Muffin been the Mochi that Caught My Eye (Butter Mochi Muffins)

Muffin been the Mochi that Caught My Eye (Butter Mochi Muffins)

Always searching for new and different treats, I came across an article that spotlighted Third Culture Bakery in Berkeley.  The baker is an alum of Cal (Go Bears) who chose food over toxicology (good choice) and thus Mochi Muffins made with sweet rice flour were put on the map.  Though I haven’t made it to Berkeley to try one, I found a couple of recipes online that sounded scrumptious, so it was off to the rices!  Update: I just posted a new mochi muffin recipe, Mango Mochi Muffins made with mango tea and freeze-dried mangos!  It’s small-batch baking, only 8 regular size delicious muffins.

My Sweet Rice, Oh My Rice

For the uninitiated, mochi (sweet rice flour) is a cornerstone of Asian treats.  Sweet rice is PULVERIZED into flour to which water and flavorings are added.  It ends up looking like the BLOB, really.  It can be flavored, baked, steamed, fried and made into countless delicious treats both sweet and savory.  During New Year’s, Japanese families gather to pound mochi in a tradition called Mochitsuki. Just for your viewing pleasure here is Mitsuo Nakatani, Japanese Mochi Master.  Enjoy

Traditional mochi starts with steamed rice and is pounded and shaped into sweet or savory rice cakes.  Mochi muffins and Hawaiian Butter Mochi start with sweet rice flour, mixed with liquids, and baked.  Since I don’t foresee any of us pounding mochi, let’s make muffins and Hawaiian Mochi. Infinitely easier and pretty darn tasty.

Back on the Muffin Trail

If you have ever had Manju from Shuei-Do Sweet Shop in Japantown in San Jose, or Butter Mochi from Hawaii and liked it…you’re going to love these.  If you haven’t had mochi, this is a good introduction.  Not quite as gooey as Manju and definitely not cakey like a muffin, it’s a delicious hybrid of the two.  A touch of sweetness, crispy on the outside, dense and chewy on the inside, and crunchy from the generous sprinkle of sesame seeds on top.  It’s different but delicious.  If that wasn’t enough, they are GLUTEN-FREE.  You’re welcome.

Rice, Rice, Baby

The most important item in the pic is the Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour by Koda Farms.  This is the go-to brand.  You can definitely find it in any Asian store (along with the sesame seeds), and if you’re lucky, at some of your larger local markets.  Take a walk down the international/ethnic food aisle.

I found quite a few recipes for Mochi Muffins online and finally settled on one from a beautiful blog called Snixy Kitchen.  Her batch made 12 muffins, which made her recipe the frontrunner as most made 24.  As yummy as they are, what am I going to do with 24 muffins?!

Mochi muffin batter

The batter comes together in a snap:  melted butter, coconut milk, egg, brown sugar, and rice flour.  Stir together and pour into a muffin tin.  Boom, done.  My batter was thicker than some of the posts I’ve seen.  This may account for the slight dome mine had.  I also found a recipe from Saimin Noshrat in the NYT.  I think I may try a couple of her tweaks the next time I make these.  Trust me, there will be a next time.  I will use light brown sugar, substitute evaporated milk for some of the coconut milk, and brown my butter.  Not to worry, a full report will follow.  Hmmm, can’t wait to make another batch.

The longer you leave these in the oven, the less gooey and more cake-like they will be.  The first batch was baked for 60 minutes.  I think I should have pulled them out sooner, I like gooey.  Now I check at 40 minutes and pull them out around 45 minutes.  To test them, use a knife to poke the center of a muffin.  It should come out fairly clean with a bit of crumb.

More Mochi Madness

After making these muffins if you like the chewiness, definitely try the Hawaiian Butter Mochi Muffins, inspired by Aloha Kitchen by Alana Kysar.  A little less flour and a bit more liquid kick up the gooey, buttery, lusciousness of these bites.  Bake them in a muffin tin for crispy edges.  I ADORE both of these muffins.

These are soooo good, a little more squishy, very buttery, topped with shredded coconut.

Also check out Peanut Butter Mochi from A Common Table by Cynthia Chen McTernan. Delish! LOVE, love, LOVE

If you would like to try traditional Japanese Mochi, here are my recommendations:  Fugetsu-Do in Little Tokyo in LA, the oldest family-owned Japanese Shop in the US, Shuei Do Manju Shop in San Jose, and in my hometown of SF, Benkyodo Company in Japantown (now closed😢😢😢 )All family-owned artisan shops.

