Baking Mochi!

Mochi is a delicious, chewy Japanese dessert.  It traditionally contains filling such as red bean paste, but in this Instructables, I will teach you how to make plain mochi, which is yummy as is!  Also, although mochi is normally steamed and then molded into balls while it's hot, I found a nice recipe for baking mochi, which I find to be easier--and less painful!  The mochi tastes just as good.

Step 1 Gathering Your Ingredients

To make mochi, you will need the following ingredients:

1 box Mochiko glutinous rice flour
1 + 3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 14oz can of coconut milk
Potato starch

You can find the Mochiko flour and potato starch at a Chinese or Japanese grocery store.  If you can't find the Mochiko brand, you can just buy a bag of glutinous rice flour.  

You will also need the following basic tools:

9x13 baking pan
Whisk
Measuring spoons (to measure in tsps)
Measuring cup
2 mixing bowls
Aluminum foil
Cutting board
Plastic wrap 
Cutting knife

You will need to use a pan that is exactly 9x13 (or very close to it) because changing the size of the pan changes the thickness of the mixture, thus changing the baking time.  I've tried using differently sized pans in the past, and it hasn't worked well.

This recipe makes a lot of mochi (around 35 servings).

Comments

[sherrycayheyhey]

I've been looking for an easy way to make mochi and this looks great!

I don't know how much you know about Japanese or Chinese baked goods but maybe you (or anyone else reading this) can help me find a recipe I've been looking for. I've had this dessert that I get from a bakery in Chinatown in Oakland, CA, and it's labeled as rice cake. It's mochi-like but has air pockets in it and is more gelatinous. The one I like the best is made with white sugar but there is also a brown sugar version that has less bubbles. Any idea what this is or a recipe for it?

[scientiffic]

Is it mochi bread? Mochi bread is crispy on the outside and has mochi filling inside.

[sherrycayheyhey]

I did an image search and though that does look delicious it is not it. I actually just searched rice cake again and an image came up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steamed_Rice_Cake.JPG, not sure why I wasn't able to find it before. After some more research I found a Philippine dish called 'puto' but it looks a little different than the kind I had. I'll keep searching but in the meantime hopefully I'll be able to try my hand at some baked mochi and mochi bread. 

[sanni104]

This comes a little late, but take a look at this video. Maybe that's similar to what your picture looks like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpuR6e3uwNY&feature=plcp

She has some other nice recipes as well! :)

[npknhdfrvr]

In Korea we have something like that but it's usually has added food colouring or teas/pumpkin/etc added for colouring and then it is steamed.

http://youtu.be/26e_NGOHo18
for recipe

[scientiffic]

I've never heard of a steamed rice cake, but it sounds interesting!

[The Rambler]

My wife and I often use coconut oil to grease pans. I wonder if that would work well in this application. Out of curiosity, when you use the potato starch, do you use the product for a reason? Because you might be able to use coconut flour for that. I've never made mochi, but I'm just figuring that if you use things like that they can contribute to the flavor instead of detracting or just remaining neutral.

[scientiffic]

I've seen recipes that use corn starch in place of potato starch. Actually, I just use potato starch because I've seen that most often in other recipes. I've never heard of coconut flour, but it does sound like something that would pair nicely with the mochi! If you try it, I'd love to hear how it goes.

[scoochmaroo]

This is really cool. Thanks for sharing!