Soft, sweet and chewy mochi with a crisp exterior. These Hawaiian butter mochi cupcakes are the perfect combination of textures for a glutinous rice treat!
Butter mochi is one of my recent addictions and if you haven't heard of it you are missing out! I discovered butter mochi last year as I was scrolling through the many desserts of my instagram feed. I have always been a fan of anything made from glutinous rice, and so I noted to myself that I needed to give it a go. Fast forward to a few months later and I am a butter mochi addict. SPECIFICALLY to the edge pieces 😂
Background
Traditionally butter mochi is baked as large slabs and then cut into smaller pieces. I don't have anything against the soft and chewy centre pieces, but the slight crispiness and extra caramelisation of the edge and corner pieces make me weak.
Now here's the question. Why not make them ALL the edge pieces? Baking these as cupcakes increases their exposed surface area, making them crispy all around while still retaining the soft chewy centre. I even went as far as buttering a dusting the tins with rice flour to up the crunch and create an even crisper exterior. I am in love 😍
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does butter mochi last?
Butter mochi can last for up to three days left at room temperature. A week in the fridge, or if frozen up to a month. If you freeze the butter mochi to consume simply take them out and put them in the microwave for a minute to defrost.
Can you leave butter mochi out at room temperature?
Yes! You can leave it at room temperature for up to three days.
What is the difference between butter mochi and Japanese mochi?
Butter mochi originates from Hawaii and although it may have a similar texture to Japanese mochi, Korean chapssaltteok and Chinese nian gao it is completely different. The latter three Asian rice cakes are made from glutinous rice flour, however they are made from pounding steamed glutinous rice into a paste. Butter mochi takes is made by baking butter, egg, coconut milk and glutinous rice flour in a large slab. This creates a mochi with varying textures with a crisp exterior and a soft interior
Can I use glutinous rice flour instead of mochiko?
Yes! Mochiko is a Japanese variety of glutinous rice flour made from glutinous Japanese short-grain rice. On the other hand the glutinous rice flour commonly found in Asian grocery stores is made from glutinous Thai long-grain rice. These are very similar, but differ a little in terms of water absorbtion, etc. For the average home baker the difference will barely be noticeable and they both produce absolutely delicious butter mochi!
Tips
When I was creating this version I wanted to maximise the crisp and golden exterior while keeping the soft and chewy interior.
Greasing and flouring the tin
Due to the nature of glutinous rice flour it is easy for them to stick to the sides of the tin. Make sure to fully butter and flour your moulds
Using rice flour or semolina flour will help increase the crispiness of the exterior due to their coarse texture. However, if you do not have either on hand plain flour works fine too!
Careful mixing of batter
It is important to whisk the mixture well, but also to do so carefully in order to minimise air bubbles. Air bubbles in your batter can bake up to create large air pockets in your mochi.
If you do happen to create lots of air bubbles give your cupcake tray a couple of firm taps before placing it in the oven. This will pop the large air pockets.
No lumps in batter
When mixing the batter ensure there are no lumps of glutinous rice flour remaining
If you see that the batter is a little lumpy, but you have already whisked a lot, pour the batter through a fine mesh sieve. This will remove large chunks.
Filling the tray
These will rise a little, but not much compared to baking cupcakes or muffins. When filling the tray you can fill it close to the top with no problems, and you will have a beautiful cupcake with tall sides.
Let's Get Baking!
I've created a video and uploaded it to my Youtube Channel Catty Cakes to help you guys visually through the process, and so you can watch that dreamy mochi pull.
I can't wait for you to try these, I've been obsessed and I hope you'll all like my version of butter mochi. If you make these make sure to tag me on instagram @catherine.justdessertsau and hashtag #cattycakes so I can find and share your recipes! Until next time... happy baking!
Print📖 Recipe
Butter Mochi Cupcakes
Soft, sweet and chewy mochi with a crisp exterior. These Hawaiian butter mochi cupcakes are the perfect combination of textures for a glutinous rice treat!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Mochi
- Method: Easy
- Cuisine: Hawaiian
Ingredients
- 55 g Unsalted butter (¼ cup)
- 170 g Coconut milk (¾ cup)
- 240 g Whole milk (1 cup)
- 2 Eggs
- 225 g Glutinous rice flour (1 ¾ cup)
- 200 g Granulated sugar (1 cup)
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- Butter
- Rice flour/Semolina flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/365F
- Brush the cupcake tins with butter and dust with rice flour/semolina
- In a large, microwave safe bowl combine the coconut milk and butter, heat in the microwave for 1 minute
- Add the milk and 2 eggs, whisk until combined
- In a medium sized bowl combine the glutinous rice flour, sugar and baking powder
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth
- Distribute the batter evenly between 12 holes of a cupcake tin
- Top with desiccated coconut and bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown
- Remove and cool
Related Recipes
How many calories is 1 piece?
Should be about 75 🙂
Wow, a lot lower than I expected!
Do you use regular rice flour to prep the tins or is that also glutinous rice flour? And does it make a difference replacing the coconut milk with almond milk, or even more whole milk? Thanks!
Hi Kiran, I use regular rice flour to prep the tins, if you have semolina flour that works too. If replacing the coconut milk with other milks there will definitely be a change the texture of the mochi as they all have different levels of fat. I definitely recommend using coconut milk if possible. Hope it all goes well 😊
Just made these yesterday they're soooo good. Adding in brown sugar to the bottom and a big pinch of salt to see how that changes things up next time!
Hi Liz, ooo that sounds like it would be incredible! I'll have to try it too 🤤
My favourite butter mochi recipe. Love the crispy chewy texture!
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Hi Catherine, can I prep the batter and store overnight in the fridge to bake the next day? Can I use a mini tart or Madeleine tin instead of a cupcake tin? Thank you (^:
Hi Carmen, Yes of course. There shouldn't be any problems!
