Not too surprising for those who bake frequently, a higher hydration mochi dough yields a softer mochi. In looking at some mochi recipes, the volume ratio is noted as 1:1:1 mochiko to water to sugar. From a weight perspective, this is about 1:1.6 mochiko to water ratio. To make it easier for me, I settled on 1:1.5. And since equal ratio of sugar seemed too extreme for me, I went with 0.5.

The result was a dough that had similar consistency to pancake batter pre microwave. Since there was less mass than my earlier attempts, total microwave time was reduced to 3 minutes. And finally the end product was more tender. This is a nice consistency if I wanted to have filled mochi, but as a stand alone product, it’s a touch too soft for me.

Ingredients

• 100 g mochiko
• 150 g water
• 50 g sugar
• couple of drops of rice wine vinegar
• Potato starch for dusting
• 2 g of matcha (optional)

Procedure

1. Generously dust the bottom of a 9×9 pan with potato starch.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, combine mochiko, water, sugar, and vinegar and mix until thoroughly combined (I used a rubbermade spatula).
3. Microwave on High for 2 minutes. Knead/fold with spatula.
4. Microwave on High for 1 minute, parts should be translucent. Knead/fold with spatula.
5. Pour the dough on the potato starch covered pan. Generously dust the top of the mochi dough with potato starch.
6. While still warm, but not blazing hot that it’ll burn your hands, flatten the mochi.
7. Allow to cool, and cut into bit size pieces. Dust edges of each piece in potato start to prevent sticking.

Plenty of mochi recipes in the Internet, but unfortunately being in the US, the measurements are all in cup measurement. Attempts to search for recipes in grams yields surprisingly no results so I had to create my own based on recipes available.

For simplicity, I based this recipe on a microwave mochi recipe, probably the #1 result of a search query. The original recipe had a larger % of water, but it was easier for me to remember 1:1 and the update worked fine. Changes I made: (1) convert to grams and (2) reduce the amount of ingredients as mochi is perishable and I wanted enough for the family to snack on for the next day or two, not for large potluck or for sale.

Ingredients

• 150 g mochiko
• 150 g water
• 75 g sugar
• couple of drops of rice wine vinegar
• Potato starch for dusting

Procedure

1. Generously dust the bottom of a 9×9 pan with potato starch.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, combine mochiko, water, sugar, and vinegar and mix until thoroughly combined (I used a rubbermade spatula).
3. Microwave on High for 2 minutes. Knead/fold with spatula.
4. Microwave on High for 1 minute, parts should be translucent. Knead/fold with spatula.
5. Microwave on High for 1 minute, all translucent. Knead/fold with spatula.
6. Pour the dough on the potato starch covered pan. Generously dust the top of the mochi dough with potato starch.
7. While still warm, but not blazing hot that it’ll burn your hands, flatten the mochi.
8. Allow to cool, and cut into bit size pieces. Dust edges of each piece in potato start to prevent sticking.

The Village at Northstar has a lot of things going for it, but for the little ones, Le Waf is at the top of the list. After a few hours on the mountain, their attention is towards caramelized waffle goodness.

Fortunately, the good peeps at Euro Snack provided Food Network with their Le Waf recipe. Being the diligent home baker, I had to reproduce at home. In making the recipe, a couple of changes were required: (1) converted fresh yeast to instant yeast and (2) the dough proved too wet with the original commercial recipe (for me), so added 10% more flour.

Ingredients

• 275 g all-purpose flour
  
• 100 g milk at 105 degrees
• 5 g instant yeast
• 1 egg
  
• 150 g butter, at room temperature 
• 20 g sugar
• 3 g salt 
• 175 g pearl sugar

Procedure

1. Combine 125 g flour, milk and yeast. Let rest for 20 minutes
2. Add remaining 150 g flour, egg, butter, sugar and salt. Knead until smooth.
3. Knead in pearl sugar. Form a ball and rest for 10 minutes.
4. Divide into 8 equal pieces, forming each into a ball. The dough is will soft and supple, and full of butter. Like a 80% hydration dough. Rest for at min. 40 minutes.
5. 2-3 min per waffle in a waffle iron until well color.

Yak Sik is a delicious Korean sticky rice dessert, but it’s $6 for a small rectangle. The cost is partially the result of the expensive additions of chestnuts, pine nuts and dates. Regardless, $6 is enough for me to make my own version.

There are a few yaksik recipes online and I used kimchmari’s yaksik recipe as a baseline. Her version is an impressive 4 of rice cup version, but yaksik is highly perishable and I needed only enough to replace the supermarket portion.

