Ohagi (Botamochi): easy Recipe Japanese Sweets
Sweet rice balls filled or coated with red bean paste and having this soft texture is Ohagi (Botamochi): easy Recipe Japanese Sweets. This may sound familiar but the traditional food is so delicious you make it only take 40 minutes.
Don’t worry even though this recipe is less familiar, but I’m here to give you the best way to make it. It can even make you wonder why the results have been so amazing.
What is Ohagi (Botamochi) ?
Ohagi (Botamochi) is a very common and basic traditional Japanese sweet that can be bought in-store or made at home. This food is made from sticky rice coated with red bean paste.
Ohagi is also basically a mochi rice ball wrapped in Anko. As a finishing touch, you can coat it with various ingredients such as sesame seeds and matcha powder, or others.
The rice used is the same as the one used to make mochi and soaked for a few hours until it becomes very sticky.
This Japanese sweet is delicious with a cup of green tea, and it doesn’t taste too sweet. There are many variations such as ohagi coated in kinako Some recipes also incorporate red bean paste into rice balls, not outside.
Many recipes explain how to make that easy version at home by using leftover rice for example.
Know the type of that:
Anko Ohagi – Ohagi Red Bean Paste
ANKO, or red bean paste, is made from boiled adzuki beans sweetened with sugar.
Kinako Ohagi – Ohagi Soybean Flour
Kinoko is a flour made from soybeans. And to season ohagi and other wagashi, the flour is sweetened with sugar.
Kurumi Ohagi – Walnut Ohagi
Similar to kinako, it is also flour made from walnuts mixed with sugar.
Ohagi is a valuable dish served to pamper guests and used for memorial services. This dish is similar to the role cakes play in western culture.
In Japan, there is a memorial service in honor of an ancestor called ohagi, which is held twice in spring and autumn. At that time, ohagi was made in every household and sold in supermarkets as an offering to ancestors.
Each family’s ohagi is unique, although the shapes and recipes are generally the same, but the flavor of the red bean paste and its size are different.
Where can we buy ohagi?
Most Japanese sweet shops sell ohagi, try to enjoy ohagi when you come to Japan. To try Japanese wagashi Tokyo, read our guide to 5 Tokyo Wagashi Cafes with a Twist!
If you’re curious about the other types of Japanese sweets available out there, we have everything you need to know in our guide to 25 Must-Try Japanese Wagashi.
Or you can’t do it at home by looking at my recipe.
Is there a difference between Ohagi or Botamochi?
You may notice that I keep calling this sweet rice ball by the two names Ohagi and Botamochi. That’s because we call these rice balls different in spring and autumn.
In autumn, they are called Ohagi because they are named after the autumn flower ohagi.
In spring, it likes to be called botamochi, since it is named after the spring flower, namely botan.
And regionally, people may grow up calling it by just one name, but in the watershed, they are the same name.
Ingredients used to make Ohagi (Botamochi)
Rice
- Sweet rice
- Glutinous
- Water
Contents and Toppings
- Red bean paste
- Soy flour quinine roasted
- Sugar
- Ground black sesame seeds
- Sugar
Other materials
- Salt
Facts of glutinous rice
This is a type of rice used to make mochi rice cakes. Notice how the grain is more opaque than ordinary Japanese rice, once cooked it tastes also more sticky.
If you are in Japan, get a so-called mochi. If you are outside Japan, try looking for other types of sticky rice.
In one serving glutinous rice contains 2 mg of calcium, 4 mg of magnesium, 0.2 mg of iron, 7 mg of phosphorus, and 9 mg of potassium. These nutrients are good for bone health and growth. The consumption of glutinous rice can help build strong bones and prevent osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis is where the condition of reduced bone density causes the bones to become porous and easily broken.
How to make Ohagi (Botamochi)?
All I did was cook glutinous rice and rice simultaneously in the rice cooker. When it is cooked mash it partially until smooth, the latter form, and fill the ball.
Coat the balls with red bean paste, for additional two variants satisfy the rice balls with sweet red bean paste and then coat them with sweet soy milk or powdered black sesame.
