Homemade Mochi, only 5 Minutes!

I stopped by Uwajimaya the other day and had to get some ingredients to make some Mochi with Kinako powder (soy bean powder...taste like light peanut powder). I've never made it from scratch before. For some reason I had it in my head that it's difficult to make, since I've always believed that Japanese treats is an art form itself, which it is....But I found that just making mochi is actually really simple! So simple that I made a bunch in only 5 minutes! I'm not kidding!
I found this mochi recipe where you just mix 1 part water, 1 part rice flour (Mochiko), and 1/4 cup sugar. Mix it up and heat it up in the microwave for 4 minutes. I don't usually cook things in the microwave, but this turned out great! After heating it, let the mochi cool to the point where you can handle it, then roll it up and cover it in some kinako powder. Then I drizzled the top with a some sweetened soy paste (sugar + soy paste) and TA-DA! DONE!
It's also easy to change the flavor by adding some seaweed powder, or maccha powder into the mix if you like them.
Next time I'm going to challenge myself to wrap some red bean paste in the mochi and even possibly some cute mochi rabbits, too!
Jean