Warabi Mochi
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Warabi Mochi is a popular traditional Japanese confection, featuring jelly-like mochi covered in roasted soybean powder and drizzled with black sugar syrup. It’s easy to make at home with just 5 ingredients! Plus, it is vegan and gluten-free.
When I went to Japan last time, I had the chance to try Warabi Mochi. What does it taste like? It has almost no flavor. The only thing you taste is the roasted soybean flour coating and black sugar syrup. The jelly-like texture makes it fun to eat. It is stretchy, soft, and chewy like mochi, like nothing I have ever tried before.
It turns out that you can easily make Warabi Mochi at home with just 5 ingredients. Even if you don’t have warabiko or bracken starch, the main ingredient of Warabi Mochi, you can substitute it with other starches.
What Is Warabi Mochi?
Warabi Mochi is a popular dessert in Japan. Despite its name, Warabi Mochi is not a type of mochi as it does not contain any rice. It is made from bracken starch, a flavorless starch extracted from the rhizomes of the bracken fern.
It is chewy, soft, bouncy, and has a jelly and mochi-like texture at the same time. Since the starch is flavorless, the flavor of Warabi Mochi comes purely from sugar, coating ingredients, and the syrup it is served with. The most popular coating is kinako or roasted soybean flour, and for added sweetness, it is commonly drizzled with black sugar syrup.
Flour Substitutions
Traditional Warabi Mochi is made from warabiko or bracken starch, which comes from the root of the bracken fern. However, warabiko is quite expensive and hard to get, even in Japan. Most likely, typical Asian grocery stores won’t carry it, so you can use sweet potato starch and tapioca starch as a substitute for warabiko.
Ingredients You Need
- Warabiko. Or bracken starch. If you can’t get warabiko, tapioca starch or potato starch can be used instead.
- Granulated sugar. To sweeten the warabi mochi.
- Water. To dissolve the starch and sugar.
- Kinako. Or roasted soybean powder. Kinako is made by finely grinding roasted soybeans into a golden yellow powder.
- Kuromitsu. Kuromitsu is a sweet dark brown sugar syrup made with unrefined black sugar. If you don’t have kuromitsu, you can substitute it with other syrups such as brown sugar syrup, honey, and maple syrup.
How to Store
Warabi Mochi is best eaten fresh, as refrigerating it will cause the texture to become hard. You can store Warabi Mochi in an airtight container at room temperature for 1-2 days.
Make sure to store warabi mochi without the kinako coating. If it is stored with kinako touching the surface, the powder will become wet and soggy. You can chill Warabi Mochi for 30 minutes before eating if you want to enjoy it cold.
More Japanese Dessert Recipes
- Black Sesame Basque Cheesecake
- Kinako Madeleines
- Japanese Coffee Jelly
- Yaki Mochi (Grilled Mochi)
- Matcha Creme Brulee
- Tofu Mitarashi Dango
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup (50 gr) warabi mochiko or warabiko (bracken starch)
- 2 1/2 tbsp (30 gr) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (240 ml) water
- 1/4 cup (30 gr) kinako (roasted soybean flour)
- Kuromitsu (black sugar syrup)
Instructions
- Line a small container with plastic wrap and sprinkle a small amount of water over the surface to prevent the warabi mochi from sticking to the plastic wrap.
- In a saucepan, add warabi mochiko, sugar, and water. Stir to combine with a spatula.
- Heat the saucepan over low heat and stir constantly until the mixture becomes thick and evenly translucent.
- Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the mixture to the container. Spread the mixture evenly with the spatula. Dip the spatula in water to prevent sticking.
- Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and then rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Do not leave warabi mochi in the fridge too long, or it will harden and dry out.
- Sift half of the kinako on a baking sheet. Transfer the cooled mochi on top and sift the remaining kinako over the mochi.
- Roughly cut warabi mochi into squares with a knife or bench scraper and toss in the kinako to cover all sides.
- Transfer to the serving plates. Drizzle kuromitsu on the top right before serving.
