Chocolate Mochi (gluten free)

If you love chocolate desserts, then this chocolate mochi is definitely something you should try. This recipe is also gluten free because it’s made with glutinous rice flour. Also you don’t need an oven to make this dessert.

What is mochi?

Mochi is a type of food made from glutinous rice. Traditionally, the glutinous rice is steamed then pounded. It has a soft and chewy texture and often times it’s made into dessert. Mochi is a popular food in Asia including East Asia and Southeast Asian countries. It’s more prominent in countries that produces rice or use rice as a major carbohydrate source. This chocolate mochi is a twist on the traditional mochi dessert.

Ingredients

The ingredients in this recipe is similar to my taro daifuku recipe. The base ingredients are the same. I change the sweet potato starch to regular potato starch. If you don’t have either then just use corn starch.

The only additional ingredient I added was cocoa powder. I also changed the butter into canola oil or any neutral oil.

How to make it

What I like about this recipe is that I don’t need to turn on the oven or stove. I can make it in a microwave. As for the ingredients, I combine all the dry ingredients in a microwaveable safe bowl. Slowly add the milk and oil into the dry ingredients while whisking to make sure there are no lumps. If you want to make sure there are no lumps, then pour through a strainer.

Put a plastic wrap over the bowl and poke some holes on it

Put into the microwave for 1 minute, check and repeat. You want a total of 2-3 minutes or so.

Take the bowl out of the microwave and remove plastic wrap and let it cool. Use a spatula to cut the mochi to let the hot air out. You can also use the spatula to knead the mochi slightly.

Once the mochi has cooled enough to handle, you can knead the mochi with gloves on. If you can stretch the mochi dough then it’s done.

Put onto a surface with some cocoa powder and roll it into a long log. Then cut it using a bench scraper. Can add a bit more cocoa powder to prevent sticking. It stays soft even if you store it in the fridge! However, don’t leave it for too long as it will harden over time.

Pro-tip

• If you don’t have a microwave, steam the mixture for about 20 minutes.
• Wear gloves when kneading the mochi dough to prevent sticking to your hands.
• If in the process of mixing the dry and wet ingredients, you get air bubbles, don’t worry about it, once you start kneading it will go away.
• Sift the cocoa powder evenly distribute the cocoa powder into the other dry ingredients. The reason is that cocoa powder is hydrophobic (water repelling) so it might clump up when you pour the milk and oil.
• If you want the mixture to be extra smooth, run the mixture through a strainer.
• Don’t use too much cocoa powder when coating the outside or it can become bitter.