugar.  YUM!!!