11 Mar, 2008
White Day Chizukeki Chichi Dango! Make the Lady In Your Life Cheesecake Treats for a Japanese Holiday!
Posted by: Rachel In: Japanese Culture| Japanese Recipes
It’s coming soon! White Day is this Friday! It’s our day ladies! Our day to rake in the goodies after we forked ‘em over on Valentine’s Day!
Valentine’s Day in Japan, to those who are unfamiliar, is a day when women give men chocolate (choco) and don’t get diddly in return. That’s right, nadda. Women even have to go so far as to give choco to men they might not even like. Isn’t that a shame? Well, a candy marketer came up with the concept of White Day to correct this injustice.
White Day, which falls on March 14th, is the day men return the favor of candy giving, and pony up the treats to the women who gave them chocolate the month before. Originally, marshmallows were given on White Day, hence why it was dubbed White Day. I think that’s uber weak, and so did the ladies who eventually received white and/or milk chocolate and other goodies instead of marshmallows.
So you gents who were showered with choco last month need to get some treats handy for this Friday. For those who didn’t get showered with choco, no problem, show that special gal in you’re life there’s no hard feelings by making her some white chocolate chip cookies or better yet, by making her some Chizukeki Chichi Dango.
Chizukeki Chichi Dango is an easy chichi dango with the rich taste of cheesecake. Tell her your feelings for her are as pure as the white mochiko this treat is made from!
Chizukeki Chichi Dango
- 1 3/4 cups mochiko
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 1/2 Tbls lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup water
- potato or cornstarch for dusting
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil enough water to fill a shallow baking pan.
Whisk together the mochiko, sugar and baking powder. Set aside.
Cream the cream cheese, lemon juice, vanilla and water with a hand held mixer on high. Add the mochiko mixture to the cream cheese mixture and mix on high.
Pour the mochi batter into a greased 9×13 pan. Cover the top of the pan with aluminum foil. Place the pan in a shallow baking pan and place the baking pan in the preheated oven. Pour the boiling water into the baking pan till it’s full. Cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Let the chichi dango cool completely then turn it onto a starch dusted cutting board. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out hearts. Dust the hearts with starch and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. Heat briefly before serving, if desired, for a softer texture.
Makes 12, 2 inch Hearts
Difficulty: Easy | Time: 1 hour 30 minutes | Ingredient Availability: Moderate
