How to Make Gyuhi (求肥)/Sweet Soft Mochi

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Sweet soft mochi wrapped for mochi ice cream is called “gyuhi” in Japanese. It is really smooth and soft like a baby’s skin. Not only the mochi ice cream, but gyuhi can also be a variety of deserts.

What’s Gyuhi?

Gyuhi (求肥) or gyūhi mochi is a form of wagashi made with glutinous rice flour, sugar, and water. The outside of the mochi ice cream is normally made with this gyuhi.

Different Between Mochi vs Gyuhi

Mochi and gyuhi look similar but the biggest difference is gyuhi won’t get hard for a couple of days, while mochi will get hard in a day after it is cooked. The sugar of gyuhi keeps it moist.

Ingredients

Shiratamako: type of rice flour made from glutinous rice.

Sugar: granulated sugar or caster sugar. Highly recommend using white sugar. However, if you don’t care about the color of mochi, you can use brown sugar.

Water: regular cold water

Potato Starch: used to prevent the mochi from sticking. However, you can use corn starch instead of potato starch.

What is Shiratamako?

I normally use “shiratamako(白玉粉)” for making gyuhi. Shiratamako is a type of rice flour made from glutinous rice. Mainly used for making “shiratama dango” but also used for other types of Japanese sweets. The manufacturing method for shiratamako is different than regular mochiko.

Shiratamako is ground with water and using a stone mill. Then take precipitate and dry it. Then compressed and dehydrated and dried in the sun. Although the flour looks like coarse granules, however, the particle is fine, so it gives the mochi a very smooth texture. On the other hand, Mochiko or other glutinous rice flour is ground into powder.

What Can I Use for Subustitute of Shiratamako?

You can use Mochiko or other glutinous flour as a substitute for Shiratamako. However, the texture will be slightly grainy, chewy, and less elastic than shiratamako. Therefore, I highly recommend using shiratamako. In addition, the mochi dough which is made with shiratamako is more smooth, elastic, and bouncy texture.

Step by Step How to Make Gyuhi

Gyuhi is traditionally made by the steaming method. However, the steaming method is a bit tricky. So I normally make it by microwave instead. You can also make it with a non-stick pan.

1. Mix shiratamako, sugar and water.
2. Heat them on the microwave for 1.30 minutes
3. Mix them evenly
4. Heat the dough again for 2 minutes
5. Stair the dough well with spatula
6. Heat the mixture one last time. Make sure the dough is translucent
7. Transfer the cooked mochi to the work surface dusted with potato starch
8. Dust potato starch over the mochi and spread out in even thickness by hand, and let the mochi completly cool down

History of Gyuhi

Gyūhi was introduced in the Heian period (794 to 1185) from China to Japan. The name of gyūhi was written in 牛皮 literally meaning cow skin. Because we didn’t know the technique of refining the sugar, the gyūhi looks more like cow skin because the brown sugar was used for making gyūhi. Then the Buddhist traditions were spread in Japan. For example, eating an animal was a no-no in that era, even though the gyūhi was not made with animal ingredients, the Chinese character was changed to 求肥, pronounced the same as gyūhi.

Variety of Sweets Made with Gyuhi

I make gyuhi mochi because it is a perfect snack with matcha or a great topping for ice cream. Moreover, many traditional Japanese sweets are made by gyuhi. Here are some examples.

• Nerikiri
• Daifuku
• Mochi ice cream
• Uguisu mochi
• Suama
• Anmitsu