Warabi Mochi Recipe (with Homemade Kuromitsu Syrup)

Hey everyone, it's Yuto from StatiRecipes.com and today I'm going to show you how to make a unique Japanese dessert called Warabimochi, drizzled with a homemade black sugar syrup called Kuromitsu. This recipe serves 4 and takes about an hour and 15 minutes, including chilling time, so let's get started. Before I actually start making the dish, I'm going to prepare a container by lining it with plastic wrap and sprinkling it with a bit of water. This will prevent it from sticking. Now let's make the Warabimochi. Take a mixing bowl and add 50 grams of warabiko or tapioca starch, 3 tablespoons of white sugar and 250 milliliters of cold water, then mix them together. Warabiko is a type of starch made from the underground stems of a fern tree called bracken in English. Bracken starch can be difficult to find outside Japan, but I find tapioca starch creates a very similar result. You could also use potato starch instead, but it doesn't store so well. Once it's mixed, place a sieve over a small saucepan and pour the mixture through. This will ensure your Warabimochi is smooth. Place the pan on the stove and heat on medium-low setting. Stir continuously so that the mixture is evenly heated all the way through. I like to use a silicone spatula for this so I can scrape the bottom and sides of the pan and prevent any of the mixture from burning. Once it starts to thicken, turn down the heat to low and keep mixing. As it cooks, the white liquid will start to become translucent. It's basically cooked once all the white liquid is gone and it's formed a translucent uniform dough-like ball like this. Make sure to mix thoroughly to ensure it's cooked all the way through. Once it's cooked, turn off the heat and transfer the Warabimochi to your container. Wet the spatula with some water to stop it from sticking and smooth it out. Leave it to cool for about 5 to 10 minutes, then place a lid on and chill it in the fridge for an hour before serving. While we're chilling, we're going to make the kuromitsu. Take a small saucepan and add 25 grams of mascarpone sugar, 25 grams of white caster sugar and 50 milliliters of water. Mix them together and remove the lumps as best as you can. I find that adding white sugar to the syrup helps the balance of flavour and sweetness. Moscovado sugar alone is very rich. Once it's mixed, place the pan on the stove on a medium heat and bring the syrup to a boil. You can keep mixing in the beginning to help break up any stubborn lumps of sugar. Once it's boiling, stop stirring and turn the heat down to medium low. Allow it to keep bubbling for about two to three minutes. You'll probably find some forms around the edges, so carefully scoop this up with a spoon. Be careful not to touch the sugar or the pan, it's very hot. Don't worry if it doesn't seem that thick, it will get thicker once it cools down. So it's been about three minutes now, so I'm going to remove this from the heat and leave it to cool before transferring it to a serving jug. In the meantime, I'm going to prepare my kinako powder. Take a container and add two tablespoons of kinako, two tablespoons of caster sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix them together like this or you could even put the lid on and shake it if you prefer. Kinako is a type of fine powder made from roasted soybeans. It has a nutty flavour, almost like peanuts. It's not sweet at all, which is why it's better to mix it with a bit of sugar and salt. But this is seriously good and a classic topping for warabi mochi. Okay, that's done, so let's assemble the dish. My warabi mochi has been resting in the fridge for about an hour, so I'm going to transfer it to my chopping board and cut it into large bite-sized pieces. To be honest, warabi mochi can be served both chilled or at room temperature. If you buy from a supermarket in Japan, it's often room temperature, but it's really good chilled in my opinion. Next, we're going to roll the pieces in kinako powder. I recommend doing this right before serving rather than in advance because the powder tends to soak up all the moisture from the warabi mochi and ends up forming wet lumps. It doesn't seem to happen with the store-bought ones, but I don't know how they do that. Leave me a comment if you know. Finally, transfer the pieces to a serving bowl and drizzle with your homemade kuromitsu. And there you have it! Delicious homemade warabi mochi topped with kinako powder and a rich kuromitsu syrup. Thanks so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, be sure to like and subscribe to my channel for more tasty Japanese recipes.