To use an Instant Pot, I needed a sticky rice recipe. Fortunately, pressurecookrecipe’s sticky rice recipe looked solid. Plus it offered no pre-soak time for the rice.

So combining the two recipes, I have the following yaksik recipe with an Instant Pot.

Ingredients

• 200g sweet rice
• 170g water
• 70g brown sugar
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
• Chestnut, raisins, pine nuts

Instructions

1. Set up Instant Pot for steaming, 1″ water and steamer rack.
2. In a bowl, place 200g sweet and 170g water. Put on steamer rack and set Instant Pot to Manual (HP) for 12 min.
3. While Instant Pot is working, make the sauce by combining the brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and brown sugar.
4. After cooking has completed, let rest for 10 min then release.
5. Add sauce to rice and mix thoroughly. Add nuts and dried fruit and combine.
6. Set Instant Pot to steam for 5 min. The steaming time is up to you. The more you steam, the more the individual grains break down and the yaksik forms a cohesive mass.
7. Pour yaksik into a container and let cool to room temperature.

Made some creme puffs with the little one tonight.   Red bean and green tea whipped cream filling.   The beauty of these creme puffs is that it’s a small batch size that can be made in a toaster oven.

Pate Choux

• 75 g all purpose flour
• 75 g water
• 50  g milk
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 2 eggs

Whipped Cream Filling

• 235 g of whipping cream
• 15 g sugar
• 5 g matcha powder

Procedure

1. Preheat toaster oven to 425 degrees
2. Combine water, milk and unsalted butter in a small pot.  In medium heat bring to a simmer. Mix to incorporate the butter.
3. Take off heat and add the flour.  Mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Put the dough back on medium heat.  Continue to mix until dough is 180 degrees F. – you hear sizzling and beads of fat are on the surface of the pot.
5. Take off heat, mix and cool slightly (don’t want to scramble those eggs).
6. Add eggs, one at a time and mix/beat to combine.
7. Using a piping bag or cookie scoop, divide pate choux dough into 3cm (1 1/4″) mounds.  Smooth tops with the back of a wet spoon or fingers.
8. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes.
9. Lower temperature to 350 degrees F with convection (or 375 degrees F) and bake for 10 minutes.
10. Take out of the oven, and make a 1cm (1/2″) slit on the side of each creme puff to allow the steam to escape.
11. Place back in an off oven with door propped oven with a wooden spoon.  Allow to dry out for 30-45 minutes more.

Another round of sourdough morning buns baked in the toaster oven.  Facebook post on Sourdough Baking group resulting in requests for recipe.   To validate repeatability of results, I baked another batch. 

The dough is a three day process, but active time is minimal (for laminated dough).  The small batch makes lamination easy and less fussy. 

Green tea matcha bundt cake with red bean paste and whipped cream ice cream.

Because of the Kids Baking Championship’s Lava Cake episode, we’re baking a lot of bundt cakes at the moment.  Last recipe yielded too much batter for my 6 mini bundt cake pan, so I reduced the recipe by 50%.  This resulted in too small bundt cakes, more like donuts.  The side benefit is that it’s a healthier serving size.

Ingredients

125 g all purpose flour
100 g sugar
3 g salt
4 g baking soda
8 g matcha powder
113 g butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
118 g of water
1 large egg
70 g sour cream

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, oil pan (next time oil and flour)
2. Mix all the ingredients
3. Pour into pan
4. Bake for approx. 20 minutes, check 2 minutes prior with toothpick.
5. Cool completely on wire rack, invert.

Hmmm … a little too little batter.   These are going to be mini-mini bundt cakes …

Baked at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Allowed to completely cool, but these bundts got a little stuck to the pan. Will try to oil and flour the pan instead of oil spray only.

Experimenting making Japanese takoyaki with red bean filling.  Wanted a lighter version than straight pancake batter so added 1 egg whipped egg white.

For 9 takoyaki  (one pan): 1/2 cup of Krusteaz pancake mix (+ 3/8 cup of water) combined with 1 egg white whipped to soft peaks.  Pour half the mixture into an ebelskiver pan over medium heat (350 degrees f), add red bean mixture, pour other half of mixture, flip.

Because of the two half additions of batter, the results looked like rounded dorayaki.  Next time, I’ll use the traditional takoyaki and ebelskiver technique to make a round seamless ball.

Little girl woke up at 6:30am requesting cookies.  So we made chewey chocolate chip cookies.