My first interaction with butter mochi was actually at a tiki-themed bar and even then, it was more of a derivation of the dessert rather than the actual dish. With ingredients like Mochiko flour and coconut milk, this classic Hawaiian dessert is described as a soft, custard-y, chewy Hawaiian blondie/brownie with a slightly crunchy top and edge. It’s reminiscent of the Japanese mochi that I’m used to, but without the stretch and having more of a nutty flavor.
Today’s recipe comes from Alana Kysar who features this recipe in her cookbook Aloha Kitchen. The recipe can be found in a Youtube video collaboration with Honeysuckle.
Since I wasn’t willing to commit to a 9×13 pan full of butter mochi, I ended up cutting the recipe in half and using a 9×9 pan instead. The bake time was about 24ish minutes, but you can also tell when the butter mochi is starting to pull away from the pan and looks set even if you jiggle the pan. Like the YouTube video suggests, I used a bench scraper to cut the butter mochi into pieces since it’s too sticky for a knife. As much as I like coconut flakes, I actually think I would prefer the butter mochi without them because they were more of an interruption in the softness of the butter mochi, but that’s just my personal preference.
I really enjoyed this dessert – it was very easy to make, had great flavor and consistency, and can even be kept in an air-tight container for 3 days at room temperature which makes for an easy snack to grab.