Mochi Muffins
Print Pin
4.50 from 18 votes

Butter Mochi Muffins

Course Dessert
Cuisine Asian-American
Keyword coconut milk, Gluten free, mochi muffin
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup (2 ounces )unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for greasing pans sub brown-butter
  • 2 cups (320 grams) mochiko sweet rice flour Koda Farms
  • 1 cup (200 grams) organic dark brown sugar* light or dark brown sugar will work
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1 13 ounce can full-fat coconut milk Sub evaporated milk, half to all
  • 2 large eggs room temperature
  • teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon molasses optional, added for flavor or use Golden Syrup or honey
  • tablespoons each black and toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°F and place the oven rack in the middle of the oven.
  • Grease the sides and top of a 12-cup muffin tin well with soft butter.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the sweet rice flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, coconut milk, eggs, vanilla, and molasses.
  • With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until completely combined.
  • Divide the batter among the prepared muffin tin, filling each cup all the way to the top.
  • Sprinkle the tops with black and white sesame seeds.
  • Bake 45-50 minutes until the top is brown and crispy and the muffin springs back when poked with a finger.  Bake for less time. for muffins that are chewier and less cakey. Muffins are done when a skewer comes out relatively clean and the tops are brown.
  • Let cool 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  • Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.  Can be frozen and thawed at room temp.

Notes

Organic dark brown sugar is richer and more caramel-y than conventional, but you can use regular brown sugar.
Any muffin tin will do, but for ultimate crispy exterior, use a dark non-stick muffin tin.
If using a light muffin tin, you may have to bake the muffins a little bit longer.
If keeping them for longer, they'll lose their crispiness after a day or two in storage, put them in the oven for a few minutes to crisp again before eating.

Butter Mochi Muffins

62 Replies to “Muffin been the Mochi that Caught My Eye (Butter Mochi Muffins)”

  1. What would be the best way to substitute the butter in this recipe? Would I get a similar effect with coconut oil?

    1. I haven’t tried it myself but have seen recipes that substitute coconut oil or even olive oil (pick a good one) 1:1 for the butter with good results. I do have a Peanut butter Mochi that uses vegetable oil not butter that is really delish! It’s texture is more like traditional mochi, gooier not quite as cakey. The recipe is from A Common Table ❤️. Let me know how it turns out!

  2. Thank you for your recipe! I’ve made it a couple times and think this recipe calls for too much liquid/coconut milk or maybe eggs. I use arroyo-d boxed coconut milk which is very good tasting! Muffins turn out like a custard which is good but not expected. Make sure batter is not liquidy, should look like pictures here for then to turn out like a muffin/third culture

    1. Thanks for the feedback! Hmmm, if the muffins turned out too custardy, the quick remedy may be baking them a little longer which firms up the muffin. Originally the recipe called for baking them up for up to 60 minutes. Quite a few folks mentioned they had shortened the baking time. Could be oven temp variation. Happy baking!

  3. This is an easy to follow recipe and I followed the steps as written. Turned out exactly like the picture and it tastes amazing. Thank you so much for making this recipe available.5 stars

  4. Thanks for sharing this fantastic recipe! I’ve tried many variations (mini/normal muffin, various flavorings, different milk types) & found it pretty robustly delicious! One thing I haven’t tried: baking a cake out of it! (My husband’s birthday cake request!) Any experience or suggestions appreciatd!5 stars

    1. Yay! Thanks, definitely one of my favorites! I haven’t tried baking it as a cake, but I think it would work. You would probably need to increase the baking time to at least an hour or an hour and 10 minutes. Start checking earlier. The cake will puff but fall and probably be pretty flat like a pan of butter mochi. The amount of batter for a 12 cup muffin tin is roughly 6 cups, probably a little less. I would use a nine-inch round cake pan for a single recipe. Doubling the recipe you could use a 9×13-inch pan. Because of the cake density, I would stick to a single-layer cake. I hope it works out!!! LMK. Sheldon Simeon has a Chocolate Mochi Birthday Cake with a Peanut Butter Frosting that looks pretty good (and pretty sweet), it is in his Cookbook Real Hawaii Book and on NYTCooking as an option.

