Hawaiian Butter Mochi (Mo Buttah’ Mo Bettah’)
Right before the pandemic hit we capped off a year of traveling by going to Maui. A celebration for the hubster’s birthday and his early retirement was our excuse to pack our bags and head out for some sun, fun, and food. Little did we know it would be our last trip for quite a while.
Hawaiian Delights
I am a sucker for Hawaiian food. A fusion of Native, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese, Korean and all of it tweaked so it taste great and is easy to eat while sitting on a beach! Our bucket list of food included Spam Musubi, a hunk of rice topped with a fried slice of SPAM and wrapped in seaweed, Poke’ (seasoned raw fish in a bowl with rice), island style bbq, Huli, Huli Chicken. YUM.
Then there are the sweets, Malasadas (best damn donuts), Haupia (coconut jello) and my favorite, Butter Mochi. Hawaiian Butter Mochi is the island’s answer to Blondies or Brownies but better (I know, them is fighting words). Buttery, gooey, sweet and so satisfying. Like our Spam Musubi quest, we went out of our way to find all things mochi.
This isn’t my first mochi rodeo, I posted a Butter Mochi Muffin recipe a while back that peeps really like (so says Google analytics, lol). Since then it has been off to the “rices” trying recipes with Koda Farms Sweet Rice (glutinous rice flour). Mochi now merits its own category in my recipe index. These muffins started it all, dense, chewy, with a touch of familiar cakiness, and the perfect amount of sugar. They are a great introduction to mochi-based desserts. BONUS: Mochi is gluten-free!
Mochi Mania-Island Style
Hawaiian Butter Mochi takes mochi back closer to its Japanese roots, lighter, springier, and less cakey. The recipe calls for coconut milk and regular milk. The regular milk and less mochi flour are the “denseness” buster and gives the mochi its characteristic texture. Butter adds flavor. It is usually baked in a pan and then cut into squares but I decided to bake them in muffin tins. All for the edges folks. Each person ends up with their own gooeylicious mini-cake highlighted by a crispy, buttery edge, and finished with toasty shredded coconut and a sprinkle of Fleur de Sel, soooooo yummy.
Inspired by Aloha Kitchen and the website Catherine Zhang, these Butter Mochi Mini-Cakes are onolicious. I hope you will try them!
The two key ingredients you can find at most Asian stores, sweet rice flour and coconut milk. My go-to brands are Koda Farms Mochiko and Chaokoh or Arroy-D for coconut milk.
The batter will be very pourable due to the use of milk as part of the liquid and less mochi flour.
Don’t be afraid to fill the cups to 7/8. The mini-cakes will puff up but will fall as they are cooling. You will end up with a flat top or sometimes even a slight depression, it’s all good.
Enjoy!
Hawaiian Butter Mochi Muffins
Ingredients
Da Wet Stuff
- 1/4 cup Unsalted butter 55gm
- 3/4 cup Coconut milk 170gm
- 1 cup Whole milk 240gm
- 2 Eggs
Da Dry Stuff
- 1 3/4 cup Glutinous rice flour 225gm
- 1 cup Granulated sugar 200gm
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- Flaked or shredded coconut for garnish, preferably unsweetened but use what you like
Prep Yo Pan
- Butter
- Rice flour optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
- Generously grease 12-cup muffin tin with butter and dust with rice flour, if you don't have rice flour, skip it. The flour does help the batter rise in the pan and getting crispy edges.
- 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. I like whole milk but you can use 2% milk or alternative milk like oat milk.
- 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
- Pour the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups
- Sprinkle with coconut and bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown
- Remove and cool. Muffins will keep for a couple of days on the counter. Pop them in a toaster oven to re-crisp edges. They also freeze pretty well.
4 Replies to “Hawaiian Butter Mochi (Mo Buttah’ Mo Bettah’)”
Hi! It looks like this recipe card is the same as your Muffins de Mochi con Misugaru post. Should I just omit the misugaru for the Hawaiian butter mochi version?
Yikes! somehow the original recipe for Hawaiian Butter Mochi got replaced in this post. I have fixed the post for the correct recipe. But you are correct, recipes are very similar!
This was so yummy that I made it 3x in one week! So easy, and foolproof.
Yay! Thank you!