Make chewy, soft, and springy Sakura Mochi with glutinous broken rice, red bean paste, and sakura leaves. A delicious and sweet Japanese dessert made right at home!

What is Sakura Mochi?

Sakura Mochi is a type of wagashi or traditional Japanese confectionery. It’s associated with spring, especially during the breathtaking Sakura season (cherry blossom season). This sweet treat consists of a soft rice cake (mochi) filled with sweet red bean paste and formed into an oval shape. 

The mochi is often wrapped in pickled cherry blossom leaves (Sakura leaf), which adds a subtle, salty flavor that complements the sweetness of the bean paste and mochi. The pink tint of the rice cake and the cherry blossom leaf symbolize the beauty of the cherry blossom flower, making Sakura Mochi a popular dessert during hanami, the tradition of enjoying the transient beauty of cherry blossoms in Japan.

If you are lucky to find fresh sakura leaves, it’s a great treat to make. However, you can also find salt-pickled sakura leaves year-round. I purchased some last year and saved them for the spring season.

What Makes This Recipe Great

This Sakura Mochi recipe is quite easy to make. They’re different from most mochi because you’re using some pieces of whole and broken rice, rather than glutinous rice flour. The broken rice adds texture and structure to the finished mochi.

There are a few ways to make this mochi, based on region. The Kanto region (eastern Japan) typically makes it with a smooth, pink-colored mochi wrapped around red bean paste (Kanto-style sakura mochi), while the Kansai region (western Japan) uses coarse glutinous rice flour and the mochi is wrapped with the bean paste inside. 

My grandma is from the Kansai region so this recipe uses the Kansai style. The primary difference is in the rice used to make the mochi. The Kansai-style sakura mochi is made with dōmyōji-ko, which is sweet glutinous broken rice.

It’s not the easiest to find, but you can easily make it. Simply pulse sweet glutinous rice in a food processor. My grandma uses the microwave method, which is honestly the easiest clean-up as well, but you can also steam your rice until it becomes glutinous and sticky.

Traditionally, drops of red food coloring are added to give the rice a nice pink color. Instead of food coloring, I use beet juice, which does an incredible job. I also added some sakura powder to the beet juice mix to infuse even more sakura flower flavor. I hope you enjoy this treat as much as I do! 

Ingredient Notes

You can find all of the main ingredients for this sakura mochi recipe at Asian grocery stores or Japanese supermarkets. 

• Glutinous broken rice. This is the key to stretchy, chewy mochi.
• Sugar. You can use regular granulated or coconut sugar.
• Smooth red bean paste. For the mochi filling. It’s made from azuki beans and you can make your own or buy it from the store or online. Also called anko paste. 
• Sakura leaves. Fresh or preserved both works.
• Sakura powder
• Beetroot juice. This adds a beautiful pink color and extra natural sweetness.
• Filtered water

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. First, begin by preparing your rice. Soak your rice overnight in cool water, making sure there’s ample water on top of the rice (so that all grains are covered).
2. Mix together water, beetroot juice, sakura powder, and cane sugar and set aside.
3. Soak your sakura leaves in warm water and let sit while you work on the rice.
4. Drain the rice and remove all excess water then transfer to a food processor. Pulse a few times to break down, but avoid pulsing too much. You want coarse, broken rice, but not flour.
5. Add the broken rice to a large, microwave-safe bowl and add your beetroot water mixture to the bowl. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and microwave for 2 minutes. Mix with a spatula, cover, and microwave for another 2 minutes. The cooked rice should be nice and sticky, and you should be able to pull it away from the sides of the bowl with the spatula.
6. Divide the rice into 4-5 equal parts and using damp hands, roll each piece into balls. Cover with a damp towel when not in use.
7. To assemble, grab one portion of mochi rice, flatten it into a large circle in your hands, and scoop about a tablespoon of red bean paste into the center. Fold edges around the center and tightly press so that no red bean paste escapes.
8. Take a sakura leaf, pat dry, and wrap your mochi with the veins and stem facing outwards.
9. Repeat until all of the rice has been used! Let the mochi sit for about 10-15 minutes to absorb the sakura leaf flavor and enjoy.

Secrets to Success

• I like to fill sakura mochi with sweet and nutty red bean paste. However, you can use a different filling if you like. Try sweet white bean filling or even peanut butter. The choice is yours!
• Though these mochi get most of their flavor from the sakura leaves, you don’t actually eat the leaves. The flavor seeps into the mochi.

Shaping Red Bean Mochi

Shaping and filing these mochi can be quite tricky. Often to make things a bit easier, people use plastic wrap. But I find that if you keep your hands wet, it’s actually quite easy to work.

The signature look is to wrap your mochi balls with a sakura leaf, vein side up, however, you can also add a fresh sakura blossom on top and skip the sakura leaf.

It’s usually a good idea to let the mochi sit and absorb the leaf flavor for some time before serving.

Serving & Storage Tips

These cute leaf-wrapped mochi are best served fresh. Mochi doesn’t do very well when refrigerated, but if you’re making the mochi ahead of time, you can freeze or refrigerate and then revive it by microwaving.

Recipe FAQs

More Japanese Dessert Recipes

• Kinako Rice Krispies with Peanuts and Mochi
• Matcha Butter Mochi Cake
• Kashiwa Mochi (Japanese Rice Cake with Oak Leaf)

If you make this recipe, be sure to let me know what you think with a star rating and comment below! Follow me on Instagram for more delicious recipes!