Tips on making the correct Ohagi (Botamochi)
Combine glutinous rice and rice
Ohagi (Botacmochi) is often made only with glutinous rice or sweet rice. However, I do not recommend using only glutinous rice because this sweet rice ball becomes cold, the texture will be hard and not too chewy.
Mixing it with regular rice helps to keep the texture softer and chewy.
Measuring anko or red bean paste
Once the rice is ground, it is best to form it while the rice is still warm. If previously you had measured the paste and rolled it into a ball, just take the pasta and put it in the rice ball quickly.
Mash some rice
One of Ohagi’s (Botamochi) uniqueness is its striking texture of rice when bitten. Unlike other similar mochi sweets that fine rice , the rice is partially ground, not mashed completely.
Use plastic wrap to spread thin red bean paste
Plastic wrap is helpful when you need to apply a thin layer of red bean paste around the rice balls.
Store and Apply Black Sesame and Soy Flour
In 10-15 minutes after you coat the rice balls with black sesame seeds and soy flour, it will see ohagi (Botamochi) color become darker and speckled.
This happens because the moisture in the rice is released into the layers. Therefore, it is best to store some of these layers and re-apply them just before serving.
How to store and enjoy Ohagi?
Because it is made of glutinous rice and rice, Ohagi is not suitable for storing in the refrigerator. The temperature will only make the rice balls hard and lose their soft and chewy texture.
Therefore, it is best to keep it in a cool place and enjoy it as soon as possible or within 12 hours.
March may be cool, but September can still be warm and food may break down faster. In this case, I recommend keeping it in the refrigerator, but cover the container with a thick towel to protect it from cold air.
You can also freeze Ohagi for 1 month. When ready to eat, store it overnight in the refrigerator. To restore the ideal texture, Ohagi should be gently reheated in the microwave until warm.
Serve your ohagi with a drink that is Japanese Strawberry Milk – Keto Strawberry Smoothie a refreshing drink that contains a lot for the health of our body.
Equipment needed:
- Rice cooker
- Mash tool
- Spoon
- Bowl
- Rice!
- 180 ml of sweet rice and sticky rice
- 200 ml of water
- Contents and Toppings!
- 240 g of red bean paste
- 2 tbsp roasted soy flour quinine
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp ground black sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp sugar
- Other materials!
- Salt
- The first step is to make a toping by mixing the quinine, soy bean powder and granulated sugar into a mixing bowl until smooth.
- Then prepare a different bowl of black sesame seeds and granulated sugar. Next, moisten your hands with saltwater to prepare Anko, a sweet paste.
- Then to Anko botamochi, use a spoon to make the dough and keep it in hand.
- The shape of a botamochi Anko, being the size of a ping-pong ball.
- To Get kinako and sesame, Form it in to Half of the size of a ping-pong ball.
- Cook the sweet rice with a little extra water inside of the rice cooker, and now, let's make botamochi.
- Moisten the surikogi pestle with diluted brine and the inside of the bowl so that the mochi does not stick. Then, mash the sweet rice to almost half the size of the grain. Be careful not to spoil the inner cooking pan.
- Put the sweet rice in a bowl. Moisten your hands with salt water and shape a handful of rice into a ping-pong ball-sized shape, repeating this process.
- Rice balls of this site will be used for soybeans and sesame botamochi. Next, make another dough ball half the size of a ping-pong ball.
- This will be used for Anko botamochi, let's now make 3 types of large Anko ball shapes into flat circles.
- Place a small rice ball on top and collect the rice to the center, then cover the whole rice. Adjust the shape and place it on a plate.
- Next, moisten your hands with saltwater and squeeze one of the large rice balls several times to make it easier to wrap.
- Shape the rice into a round, then place a small Anko on a baking sheet.
- Collect the rice until the center is around the Anko, wrapped entirely.
- Adjust the shape and place it on top of the kinako, cover everything.
- Now, moisten the hands repeat the process and wrap a small bag with a baking sheet, place the botamochi on top of the sesame and cover it entirely.
- Finally, put the kinako and sesame botamochi on a plate. And serve it to your dining table.
