Hanabira-mochi (花びら餅, New Year flower-petal mochi)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heatproof bowl set over a pot, or microwave-safe bowl
• •Silicone spatula or wooden rice paddle
• •Round cutter, about 9cm, or a small bowl used as a guide
• •Soft pastry brush

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the burdock

   Scrub the burdock under running water, but don't peel it down to white. The skin carries the root's clean, earthy scent. Cut it into 8 slivers, each about 12cm long and as thick as a matchstick, then soak them in water with the vinegar for 10 minutes. This keeps the color pale and pulls out the rough edge.

2. 2

   Candy the burdock

   Drain the burdock, cover it with fresh water, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until it bends without snapping. Drain again. Add the sugar, water, and salt to the pan, return the burdock, and simmer gently for 15 minutes, until glossy and lightly sweet. Let it cool in the syrup. Cooling in the syrup lets the sweetness enter the root instead of only coating the outside.

   Burdock should still taste like burdock. If it becomes candy alone, you've lost the point of the long brown line running through the sweet.
3. 3

   Make miso filling

   Put the shiro-an, white miso, and mirin in a small pan over low heat. Stir for 3 to 5 minutes, just until the paste thickens enough to hold a soft mound. The heat drives off extra moisture, which keeps the filling from wetting the mochi wrapper. Cool completely, then divide into 8 small logs.

4. 4

   Mix the gyuhi

   In a heatproof bowl, crush any large grains of shiratamako with your fingers, then whisk in the water little by little until smooth. Stir in the sugar. Add the coloring only until the mixture is the palest pink in one small portion, or leave most of it white and tint a few spoonfuls separately. The color should be seen through the wrapper like a petal under paper, not announced from across the room.

5. 5

   Cook the gyuhi

   Set the bowl over a pot of gently simmering water, or microwave in short bursts, stirring hard between each one. Cook until the gyuhi turns glossy, elastic, and slightly translucent, 8 to 10 minutes over water or about 3 to 4 minutes total in a microwave. The change matters: raw starch tastes chalky, cooked starch stretches cleanly and gives the sweet its tender pull.

6. 6

   Dust and divide

   Dust a tray generously with potato starch. Scrape the hot gyuhi onto it, dust the top, and pat it into a thin sheet. It will be sticky, because good gyuhi is sticky. Cut 8 rounds, about 9cm across, and cut or pinch 8 smaller pale-pink patches if you made the color separately. Work while the gyuhi is warm and pliable, because it folds neatly before it cools.

7. 7

   Fold the mochi

   Lay a faint pink patch on each white round if using. Place one miso-an log across the center, then set one candied burdock sliver on top so both ends extend beyond the mochi. Fold the round in half without sealing the edge. That open fold is part of the form, like a petal resting closed rather than a dumpling pinched shut.

8. 8

   Rest and serve

   Brush off excess starch with a soft pastry brush and let the sweets rest for 20 minutes under a barely damp cloth. Serve the same day, one piece per person, with the burdock line horizontal. The wrapper should be soft, the miso filling quiet and savory-sweet, and the burdock visible from both sides.

Chef Tips

• •Use Saikyō miso if you can find it. Its sweetness and pale color suit this sweet. A mild white miso is a sensible stand-in, but a dark red miso would change the dish completely.
• •Shiratamako gives the smoothest gyuhi. Mochiko can work, but the texture is a little less supple. That is not failure, only a different flour showing its manners.
• •Keep the starch for dusting generous at first, then brush it away at the end. Too little starch makes the gyuhi tear; too much left on the surface dulls the shine.
• •Do not overfill. Hanabira-mochi should fold softly, with room at the edge. If it bulges, take some filling out and let the form breathe.

Advance Preparation

• •The burdock can be simmered and held in its syrup up to 3 days ahead in the refrigerator.
• •The miso-an filling can be made 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Bring it to cool room temperature before shaping.
• •Assemble hanabira-mochi the day you serve it. Gyuhi is tenderest the same day and slowly firms overnight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 95g)