Japanese dessert yomogi daifuku

This delicious Japanese dessert is prepared like this:

1. Fresh wormwood leaves are washed.
2. The water is boiled in a small saucepan. Add wormwood, boil for 1-2 minutes. Let the leaves cool down.
3. Meanwhile, anko bean paste is being prepared and the balls from it are laid out on foil. It is necessary to prepare 12 balls. For this:
- beans are washed and put in a saucepan;
- pour water to the top of the beans and bring to a boil;
- then reduce the heat, cover the pan with a lid and cook for an hour until the beans are soft;
- when the water evaporates, more water is added – the beans should always be covered with water;
- the broth is drained from the finished beans into a separate bowl;
- a small handful of beans are put aside, the rest of the beans are crushed and rubbed through a sieve;
- sugar and delayed whole beans are added to the bean puree, thoroughly mixed;
- the resulting mass is boiled in a saucepan on the lowest heat for 10-15 minutes until it acquires a dark brown or maroon color;
- when the bean mass becomes too thick during cooking, the broth left after the previous cooking is added to it;
- the finished anko paste is left to cool.
4. Wormwood leaves together with 3/4 of the broth are whipped with a blender until smooth.
5. Filter the mass from the blender through a sieve into a measuring cup. Add the necessary part of the remaining broth to the cup to the 150 ml mark.
6. Rice flour, 200 grams of sugar, salt and rice vinegar are mixed in a large bowl suitable for a microwave oven. Add 150 ml of wormwood broth prepared earlier and beat with a whisk until a homogeneous mass of dough is obtained.
7. Mochi dough is cooked in a microwave oven for 8-10 minutes at high power.
8. Potato starch and 40 grams of sugar are mixed together. Sprinkle a part of this mixture on a cutting board, carefully spread the hot mass - mochi - from the microwave. Sprinkle a mixture of starch and sugar on top.
9. With the flat edge of a large knife, straighten the mochi from above and straighten the edges to make a rectangular layer.
10. Cut the mochi into 12 parts.
11. Each part is rolled out and placed in the center of the filling – a ball of red bean paste. Lift the edges of the mochi up and clamp tightly, sprinkle the sealed edges with a mixture of starch and sugar. Turn the ball over and spread it on a cutting board sprinkled with a mixture of starch and sugar.
12. Finished wrapped mochi with stuffing is covered with soy flour.
13. Served to the table immediately warm or stored before serving mochi in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap. This dessert is stored for 2-3 days.
14. Yomogi Daifuku from the refrigerator is heated in a microwave oven until soft before use.

Bon appetit!