I’m a self confessed sweet lover. I actually didn’t like to snack or eat sweet stuff when I was young. However, once I was in my early twenties, I’ve developed a sweet tooth. I also started to cook more. While I love sweet and rich dessert, most of the time I prefer my dessert to be slightly sweet. I’m also a fan of anything made with rice flour because it has a chewy texture that I can’t get enough of. This taro daifuku is the perfect dessert.

Since I already have the taro cream on hand, I decided to try to use it as a filling for the Daifuku. It was perfect because the taro cream was slightly sweet but super creamy. The result? Chewy outside with airy whipped and creamy filling. Definitely my preferred dessert to have after a meal. These are also big enough that you can just have one and feel pretty satisfied.

You will notice a lot of dessert from East Asia (Japan, Korea and China) likes to play with textures. They are lightly sweetened and uses ingredients that are not common in western cultures (e.g. taro, red bean, green bean, rice and rice flour). Even in our everyday cooking, we like to mix different textures and dessert is no different. This Daifuku is epitome of this play on texture.

In this recipe, we need to mix glutinous rice flour with some sugar, potato starch and milk. You can substitute for water if you like. There isn’t any taro flavouring in glutinous rice dough, the flavor comes from the taro cream in the middle. The colour comes from sweet potato powder like the one I used in my taro cream.

Pro Tips!

Tip #1: Keep your whipping cream cold when whipping. Place a bowl into the fridge for about 10 min before whipping or when whipping place the bowl into some ice.
Tip #2: Make sure the glutinous rice dough is fully cooled before handling.
Tip #3: if you are having trouble handling the dough, use a plastic glove to prevent sticking.

Taro Daifuku

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Prep Time 20

Cook Time 30

Servings 6

Ingredients

100 g glutinous rice flour
25 g sugar
30 g sweet potato starch
7 g purple sweet potato powder
180 ml 2% milk
20 g butter

Filling

50 g taro cream
100 g whipping cream
35 g sugar

Instructions

Mix glutinous rice flour, potato starch, sugar together. Add the milk and mix. Make sure there are no lumps, strain through a strainer into a heat safe bowl.
Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and puncture some holes to let the steam out
Steam the mixture for 30 minutes. The mixture should be firm and dough like.
Take it off the steamer and put in the butter, set aside
Whip the whipping/heavy cream with sugar until it's stiff peak. Place into a piping bag, set in fridge for use later.
Place the taro cream into a piping bag as well. If it is taken out of the fridge, place into the microwave for 20s or set it in warm water.
Once the mixture is cooled enough that you can handle it, knead the dough with the butter
Once the butter is all mixed in, transfer onto the counter with some potato starch and continue kneading.
Once it doesn't stick to your hand, roll into a long sausage. Cut into 6 roughly equal pieces
Roll each pieces into a round disc and place into a small bowl with some potato starch to prevent sticking.
Add in whipping cream on the bottom
Add a bit of the taro cream.
Add more whipping cream and seal it off the top by folding in the dough.
Cut off the top knot and flip it into a cupcake liner. Serve it right away or you can store in the fridge. Best to eat it within 2 days.