Warabi Mochi

I first fell in love with this Japanese dessert during a lunch appointment in "Fat Cow", a Japanese restaurant at Camden Medical Centre. Although I was very full from lunch but when I start eating this dessert, I couldn't stop, because it was so light, so cooling and so soft.
So for this month AB theme, I thought of this dessert as I suddenly have craving for this. I follow recipe from here and drizzle gula Melaka syrup before serve (instead of black sugar syrup) to give it an Asian twist.

Ingredient:
- 60 grams (2 ounces) warabimochiko (I can't find this powder so I used tapioca flour instead)
- 240 ml (1 cup) lukewarm water
- 40 grams sugar (I use caster sugar)
- about 30 grams (1 ounce) kinako (i used toasted black soybean powder, available at Daiso)

Gula Melaka syrup
- 50 gram palm sugar
- 1/2 cup water

Method: (Makes about 24 bite-size pieces)

1. Place tapioca flour in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk in water little by little until the mixture is smooth, with no lumps. Whisk in the sugar. The mixture will be thin.
2. Pour black soybean powder in a ziplock bag.
3. Set a fine-mesh sieve over a saucepan and pour the tapioca mixture through. Place the pan over medium heat. Stir with a wooden spoon constantly and energetically as the mixture heats and becomes thick and elastic. After just a little while, the mixture will turn translucent.
4. When completely translucent, remove from the heat and pour the mixture -- whole or in small pieces -- into a bowl of ice water to chill first, before draining and putting in ziplock bag, coating with soybean powder.
5. Sprinkle the top with powder, and use a dough cutter (or large knife) dusted with soybean powder to cut it into bite-size pieces.
6. Separate the pieces and roll them around gently to coat on all sides. Let cool completely before eating.
7. Transfer them to a serving dish with some of the remaining powder (pour the rest back into the package) and serve with toothpicks. (In Japan, they were served with flat wooden picks with an angled point, that seemed to echo the shape of the kuromoji, the utensil used to cut pastries during the tea ceremony.)
8. Cook palm sugar with water till boil. Set to cool. Drizzle palm sugar syrup on top before serve.

Warabi mochi can keep for a couple of days. Cover and keep at room temperature; if you refrigerate them, they'll get tough.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Baker #20: Asian dessert buffet!(June 2012) Hosted By Moon of Foodplayground.