NEW YORK, July 1 ― Sometimes the pleasures of food aren’t packed in remarkable tastes, but in textures. And when it comes to mochi, the Japanese rice dough, much of its appeal can be attributed to a glorious bounce or a gelatinous squish or a comforting kind of gloop.

One of the most popular ways to eat mochi is in the sweet packages known as daifuku: The dough is stretched around a filling of red bean paste, or creams in flavours like green tea, chocolate or strawberries.

This dumpling-like sweet is one of many Japanese confections developed over hundreds of years that transform rice and beans into exquisite little mouthfuls, traditionally to accompany tea.

It’s easy to grab plastic-wrapped daifuku at Japanese grocery stores in New York, and to spot boxes of mochi ice cream in supermarket freezer aisles. (Frozen mochi have the same basic structure as daifuku, but swap out the fillings for scoops of ice cream, like dairy-free coconut or chocolate-mint chip.)

Tomoko Kato stirs mochi dough mixture at Patisserie Tomoko in New York.

Fresh handmade mochi is harder to find, but Tomoko Kato cooks a batch three times a week at Patisserie Tomoko in Brooklyn. And a visit to her kitchen showed that despite the confection’s pedigree, sweet mochi dough can be simple to make, with just three ingredients that come together in minutes.

The payoff is rich: Kato serves big, tender daifuku that are almost slippery, with dough as smooth and soft to the touch as a kitten’s paw pad.

Kato, 38, was born in Hokkaido, Japan, and has worked as a pastry chef in French and Japanese restaurants. She has been making mochi for a decade, ever since a customer requested that she serve more traditional Japanese sweets.

Kato went down a rabbit hole, reading books about mochi varieties and techniques, and testing ratios of flour to sugar, along with many brands of rice flours, until she found her own style of dough.

Street vendors in Japan can be seen using long wooden mallets to make mochi dough, sometimes taking turns smashing the rice like two blacksmiths across an anvil, doubling their power and speed. For sweet mochi, specialty rice flours can provide a shortcut and require way less muscle.

Behind the counter at her shop, with her hair tucked behind a brightly coloured bandanna, Kato measured out sugar, water and shiratamako flour, which she likes for the smooth, elastic quality it lends the finished dough. Mochiko flour, more commonly available (and sometimes called sweet rice flour or glutinous rice flour), will also get the job done.

After Kato whisked the gritty-looking shiratamako with water, the tiny pellets dissolved completely. She poured the slurry through a strainer just in case, then added the sugar.

Tomoko Kato stretches mochi dough around a dollop of red bean paste filling to make daifuku, at Patisserie Tomoko in New York.

This basic mixture could be steamed in a double boiler, or even blasted for a few minutes in the microwave. But Kato stirred the ghostly white liquid in a pan on the stove until it thickened, first into a sticky, lumpy paste, and then into a heavier, tighter mass. It was nearly there.

She slapped the smooth dough around the pan with a wooden spoon to discourage catching and browning, and to allow some excess water to evaporate. The dough was finished in just 5 or 6 minutes, when it became very shiny. Kato coaxed the blob out onto a generous dusting of potato starch, which prevents the dough from sticking but doesn’t alter the flavour.

After it cooled a bit, Kato folded pieces of the dough around fillings: anko, a traditional red bean paste made from adzuki beans and sugar; and a chocolate ganache that Kato had infused with just enough Earl Grey tea to give it a delicate whiff of bergamot. (Making anko from scratch takes some time, but the filling is available ready-made, in cans. For those who want to use it, Kato suggests popping it into a pan to dry it out a little first.)

The mochi dough hardened as it cooled, but not much: It was still comically sticky. Home cooks can use a rolling pin, a lot of potato starch and a positive attitude to get the dough around fillings. Kato used her fingers, holding the dough in the air and spreading it across the bean paste so evenly that it was nearly translucent.

Shaping neat, symmetrical daifuku is the trickiest part of the process to master, but the beginner can easily repair holes, or pinch off excess dough and hide a seam on the bottom. Ugly daifuku are still delicious and a joy to eat, the mochi yielding so easily that it feels as if it wants to be consumed.

But the fresh dough deteriorates quickly, turning dry and stiff within just two days, and losing its lovely tender chewiness. Mochi enthusiasts know how to deal with this setback: Eat it all as soon as you can.

Mochi ice cream has started to give the dough a much higher profile in the United States. Mikawaya, based in Los Angeles, started selling the product locally in the early 1990s, and pushed it into major supermarket chains. By 2014, Trader Joe’s was advertising a fully Americanized pumpkin pie mochi ice cream, just in time for Thanksgiving.

"Mochi is right where the macaron was 10 years ago,” said Ken Gordon, who founded the New York mochi ice cream company Mochidoki.

At Patisserie Tomoko, Kato also serves fresh mochi with ice cream. She cuts the dough into small pieces and scatters these on a plate with smudges of creamy white bean paste. She scoops a grassy, barely sweet green-tea sorbet onto white chocolate ganache, and garnishes it with coin-size meringues that break easily, then strings syrupy, candied yuzu zest across it all.

It’s a fantastic clutter of textures. Sure, it tastes great, too, but that’s almost beside the point.

Daifuku with matcha, a green tea filling.

Sweet mochi with red bean filling

Yield: 20 pieces

Total time: About 3 hours

For the red bean paste filling (anko):

1 cup/200 grams dried azuki beans

3/4 cup/150 grams sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the mochi dough:

Potato starch, for dusting

1 cup/150 grams mochiko flour (also known as sweet rice flour or glutinous rice flour)

3/4 cup/150 grams sugar

1. Make the filling: Rinse the beans and transfer to a large pot. Cover the beans with water and bring to a boil; drain. Cover the beans again with water and this time simmer until they are completely tender, about an hour to an hour and a half, adding more water if necessary to keep the beans submerged. Drain.

2. Purée the drained beans in a food processor or blender to make a smooth paste. If the beans are too dry to catch the blades, add a few tablespoons of water. Return the bean purée to the same pot and stir in the sugar and salt. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until most of the water has evaporated and the purée is very thick, 10 to 15 minutes. Spread bean paste in a wide, shallow container and refrigerate until firm and cool.

3. Meanwhile, make the mochi dough: Line a sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper and spread a generous heap of potato starch in a large circle; set aside. In a bowl, whisk together the mochiko flour and 1 1/3 cup/300 milliliters water until smooth. Pour mixture through a mesh strainer into a saucepan, using the whisk to help push it through if necessary. Add the sugar and mix well. Switch to a heatproof spatula and cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens and comes together as one big, smooth, shiny mass that can hold its shape, 5 to 7 minutes.

4. Using a starch-dusted knife, cut the dough into 20 even pieces. (If eating plain, or as an ice cream topping, cut into 40 to 50 smaller pieces.) One at a time, use a rolling pin to roll a piece of mochi dough into a thick, flat disk about 2 inches by 2 inches. Use potato starch liberally to keep the dough from sticking to your work surface, the rolling pin or your fingers. Roll a scant tablespoon of bean paste between your hands to form a ball and place it in the center of the rolled-out dough piece. Use your fingers to evenly stretch the mochi dough up and around the filling without squishing it, pinching the dough shut at the top to seal it, and then gently rolling the mochi between your hands to form a rounded shape. Set on the parchment-lined baking sheet with the seam on the bottom. Eat the filled mochi the day they’re made, or cover and store in the refrigerator for 1 day. ― The New York Times