Matcha Butter Mochi (Mochi Cake)

Soft and chewy matcha flavoured butter mochi baked with coconut milk for a creamy, buttery and delicious chewy treat

What is butter mochi?

Butter mochi is a delicious, sweet and chewy treat that originated in Hawaii. A fusion between Hawaii and Japan cultures this dessert came to be as many Japanese immigrated to Hawaii during the 1880s, bringing with them their food and culture. As a result, some delicious treats like this have now become a local treat!

Made from a mixture of butter, coconut milk, milk, eggs, and glutinous rice flour, this mochi is baked, rather than the traditional Japanese style which is steamed and pounded. The result is an incredibly fragrant and flavourful mochi with a soft interior and crisp exterior.

This version takes the traditional Hawaiian butter mochi a step further and adds a touch of matcha, aka green tea powder, for an earthy flavour that works with coconut for a unique bittersweet treat!

How to make the best butter mochi

Butter mochi is such an easy recipe that is perfect when you need a treat for a potluck or bake sale! All you need to do is whisk everything together and bake it up. That being said there are a couple of tips that can help you bring these to a whole other level.

Grease your pan with butter and dust with rice flour

One of my favourite parts of this treat are the edge pieces because they get the best of both worlds, a crisp and crunchy edge in combination with the soft and chewy mochi. Greasing the pan not only helps the butter unmould easily, it also increases the crispiness of the edge for the best texture.

Sift the matcha powder

Matcha powder has the tendency to clump up as it absorbs moisture from its surroundings. In order to prevent the batter from becoming speckled with clumps of matcha powder remember to sift the matcha powder. This will break it up and give you a smooth batter with an even green colour.

Whisk well

As this batter is made from glutinous rice flour rather than regular flour you don’t need to worry about over-whisking the batter. You want to make sure the batter is as smooth as possible so that the mochi doesn’t bake up with tough pockets of glutinous rice flour, so whisk well!

Don’t overbake

The mochi’s texture is dependent on the moisture levels in the mochi. That means that the more you bake the mochi past, the tougher it will get. Keep a close eye on them and once a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs it’s ready!

Customising this recipe

Original butter mochi

This recipe is super versatile and you can switch it up to your liking. If you’re looking for a more traditional butter mochi feel free to leave out the matcha powder, it’ll bake up to a perfect coconut flavoured treat. You can even replace the whole milk with coconut milk for an even more coconut forward flavour.

Extra coconut texture

A lot of people like to mix desiccated coconut into the batter to change up the texture. For this amount of batter, I like to mix in about 3/4 cup of desiccated coconut just before I pour it into the baking tray.

Chocolate

For a unique chocolate-flavored butter mochi replace the matcha powder with cocoa powder and stir in some chocolate chips before baking. You might think this is strange, but once you try the combination you’ll be hooked.

Ingredients

Unsalted butter

An essential ingredient in ‘butter’ mochi. The butter gives the mochi their signature texture and buttery fragrance.

Coconut milk

Coconut milk is high in fat and perfect for enhancing the smooth mochi texture. The texture won’t be as smooth and bouncy if you use a lite coconut milk, so make sure you are using a full fat coconut milk made with at least 95% coconut. You can check the coconut percentage on the can. Many coconut milks are made with high percentages of water, resulting in a lower quality coconut milk with less flavour so make sure you check!

Whole milk

Milk plays the same role as coconut milk, just without the coconut flavour. As we are making a matcha flavoured butter mochi we don’t want to coconut flavour to be too prominent, otherwise the matcha flavour will be masked.

Eggs

The eggs give the mochi body, without it the butter mochi would’t be able to to hold itself in its slab like form.

Matcha powder

Matcha powder is important if we are making a matcha butter mochi! Make sure you use a high-quality cooking grade matcha powder or ceremonial grade for a bright green colour. The lower the quality of matcha, the browner your final result will be.

Glutinous rice flour

Glutinous rice flour is what makes this mochi! If you have access to mochiko, aka Japanese short-grain glutinous rice flour, then use it, this will give you the most authentic texture. However, if you can’t find mochiko, regular glutinous rice flour works fine. The glutinous rice flour found in most Asian grocery stores is the Thai brand with green writing, this will work perfectly too!

Baking powder

Baking powder gives the mochi a little more air, rather than it baking up to a super dense block.

Butter, for greasing

Don’t skip the butter for greasing. Not only will it help the butter mochi come out of the pan, but it also helps to give the edges a delicious crust.

Rice flour, for dusting

Dusting the pan with rice flour will help enhance the crust. However, if you don’t have rice flour feel free to use regular flour, it’ll work just as well.

Matcha Butter Mochi (Mochi Cake)

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Soft and chewy matcha flavoured sweet mochi baked with coconut milk for a creamy, buttery and delicious chewy treat

• Author: Catherine Zhang
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 8 x 8 inch slab 1x
• Category: Mochi
• Method: Easy
• Cuisine: Hawaiian

Ingredients

Units MUS Scale 1x2x3x

• 80g Unsalted butter (1/3 cup), melted
• 255g Coconut milk (1 cup), room temperature
• 360g Whole milk (1 1/2 cups), room temperature
• 3 Eggs
• 2 tbsp Matcha powder
• 340g Glutinous rice flour ( 1 1/2 cups)
• 300g White sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
• Butter, for greasing
• Rice flour, for dusting
• Shredded coconut, for sprinkling

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and brush a 8 x 8 inch tray with melted butter, then dust with rice flour
2. Combine the melted butter, coconut milk, whole milk and eggs together in a large bowl
3. In another bowl combine the matcha powder, glutinous rice flour, sugar and baking powder, and whisk until well combined
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth
5. Sprinkle over the shredded coconut
6. Pour the batter into the greased tin and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until mochi is set and golden brown
7. Remove from the oven and cool for 1-2 hours before slicing with an oiled knife

Catherine Zhang

My name is Catherine, a food blogger and dessert lover. If I look familiar you may have seen me on NETFLIX's Zumbo’s Just Desserts S2! As an Australian-Chinese pastry chef and recipe developer I share recipes and tips on desserts inspired by amazing flavours, fresh produce and of course my Asian background.

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