    1. I haven’t but I have had readers post they make mini-muffins. Same temp, reduce the baking time to 15-20 minutes. Definitely the first time you try it, check the muffins starting at 10 minutes to help you gauge how far along the muffins are. Hope this helps!

      1. Just made this in mini muffin pan. Filled 24 to overflowing and then a small 3″ ramekin for the remaining batter. They were cooked through at 15 minutes and I almost took them out until I reread to wait until brown on top. That took another 8-10 minutes. Terrific!

  5. I had my first mochi muffin yesterday morning in Berkeley & it was made by Third Culture Bakery. I loved it & was telling my co-worker about it. She is GF as is my father-in-law. When I saw your recipe I thought I need to try this! I will try it this week. I’m so excited. Thank you!

  6. For those wondering about using other brands of glutinous rice flour: it worked for me! I had a Thai brand that I wanted to use up, so I risked it. BUT I followed the weight measurement rather than the volume measurement and I think this was important. If I had used volume, I’d only have put in about 280 grams. But I put in the full 320 and I’m glad I did. I had a little bit too much batter, but the muffins came out well. I’ll try with the recommended brand and see if there’s a difference, but this recipe should work with 320 grams of any kind of glutinous rice flour.5 stars

  7. Thanks so much for this recipe! Ours came out perfectly at 50 min following the recipe exactly. My husband says they are identical to Third Culture. We will save a lot making these at home! And love the shout out to Fugetsu-do. In SF now, but miss it dearly from my childhood!5 stars

  8. I’ve collected about two dozen butter mochi recipes to try and recently tried your recipe. It was delicious! Mine came out quite ‘dome-y’, which I liked. My batter was thick – it filled each tin about 3/4 full. For me, it was the perfect hybrid of fluffy cake and chewy mochi. I tend to tinker with recipes after making them the first time, but I don’t think I’ll be making any changes to this one, except add more sesame seeds on top. I used a dark tin and took them out after 40 minutes. Thank you so much for this recipe – it’s a keeper!5 stars

  9. I have tried this recipe twice…have not quite nailed it. Use the TJ Coconut Milk which was 13.5oz, might have been too much. I also noticed my muffins do not have the smooth top that the third culture ones have. My is a little more “porous” if that makes sense. The outside is more crispy (too much butter on the muffin tin)🤷🏻‍♀️. I will try again. I followed recipe, baked at 350 for 45 mins.

    1. Hmmm, I did read in another post that TJ has changed their coconut milk vendor and the most recent one was thinner in consistency. If possible get full fat coconut milk, like Chaokoh, it seems to be a bit thicker in consistency which can affect the texture of the muffins. If you are using a muffin tin that is darker in color, this might make the outside crispier due to heat retention. Hope this helps!

  10. I’ve made this twice now and added black cocoa this time to make it like a mochi brownie! I did 50g black cocoa (so intense!) with 270g mochiko rice flour so the dry ingredients equaled 320g, but might try a 40/280 split next time. Thanks for a great recipe!5 stars

  11. Has anyone tried using other brands of sweet rice flour and see what the difference is? I noticed other brands are not as dense as Koda Farms so 2 cups doesn’t come out to 320 grams.4 stars

    1. HI Kevin! I’m not sure how you would incorporate pandan but for matcha I would just add the powder without changing anything else in the recipe. I would add 1/2 to 3/4 tablespoon of matcha powder to the recipe. Stir it in with the dry ingredients. In place of the sesame seeds, a fun topping would be shredded coconut sprinkled on top before baking. If you like sweet, use sweetened shredded or flaked coconut. This recipe is originally from Snixy Kitchen. She also has a Matcha Mochi Cake that looks delish! I used her recipe as a guideline for the matcha. Happy baking, let me know how it turns out! Thanks!

      1. I did a little sleuthing and I think you can add pandan extract (paste) without changing any of the ingredients. Most recipes looked like they used the Butterfly brand Pandan paste-extract. I’d start with 1/2 tablespoon to the recipe added after you have combined the wet and dry ingredients.

  12. Thank you so much for the recipe! I followed your exact instructions but my muffins deflated 🙁 they rose throughout the baking time but started to deflate towards the end. and the inside is really chewy but i know that it’s cooked all the way through. the mini ones have a much better texture like third culture than the normal sized ones

    1. Hmmm, my first thought would be the baking powder. Measure precisely, and also check age of leavening agent. If it’s too old that could cause it to deflate. If it is too chewy I’d recommend baking it a little longer that may help also.
      It could be a question of surface area also. Regular butter mochi baked in a pan will rise but then fall resulting in a flat finished product although it usually falls as it is cooling not while in oven.
      Good luck, hope this helps.

