This mochi muffin recipe is one of those recipes that you didn't know you needed, but make it once and you'll make it forever. The muffins come out light and fluffy, but with the signature chewy texture that you expect from all things mochi. A real treat for breakfast, with a cup of tea mid afternoon, or for dessert. If you already love my bran muffins or chai spice muffins, you are gonna be head over heals for these!
What's so great about this mochi muffin recipe
I think the classic chewy center is the best part of these butter mochi muffins. The simple ingredients and familiar process (it's just like making blueberry or these breakfast muffins). They let you feel confident in your baking, while you tackle a new recipe from the comfort of your own home. It's like indulging in an exotic delicacy from the comfort of your couch.
An added bonus, these mochi muffins are naturally gluten free and so easy to customize.
Ingredients
- Glutinous Rice Flour: I buy mine online or any local Asian grocery store will stock this brown rice flour as well.
- Milk: You can use whole milk, 2% milk, skim milk or almond milk successfully in the mochi muffin recipe
How to make mochi muffins
Start by preheating the oven to 425 degrees. Then add muffin tin liners to your muffin pan and set aside.
In large mixing bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (melted butter, milk and eggs).
Add the sugars and whisk until the sugar has completely dissolved, then add in the vanilla extract.
Next, add in the dry ingredients and whisk until most of the lumps are gone. There will a few lumps left after you've mixed it well and that's okay.
Using a cookie scoop, portion the mochi muffin batter into your prepared muffin tin, filling each one about ¾th of the way full.
Put into the oven and turn the heat down to 350 degrees. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the muffins are just golden brown on top. The total time to bake will depend your oven.
Remove them from oven, let cool a few minutes and then move the mochi muffins to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.
FAQs
Yes, they can. It's a one to one substitution for any plant based milk. I prefer to use almond or coconut milk, but soy or rice milk will work too. While the original recipe calls for butter, you can easily substitute your favorite plant based butter in.
Sweet rice flour is also known as glutinous rice flour or mochiko flour and has a high starch content, which gives the chewy mochi texture you are going for in this recipe. It's also completely gluten free (despite it's name). On the other hand, regular rice flour is ground from white rice and doesn't give the same texture to a baked goods. From The Larder has a great in depth post on this topic.
Sweet rice flour is a staple in gluten free baking and can be used in a variety of recipes. With the mochi flour, you can make mochi cookies, mochi waffles, hawaiian butter mochi. Here are some other more unique recipes that also use this versatile flour:
Stove Top Rice Pudding
Gluten Free English Pancakes
Gluten Free Apple Scones
How to store the baked muffins
For best results, you'll want to store these muffins in an airtight container in the fridge. The will keep in the fridge up to a week. Unlike most of the regular muffins I make, these are not great to freeze and then defrost. The first time I made these I made that mistake, and the chewy texture I was going for just wasn't the same.
Other flavor combinations for mochi muffins
You can change the flavor of the mochi muffins quite easily. Think about your favorite flavors of muffins and what makes them special.
- Do you like blueberry muffins? Add a bit of extra lemon juice and fresh blueberries to this recipe.
- Love coconut? Use coconut oil, coconut milk and add in ½ cup sweetened coconut and it will taste a little bit like this coconut bread.
- Want to add some earthiness to the muffins? Add in some matcha powder.
- Need a bite of chocolate in anything you bake? Add in some mini chocolate chips or add a few tablespoons of cocoa powder for chocolate mochi muffins.
- These mochi muffins can also go in a savory direction with pumpkin and sage, cheddar and rosemary or even black sesame flavors.
The possibilities are endless.
One more simple tip
The muffins will come out of the oven with a slight dome on them. Don't be surprised if they sink a bit and get a little crackly on top as they cool. This is totally normal!
📖 Recipe
Simple Mochi Muffins
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter melted
- 1 cup milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups sweet rice flour aka glutinous rice flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Add muffin tin liners to your muffin pan and set aside.
- In large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, milk and eggs. Add the sugar and whisk until it has completely dissolved, then add in the vanilla extract.
- Add in the dry ingredients and whisk until most of the lumps are gone. There will a few lumps left even after you've mixed it well, that's okay.
- Using a cookie scoop portion the mochi muffin batter into your prepared muffin tin, filling each one about ¾th of the way full.
- Put into the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 350 degrees.
- Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the muffins are just golden brown on top.
- Remove them from oven, let cool a few minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.
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