Vegan Bunny Elle

These Daifuku mochi are a celebration of one of my favorite fruits, persimmons! They’re filled with whole frozen persimmon, wrapped with a mochi skin infused with persimmon juice and shaped also like persimmons!

So first thing first, what is Daifuku? Daifuku quite literally means great luck, or great blessing, in Japanese. It’s a type of mochi desserts but instead of plain mochi, they’re always filled with a sweet filling like sweetened red bean paste, whipped cream, or even ice cream.

The mochi skin is a lot easier to make than you might think. You can choose one of the three methods – microwave, steam, or simply cook the mixture in a pan and I’ll include instructions for all three in the recipe below. Once the mixture is cooked, you just need to chill the dough, then stretch and knead like how you’d play with play-dough! The process is really fun.

And for the fillings, I’m using frozen Fuyu persimmons. Please note that there are two types persimmons and they are very different when it comes to when they can be consumed! Fuyu, which is shorter and have more of a “squished” look, is edible and sweet even when they’re hard and crispy, but of course if you let them ripen and softer they become more jammy. I also like to freeze them, which makes them instantly jammy and much easier to peel.

Hachiya, on the other hand, are taller, have more of a heart shape, and they’re extremely astringent and totally inedible when they’re hard!! They need to become completely soft and ripened and then they’re quite literally sweet juicy jammy heaven. I personally prefer Fuyu but they’re both really delicious you just gotta know how to tell the difference between them.

Persimmon Daifuku

Daifuku mochi filled with whole frozen persimmon, wrapped with sticky rice skin infused with persimmon juice and finally shaped like persimmons!

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Ingredients Method Video

Ingredients

  

For the mochi wrapper –

• 100 g glutinous rice flour
• 40 g granulated sugar
• 160 ml persimmon juice
• Corn starch for dusting

For the filling –

• 1 can coconut cream refrigerated overnight
• 4 frozen persimmon
• Other jams of choice

Method

 

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together glutinous rice flour and sugar;
2. Make the persimmon juice by blending one peeled persimmon with 150 ml of water, pass the mixture through a fine sieve, then measure 160 ml;
3. Pour the persimmon juice into the flour mixture while stirring vigorously until a smooth batter forms;
4. Cook the mixture using one of the three methods below –
5. *Microwave method: cover the mixture with plastic wrap (I use a NON-plastic wrap that’s made from compostable plan-based biopolymers), poke some holes in the wrap and microwave on high for one minute, take it out and stir, return and cook for another 30 seconds, the color should change from white to more orange once cooked, add more time if needed, it can vary based on your microwave;
6. *Steam method: cover the mixture with plastic or non plastic wrap, steam for 15 minutes;
7. *Stovetop method: add the mixture into a nonstick pan, cook over medium heat while continue to stir, the liquid will slowly clump then eventually solidify;
8. Once the mixture is cooked, stir and fold the mixture in the container, once it’s cooled enough to handle, oil your hands or wear cooking gloves, remove the dough mixture, stretch out, fold, and stretch again, repeat until the dough becomes smooth, even, and soft;
9. Dust your work surface with cornstarch, place the dough down, dust more cornstarch on top of the dough, roll it out into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle, try to keep the thickness even throughout;
10. Prepare the fillings, take the persimmons out of the freezer and you should be able to peel off the skins easily;
11. In a large bowl, add only the white, solidified part of coconut cream, whip until fluffy;
12. When you’re ready to assemble, use a 6 inch diameter bowl to cut a round wrapper out of the rolled out dough, add whipped coconut cream, jam of choice if you like, then add one whole persimmon;
13. gather the edge of the wrapper and pinch all the gathers together, let it chill in the freezer while you work on the rest of them;
14. Continue to cut out rounds, fill, and wrap, and you can re-knead the dough to roll out again to cut out more rounds if needed;
15. Once all daifuku are finished, let them chill in the freezer for 10 minutes;
16. Serve chilled, enjoy!

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