Momo daifuku / soft rice cake with peach and sweetened bean paste

A fruity rice cake with a juicy filling. Pickled ginger added to the bean paste accentuates the sweetness of fresh peach. Best chilled on Day 1. Tom's current favorite (after learning that "momo" meant the fruit, not our cat, which happens to be named "Momo").

One daifuku cake (1/4 of recipe):
111 calories; 2.2 g protein; 0.1 g fat; 27.7 g carbohydrate; 25.9 g net carbs; 4 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1.8 g fiber


<Ingredients>

(Makes 4 daifuku cakes)
For gyuhi mochi
35 g shiratamako sweet rice powder
20 g sugar
5 g mizuame starch syrup
70 cc water

For filling
1/3-1/2 peach
80 g shiroan lima bean paste
3 g benishoga red pickled ginger

3-4 tbsp katakuriko potato starch (to prevent gyuhi mochi from sticking to tray and hands; not in photo)

<Directions>
1.

Finely chop benishoga pickled ginger, and mix well with shiroan bean paste.

Let sit for 1+ hours.

2.

Divide ginger shiroan into four.

3.

Cut and peel peach.
Cut off corners, and place on paper towel if lots of juice comes out.
Here, each piece weighs 16-17 g.

Put ginger shiroan on peach's seed side surface, and wrap.

4.
Sift katakuriko potato starch onto tray, covering a relatively large area (potato starch prevents gyuhi from sticking to tray surface).

5.

Make gyuhi mochi as in sakura daifuku, and divide into four.

6.

Flatten a gyuhi mochi piece, aiming to make the center thinner and the outside fatter.
Place peach wrapped with ginger shiroan, and wrap.

Put more potato starch on outer surface of gyuhi as you stretch it to wrap.
 

When finished wrapping, place daifuku on your palm with closed side at bottom, and roll with fingers of your other hand to shape it into a globe.

7.

Gently press with a spatula from bottom to top to mark a line, mimicking the line on actual fruit.

Gently press top end of line with the tip of a chopstick.

Ready to serve.

<Notes>

• Ripe peach tastes the best, but due to the juiciness, wrapping it with shiroan bean paste and then with gyuhi mochi can be tricky. Wiping off peach before wrapping with shiroan or somewhat drying shiroan first (by cooking in a pan or microwaving) would help to some degree. Using more shiroan also helps.
• The spicy punch of ginger softens by Day 2.