Microwavable Mochi

MOCHI! (These were the ones that turned out the best-looking)

I saw the most amazing spread of desserts at a buffet this past weekend when I was in Vegas - cupcakes, cookies, cakes, tarts, even a Jelly Belly candy dispenser! I wish I took a picture of it, but I was too busy grabbing a bit of everything. The cupcakes especially were an inspiration - chocolate cupcakes are definitely on the list to bake for the near future!

In other unrelated news, I've been pretty underwhelmed by this season of Pretty Little Liars. (I know - it's a guilty pleasure. Besides, it's nice having a show on in the background that I don't have pay 100% of my attention to while I bake or cook). I was going to try and blog a recap of each week's episode, but I really don't have much to say except that these girls never learn. There is ALWAYS somebody watching and A will ALWAYS be one step ahead of them. And if they stopped doing stupid/illegal crap all the time, then A wouldn't even have anything to hold over them.

Also, the main clue of this season's mystery is a freaking parrot.

Anyways, while I was watching the latest episode, I was attempting my next baking experiment: mochi! Made in the microwave! Filled with red bean!

Beforehand, I was all ready to write a post about my failed mochi experiment, because honestly, microwavable mochi? Sounds a little sketchy to me.

But hey! It worked! At least the microwavable part did. I had a little trouble with the filling and wrapping, so they don't look very pretty, but at least they are nice and chewy and tasty! If I didn't care about presentation so much, this would be a complete success.

I made two batches of them - one plain white and one green from matcha powder. I had a lot trouble wrapping the white ones because they were my first batch and I tried stuffing too much red bean filling into them. I was more conservative with my green batch, and they turned out a lot better.

Left: overflowing mochi; right: nicely wrapped mochi

To make them, I followed this recipe nearly exactly for the green tea ones, except I used canned red bean paste instead of making my own. I'm guessing microwave times will be different for everyone, but for me, it happened that the times in that recipe were exactly what I needed. I also stuck them in the fridge after I was done to help prevent the filling from leaking out even more before I bring them into work tomorrow.

Next week, it'll be back to more familiar desserts. I keep thinking about those chocolate cupcakes from that buffet...