Hi Lorraine, assuming you added enough rice to the molds to compress them, it sounds like the issue might be with the stickiness of your rice. What kind of rice are you using?

I purchased an Onigiri mold thinking that would press them together enough. I wet the mold before I put the rice in and they fell apart trying to shake them out. Either the water in the mold or maybe my rice was too wet. At any rate, I ended up with scrambled, crunchy rice. Quite delicious, but not the crispy outside, fluffy inside I was hoping for.

Any hints on how I might improve? I am determined to make some that look close to yours!

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed this! Good call on the rice, those are two of my favorites. To reduce the pan failures, make sure the onigiri are squeezed together tightly enough (not something you want to do with normal onigiri, but it's important for yaki onigiri), and try to keep them from touching each other in the pan (which can cause them to start to unravel).

Totally friggin' awesome--plain or stuffed (not too much or they can get loose). Better tasting than the traditional method I find due to contact with the pan and Maillard effect. I splurge and use Koshihikari, Akitakomachi, etc. and the investment is worth it both in flavor and in handling. Had about 3 pan failures out of 12 small ones, so there's learning curve, but I'm just about there. Good news is that the failures are equally delicious. Thanks Marc!

Hi Antonia, what a great idea! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed them!

Thanks Julie I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm happy to help you troubleshoot for the next time if you had some specific areas you ran into trouble?