  13. Wow these were delicious ! I Just made half of this recipe last night ! I found out I only had 1 egg but was so excited about it. I used pandan and matcha instead of the above flavor . And I love this recipe so much ! Thank you! I did bake them a little less since they started To brown quickly after 40 min mark. I added a touch of honey as well . Delicious thanks again !

  14. Hello! I was looking for this recipe on snixy, but no longer there- should have written down and so now have done so. Thanks for posting it! I’ve made this recipe about 30x or so varying sugars, coconut milk etc and shared with a bunch of family/friends. It is a winner. I’ve also taste tested along with the ones from Third Culture- those are delicious, but not everyone can go there. They have pandan in theirs, but this recipe is a good substitute if you do not have pandan on hand.
    Notes:
    – You must use the Koda brand rice flour. Others do not turn out how you would want ( crispy outside, chewy inside).
    – I found 1/2 dark brown sugar, 1/2 coconut sugar to be the best combo for texture and flavour.
    – there is a ton of variation on the type of coconut milk brands that affect batter consistency- thicker batter, thinner batter. I tended to lean towards the Trader Joe’s full fat can or Native Forest. Some other brands were almost too rich and so batter was thicker which then made 11 muffins. This recipe should make 12 in standard muffin cup tin. They tend to be flatter instead of domy which worked for me.
    – dark molasses is a must for that extra flavour- I would not omit
    – room temp eggs also a must for batter consistency
    – check oven at 40 or 45 min just in case

    Enjoy!!5 stars

    1. Thanks for all the notes!!! I actually decided to edit the time after making another batch tonight. I think 60 minutes is too long, going with 45 minutes now. Going to try the coconut sugar next time!

      1. The coconut sugar is a nice addition and agreed on oven time. I am clearly obsessed with these muffins 🙂

    1. Hi there! Sorry for the slow response. My best guess is you can store a couple of days in the fridge, they will lose their elastic texture a little but you can microwave them for 10-15 seconds to bring back the texture. YOu can freeze them too. Another option is to bring them to room temp from freezer or fridge and pop them in a toaster oven for a couple of minutes. I sent the question to Third Culture Bakery and hoping to hear from them, will post if they get back to me. Thanks!

      1. Third Culture Bakery just replied to me! They actually do not recommend refrigerating their mochi muffins but the freeze wonderfully! They should be reheated for max mochi experience, frozen or not.
        In the oven: Preheat to 325, bake for 8-10 minutes, cool for 5-10 minutes for soft center and crispy edges.
        Microwave: Place on plate and zap for 15-20 seconds, test for “squishiness” and serve immediately.
        Storage Freeze for up to 2 months. They do not need to thaw, just follow directions for heating above. They may need a little more time but should be good to go!

    2. These freeze well whole, but don’t put them in the fridge! They’ll be a weird texture. Heat them back up in the oven 350 for about 5/6 min.

  15. Scrumptious! I’m a big fan o mochi. So glad I happened upon your recipe! They turned out heavenly. Crisp outside. Chewy inside. So satisfying. Only thing – the coconut milk I purchased was 14oz & I used most of it. Next time I’ll use the exact 13oz, making for a lil bit firmer consistency. Shared them w some friends, it was their 1st time hearing of mochi. Was fun to watch their expressions 😀5 stars

    1. Hmmm, bummers, let’s troubleshoot. Did you use glutinous rice flour not plain rice flour? what kind of liquid did you use? I noticed that my recipe did not have parenthesis around the weight measurements, I hope that didn’t cause confusion!

  16. Just did this recipe! It was amazing, I had to sub the mochiko since they didn’t have any in store. It still came out amazing ~! Definitely making more in the future.

  17. Thanks so much for the recipe! followed recipe and Cooked for 45 mins and they were great! Crisp outside and chewy inside! Love it!5 stars

  18. I’m so glad you have this recipe posted. It has disappeared from Snixy’s site and I went to use it this morning. Isn’t it yummy? For anyone interested in making it vegan/lower cholesterol, I use Miyoko’s vegan cultured butter (warning: does contain nuts) and 2T flaxmeal mixed with 5T water in place of the eggs. Comes out great!5 stars

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating