Daifuku is a Japanese delicacy made from stuffed sweet mochi. Add a twist to this traditional Japanese dessert by adding Nutella and vanilla bean paste! It’s the perfect mochi treat for Neapolitan ice cream lovers.

Happy New Year from Mochi Mommy! Last year was a year of finally getting back out in the world and trying new things… with two little kids in tow. We traveled a little, tried swim lessons and ballet classes for the four year old, and ate a loooot of mochi. Needless to say it was kind of a busy time. By the end of this year, we’ll have a kindergartener! Eek! I’m not ready!

But anyway, I thought I’d start the new year off right with another mochi recipe: this time it’s strawberry nutella daifuku with a vanilla bean mochi dough!

What is Daifuku Mochi?

Daifuku is a Japanese mochi dessert. It consists of a sweet mochi dough, called gyuhi, that’s wrapped around a bean paste filling, forming a little ball. It’s common for daifuku to also have a strawberry in the middle of the bean paste.

In modern mochi shops and shops that specialize in regional treats around Japan, you can also find a variety of different types of daifuku. Daifuku with different fruit fillings are also super popular in Hawai’i!

For more information about daifuku and other types of mochi foods, check out my Ultimate Guide to Mochi post!

Making Vanilla Bean Mochi Dough (Gyuhi)

This strawberry nutella daifuku is really similar to my other daifuku recipes. The only difference is that I have added more water to this mochi dough.

Why?

The more water you add, the softer and floppier your mochi layer gets. While texturally, this sounds great for eating (and squishing), the drawback is that the softer mochi has difficulty holding its shape. In other words, if your gyuhi is too soft, then you won’t get those nice round daifuku spheres. You’ll end up with blobby, lumpy hockey pucks.

However, I use a softer mochi in this recipe because of the Nutella. Unlike working with bean paste, Nutella is much stickier and messier. Instead of trying to wrap a strawberry in Nutella, I decide to spread Nutella onto the mochi itself. This means I need to have a nice, flat, looser mochi layer for spreading.

Alternatively, you could go with the dollop and slice method for daifuku. Instead of a whole strawberry with a Nutella layer around it, you can do a dollop of Nutella with a slice of strawberry on top. Up to you! I just went with whatever I thought was the least messy and most easy daifuku assembly.

Ingredients for Vanilla Bean Mochi

So, strawberry and Nutella are pretty easy to find. Let’s talk about the ingredients for the mochi layer.

As usual, I make my gyuhi (mochi dough) with shiratamako, which is a glutinous rice flour. Alternatively you can use mochiko, but shiratamako results in a softer dough. Both can be found at Japanese markets and on Amazon!

For the vanilla bean flavoring, I used a vanilla bean paste I found at Trader Joe’s! It is a seasonal item, so it’s not available year round. But you can find vanilla bean paste at typical grocery stores or on Amazon as well. Of course, you COULD use an actual vanilla bean pod scraped into your mochi, but vanilla beans are SO expensive. I didn’t feel like it was worth it to use on such a small batch of sweets. The paste goes a longer way but still gives you that fun vanilla bean spackle and flavor.

Lastly, use Japanese potato starch (or katakuriko) for dusting and preventing the mochi from sticking. You can substitute corn starch, but I much prefer the flavor of katakuriko. Plus, you can use it in recipes like my air fryer karaage!

More Daifuku Recipes

If you enjoyed this recipe, check out my other fun daifuku:

And let me know what other kinds of recipes you’d like to see this year! Happy New Year!