Kagami mochi is a Japanese New Year treat and part of the festive tradition of Kagami Biraki. During the New Year, this type of mochi can be found in prepacked packages all over Japan.
However, you can make these Japanese rice cakes fresh at home in under 15 minutes. Here's our Kagami mochi recipe with some decoration ideas.
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What Is Kagami Mochi?
This Japanese rice cake dish is a traditional food item used to celebrate the New Year in Japan. It consists of two layers of round rice cakes topped with a small mandarin, and this custom has been practised since the Heian era.
This tradition is unique. It is still heavily celebrated today, even though lifestyles have differed greatly since.
Kagami mochi means mirror rice cake, whereas 'kagami' means 'mirror,' and 'mochi' means 'rice cake'. However, there is a deeper significance to why the word 'mirror' is used in its naming.
It is often said that the stacked rice cakes resemble a bronze mirror. The household item was considered a treasure in ancient Japan. Nowadays, most stores sell individually packed kagami mochi. They come along with a decorated 'sanpō' (三宝, decorated stand), ready to be displayed.
Along with a mandarin, the traditional cake is often decorated with colourful paper, ferns, and dried kelp.
The Mandarin, 'dai-dai', gives hope and prosperity to future descendants. Meanwhile, kelp and konbu sound like the Japanese word, 'yorokobu'. It means 'being happy' and is used as a lucky charm.
However, decorations and charms do vary depending on families and regions.
Kagami Biraki
Kagami Biraki is a tradition translated as 'opening the mirror'. The Japanese celebrate it as an offering to their gods and Hotokesama (buddha). It traditionally falls on the 11th day of the new year, a good luck number in Japan. This is the day when the kagami mochi can be broken and eaten. However, eating the rice cake earlier can anger the Kamisama, which refers to God in Japan.
Traditional Japanese believe that Kamisama's power resides in the rice cake. Therefore, one should not break into it with a knife. Instead, they should use a wooden hammer or break it with their bare hands.
Moreover, they recommend eating the traditional snack of Kagami Biraki. Old folks say that this practice will prevent any sicknesses or accidents that year.
Kagami Mochi Recipe, Easy Microwave Method
Ingredients
- 130 g glutinous rice flour
- 25 g white sugar
- 150 ml water
- 2 tablespoon potato starch for dusting
- 1 Mandarin or yuzu leaf
Equipment
Cooking Instructions
- In a microwave-safe, medium-sized bowl, sift glutinous rice flour and sugar. Then mix in the water and stir until well combined. It should resemble the texture of cake batter.
- Loosely cover the bowl with saran wrap. With a fork, poke through the plastic to allow airflow.
- Microwave on high heat (600W) for 1 minute. Then, remove the bowl from the microwave and lightly knead the dough using a plastic spatula. The dough should still be mostly wet and uncooked.
- Return the bowl to the microwave and cook it for another 1 minute at high (600W). Take it out and knead again. If the dough is not fully cooked yet, repeat cooking in the microwave at 30-second increments until it is fully cooked and no longer wet.Remove your bowl from the microwave and let it sit for 1 to 2 minutes until cool enough to touch. Be careful not to let it cool completely. You still want the dough to be warm so you can easily handle it in the next steps.
- On a flat surface kneading surface, dust heavily with potato starch. Place the entire mochi dough on a flat surface. Cut the dough into two pieces at a 3:1 ratio using a dough cutter.
- Knead the mochi dough until the textures are smooth and consistent. Then, gently stack and balance them on a platform or cake stand (we use a wooden box with some origami paper). Finally, place a mandarin or yuzu to top off your Kagami mochi.
Recipe Notes
- If you do not have potato starch on hand, corn starch or tapioca starch would do just fine.
- It is advisable to not let the mochi cook in the microwave for the whole of 8-10 minutes. By folding the batter every 2 minutes, it prevents the edges from hardening.
- The size of the kagami mochi depends on how big you would like them to be served. Typically, two pieces of rice cakes are stacked on top of one another. The bottom piece has a bigger circumference than the top one.
Nutrition
Calories have been calculated using an online calculator. Nutritional information offered on Honest Food Talks is for general information purposes and is only a rough estimate.
Cooking Tips
The process of making mochi has been simplified through the years. Now, homemade Japanese rice cake can be enjoyed from the comfort of your own kitchen.
However, there are a few steps to look for to make it perfect.
Stirring
Ensure there are no lumps in your glutinous rice mixture before cooking it. Lumps in the batter may disrupt the cooking process, resulting in an all-too-sticky cake. Stirring in between the cooking process is important. Leaving your mixture unstirred can cause the edges to harden, wasting a good amount of mochi. We also recommend using a fine sieve to break up any clumps of flour when adding it to the mixing bowl.
Different flours
Glutinous and regular rice flours are not the same. When cooked, these flours result in very different consistencies. Though they may seem similar, they should not be used interchangeably. We do not recommend using the regular version of this recipe. Please ensure you have glutinous rice flour on hand before starting our recipe.
Where To Place It?
The Japanese rice cake is usually placed in the kitchen, bedroom, or household altar. The Japanese believed that placing kagami mochi in many locations in the house would increase luck.
Most Japanese households start to display the traditional cake a day after Christmas, between the 26th and the 28th. However, they do not display it on the 29th or 31st, as these are unlucky numbers. The Japanese recommend eating it only on the day of Kagami Biraki. They will then cook it according to their liking.
Ways To Enjoy
As Kagami mochi is made of only glutinous rice flour, sugar, and water, it has little taste. That is why most cook their rice cakes in different dishes or simply grill them and dip them in soy sauce.
Here are some traditional ways to enjoy Kagami mochi during Kagami Biraki:
- Ozoni: A Japanese New Year mochi soup made primarily of komatsuna, yuzu, and mitsuba.
- Oshiruko: A red bean soup made primarily of red bean paste, water, and toasted kagami mochi.
Japanese rice cake here is very similar to the globally popular Japanese snack called daifuku. Usually, the daifuku has an adzuki red bean filling, making a red bean daifuku.
Calories
This kagami mochi recipe contains about 250 calories per serving. Our recipe makes 8 servings per batch, resulting in 2000 calories for 8 servings.
How did your kagami mochi turn out? Share your crafted Japanese rice cake with us by tagging us on Instagram @honestfoodtalks. We would love to see how yours turned out.
Looking for another Japanese dessert to make at home? Let us introduce you to our raindrop cake recipe. It is a low-calorie traditional Japanese snack.
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