How To Make Mochi

If you head to any Chinese supermarket, you’re likely to find a range of different flavoured mochi in the fridge section. I love plain mochi without any filling, especially in pandan flavour. I tend not to buy the mochi with red bean paste or green bean (mung bean) paste or with the skin coated in coconut flakes.

Mochi tends to have a relatively short expiry date, sometime around two to three weeks if you happened to buy the newer stock. If you’re unlucky, you might find some just a few days before it expires, so it can be a bit hit-and-miss!

So I decided to make my own by searching some Asian cookery videos. The videos I found used more or less the same proportions of ingredients. I did tailor it a little though.

The mochi that I made is very soft, even when eaten the next day and it does not stick to your teeth. They’re very fragrant as they use fresh milk and coconut milk. I used whole milk at room temperature. As for the coconut milk, the content of coconut varies from brand to brand. Coconut milk can be very thick. I used a brand with 80% coconut in a tin. For any unused coconut milk, pour it in a plastic container and you can keep it for a week.

If you are allergic to milk, you can choose to use water as a replacement and add a teaspoon of vanilla essence for flavour. However, don’t use the same measurement of water as the fresh milk and coconut milk, otherwise, it will be very watery. Try to adjust accordingly.

In some videos that I watched, they used vegetable oil instead of butter to mix it in. I find butter enhances the flavour even more. Hence I would recommend using butter.

As for the filling, you can make or buy red bean paste or lotus paste from supermarkets. Or you can toast your own peanuts, blend them and add caster sugar to it. Or you can mix the peanut powder with desiccated coconut flakes. Some even suggested putting chopped fruits such as mango in it. Or maybe ice cream!

For this recipe, you can make at least 12-18 mochi, depending on the filling and how big you make the mochi. It does require a steamer to cook. If you don’t have a steamer, you can use a wok with a bamboo steamer.

Ingredients:

170g glutinous rice flour
30g sugar
180-190ml whole milk
50ml coconut milk
50g butter
Some cooked glutinous rice flour or desiccated coconut flakes
Some peanut powder

Methods:

Mix the whole milk with the coconut milk together thoroughly as sometimes the coconut milk can be quite lumpy.
Mix it with the glutinous rice flour and sugar. If your mixture is too thick, you can add a bit more milk. Don’t let your mixture become too runny. If the mixture is too runny, you won’t be able to stretch the mochi dough for wrapping the filling. It will break into small lumps after it cooks.
Pour the mixture into a dish. You do not need to brush oil on the dish.
Cover the dish with cling film and use a toothpick to poke a lot of holes in the cling film.
Place in a hot steamer and steam for 25 minutes. Make sure there is no water on top of the cling film before you remove it.
Remove the dish from the steam and add butter. The butter will melt on its own. Mix it well. Initially, the mochi dough will look very messy and it does not look very cohesive. After a few minutes of mixing, it should be like a dough.
Wait for the dough to be cool (5-10 minutes), before kneading the dough. I prefer to use plastic gloves. It only takes a few minutes for the dough to be very stretchy. If you are not going to fill the skin just yet, place the dough into a plastic bag. If you place the dough back into the dish, the dough will stick to the dish. So it’s best to store the dough in a plastic bag.
Have two clean plates. One plate for the cooked glutinous rice flour/desiccated coconut flakes to use to cover the surface and one plate/bowl for your filling.
Pinch a small ball of the mochi dough. Flatten it and add the filling. I love peanut powder! Hence I filled all my mochi dough with peanut powder!
Cover the mochi with cooked glutinous rice flour or desiccated coconut flakes. Place it in a cupcake casing. You can place all your mochi on the clean plate itself without cupcake casing. I do find the mochi tends to stick together after some time. With the cupcake casing, it is much easier to pass around.
You can save it to eat the next day or in a few days. Depending on your filling, you can either store them in the fridge or at room temperature in the kitchen. The mochi skin should remain soft.