Can you bake the straight from the fridge or does it need to get to room temperature first?
Hi Ashley, you can bake them straight out of the fridge, but it'll take a little longer to bake (just a couple of minutes). Hope that helps!
Amazing taste.
Just for anyone wondering:
1st attempt: Only regular milk, no coconut milk, no coconut on top, baking spray for the tin instead of butter. No, no, no. Too oily and not crunchy, but the taste was ok.
2nd attempt: Exactly as the recipe says but instead of semolina for the tin, I used regular flour. The result was extremely different, very very good.
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Hi Dimosthenis, Thanks for stopping by again! So glad they worked out in the end with coconut milk, and thank you so much for sharing your experience with normal milk too. I'm sure some people would have been wondering 😊
I bake alot and LOVE Mochi! Although, I have never made butter mochi, I thought the recipe could use some salt and flavoring...I made the batter just as you suggested but added a teaspoon of kosher salt, a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste and 1/4 tsp. Almond emulsion.
They are delicious!! Just a small suggestion would be to add dessicated coconut to the ingred list as I had read the recipe through before starting to get the method (when I saw in the notes @ the dess coconut). Im becoming forgetful..lol but I always check the ingred list before anything goes in the oven. No biggie, I switched out some shredded coconut on top for the last 10 mins and it's toasty and delish ❤
Thanks so much for the recipe! I look forward to trying more...
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Hi Liz, So glad you liked the recipe. A little vanilla and almond in these sounds delicious! Thanks for the suggestion, will add it in. Anything to make the recipe easier to understand! 🙂
These were excellent! I ran out of granulated sugar, so I used superfine sugar instead. I was able to get 12 cupcakes plus 10 mini cupcakes out of this recipe. Took longer than 45 min, though more like an 1 1/2 hr. I was worried about the browning on top, so I lowered the temp to 350. I topped the batter with a mixture of desiccated coconut and turbinado sugar - created a nice crusting. Thanks, for sharing your recipe!
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Hi Gina, So glad they worked out! 🙂
A friend of my mother’s made something similar but she put sliced almonds on top and they were sugary and toasted. Could I top these with almonds instead of coconut? I never did find out what it was she made and your recipe sounds the closest to it.
Yes definitely! Almonds would be delicious on top of these
Just made these but with a couple substitutions,
Didn't have any milks on hand other than the can of coconut so I just used the whole can and added a bit of water to make it equivalent to recipe amount. Used half white sugar and half brown sugar. Dusted pan with regular flour (semolina would've been great if I had any).
It came out slightly crispy on the browned edges with soft chewy centers. Loved it!
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Sounds amazing!
LITERALLY THE BEST! All the crispy edges and chewiness inside! Thank you for an amazing recipe!
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Thanks Joey! So happy you loved them 🥰
Hi Catherine! 😉
I tried your butter mochi cupcake recipe but had encounter some problem. When I baked the mochi cupcakes, I noticed there were lots of bubbles around the cupcakes...it's like they were drenched in butter...and when they came out from the oven, the bottom of the cupcakes were wet...not crunchy 🙁 Do you know what I did wrong? Thank you!
Hi Clare, thanks for your comment! You can reduce the number of bubbles by whisking the batter less vigourously, however, it shouldn't have a large impact on how they turn out. If you grease your tins and dust the cavities with rice flour it'll help give the bottoms a crunchier texture. Hope that helps!
Hi Catherine! 🙂
thanks for your reply! About the bubbling..it's not like there are air bubbles in the cupcake, it's more like the mochi cupcakes are baking in a pool of butter. I hope you get what I mean..i'm really bad at describing things 🙁
Thanks again!
oh! also, the mochi cupcakes came out very oily. The bottom were wet with butter (need to blot them with kitchen towel) hope these details can help with the troubleshooting! thank you very muchh!
Haven't tried these yet but of all the ones I've seen it's the one I will try.
I am thinking of putting a small amount of ube jam in the center.
What do you think?
That sounds absolutely delicious! Hope it turned out well 🙂
Hi...would the outcome change if the coconut milk is not heated up with the butter?
There shouldn't be any big problems as long as the butter and the coconut cream solids in the coconut milk have melted! 🙂
Is it possible to substitute oat milk for regular milk?
Hi Wendy, I haven't tried it before, but don't see why not!
Hi what kind of glutinous flour do you use? Is it the Mochiko (Japanese type) or the Chinese/ Thai type? How about the rice flour too? Thanks
I use the chinese/thai type as it is more readily available where I live, but both will work! As for the rice flour I use the regular kind you can find in supermarkets.
Made these over the weekend and they were SOOO good. Thanks for the great recipe!
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YAY!! No problem 🙂
How much butter do i need? The ingredients says butter.
Hi Janice, you don't need much, just enough to grease your cupcake tin!
Recipe was easy to follow and turned out in the 1st try. Baking time was 30 mins, I had it on fan bake. Thanks for sharing the recipe 🙌
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yay!! 🥳🥳
Yay! 🥳
Did you use coconut milk from a carton or a can?
I like to use coconut milk from the carton as I find it has a better consistency, but both work!
delicious recipe and easy to follow! I love mine chewy, so I baked mine for 15 mins extra.
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sounds delicious!
These were sooooo good! I followed the recipe exactly except used evaporated milk instead of the whole and added a tsp. of cardamom. They were so buttery and crispy on the outside and so gooey and chewy inside. I was thinking to make 24 smaller ones instead of 12 just to increase the ratio of crispness. Would I decrease the baking time for smaller ones? Thanks for the delicious recipe!
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Omg! Cardamom sounds absolutely delicious. Yes definitely decrease the bake time by half, then check every 5 minutes until they are cooked through and ready.