Japanese Water Cake - Mizu Shingen Mochi

So any ideas as to what the heck is going on here: http://www.odditycentral.com/foods/this-japanese-water-cake-looks-and-tastes-unlike-any-sweet-youve-tried-before.html

They say it's made with specially sourced water from the southern japanese alps which I'm guessing means that it's likely naturally high in calcium and they're utilizing some sort of spherification here but it says that it will only last 30 minutes at room temp before it dissolves into a puddle so that's the part that's throwing me off.

Any ideas?

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Christopher_Roberson_28019

I was thinking spherification as well but not a calcium bath, maybe methyl cellulose? Another problem is that none of the pictures are showing what happens when the cake is cut. Seeing the inner texture would help to determine what the hydrocolloide is.

Brendan_Lee_56950

The descriptions say that it basically turns into a puddle of water when punctured, you are supposed to eat them whole I think, and they say it kind of dissolves into a mouthful of flavored water.

Christopher_Roberson_28019

missed that... well that would make me lean into the methyl cellulose its the only hot setting gelling agent that i can think of that returns to a liquid at room temperature. please let me know what you find.

Brendan_Lee_56950

That very well could be how we could mimic it, but knowing Japanese culture, I'm guessing they are using something more native to their country but I could be wrong. Seems like it was introduced last summer so it could very well be a more modern technique they're using. The fact that they're emphasizing the japanese alps water is what throws me though.

David_C_78141

This is pretty cool! I looked googled around apparently it is made out of Agar. It looks like it is jelled through out, instead of a bursting bubble.

http://www.boredpanda.com/japan-water-drop-cake-mizu-shingen-moshi/

Brendan_Lee_56950

Interesting, I didn't see any other article mention the consistency being gelled all the way through, makes much more sense now.

David_C_78141

Does anyone have an idea of how to form the shape of the shingen mochi? The first thing that comes to mind would be to use a mold, but it could break when popping it out. Another idea would be to drop the gel mixture into a cold water or oil bath. However this seems hard to produce consistent shapes.

Pepijn_31744

what about a flexible silicone mold, at $7 there's hardly a reason not to buy them. Or if you don't need them to be completely round, you could use this mold

Pepijn_31744

Still not sure why it should melt though. Gelling it with agar wouldn't cause that. Anybody have any ideas? Or is the article mistaken? Can't imagine they would mistake syneresis with melting?

From Davids article:

"You better be quick eating it, however, because it melts away like ice and dissolves into sweet water after 30 minutes."

Brendan_Lee_56950

That's what I read at first but then the other article posted says you cut into it like a gel and it doesn't disappear like a sphere would so I'm guessing it's a pretty weak gel.

David_C_78141

When reading the article, I was thinking they just confused melting with syneresis. Most likely, it gives the impression that it is melting. And if it is as good as it looks, it would be eaten before it melts completely.

Would you make a weak gel by just using less agar? Will reducing the amount of agar lowing the melting point? That is what I am trying to grasp right now.

Sami_5203

I wonder if it's made with rice or with bracken fern root starch (warabimochi). The recipe for tezukuri warabimochi, linked below, describes a mochi-like sweet which cooks up absolutely transparent and which is cooled in ice water.

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1234239

A different warabimochi sweet is shown in the link below, "Izu Yamato warabi mochi". The shape is very like the mizu shingen mochi pictures and the ingredient list includes warabimochi and an unspecified polysaccharide gelling agent.

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/mase/item/warabi-wasanbon-01/

I like the agar theory advanced above, because of the melting/gelling temperature hysteresis of agar. Something that "melts in the mouth" but stays gelled for 30 minutes at room temperature probably has a melting temperature between 27 and 34 °C. However, I suspect the real gelling agent is something more specialized: for example, the low-melting agarose used to make soft agar media in biotech and cancer research labs. Typical concentrations for the soft layer are 0.35 to 0.6% agarose. This amount might not be quite appropriate for the dessert, as the presence of sugar (regular or wasanbon type) and flavorings could alter the gel's melting point.

Check out the link below:

http://www.scientistsolutions.com/science-members.aspx?ssipg=Search&id=2b5355e9-5697-4561-bb0f-937ff0ca8831

The scientist who posted that help request might be

making cell-culture-grade mizu shingen mochi without knowing it! (Read 4oC as 4

°C, or just a bit higher than refrigerator temperature; s/he is using

0.6% of a specific brand of agarose)

dr.kiuchi

You can see a recipe here: http://cookpad.com/recipe/2682949. Although in Japanese, you can use google translate or wwwjdic.

Robin_Utley_151659

this page has a video of it being made and the recipe. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=757546420999194&id=268804973206677&_rdr

Hope_64513

Does anyone know how long to boil this for? I have tried this recipe twice now and it turns into a solid hard ball. Has this worked for anyone? Suggestions appreciated!! Thanks