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Try this Hawaiian butter mochi recipe for a chewy, buttery, fudgey dessert with crisp, crunchy edges. A Hawaiian favorite, this butter mochi is highly addictive!
The first time I had Hawaiian butter mochi was on a trip to Maui and I happened across these in an outdoor market. Initially I thought they were blondies and was curious why there were so popular but then I saw the words “butter mochi” written on top and I knew I would love them as I’m a huge fan of mochi.
What is Hawaiian Butter Mochi?
Hawaiian butter mochi is a popular sweet treat made with mochiko flour, sugar, eggs, and coconut milk. If you’ve never had it before, it’s chewy, fudgy, sweet, coconut-y, and surrounded by the crunchiest crust you can imagine. The best way I can describe it is like an extra fudgy brownie with crunchy edges and a chewy center. 
What is Mochiko?
Mochiko is a sweet rice flour, also called glutinous rice flour, milled from short-grain sticky rice into a fine powder. It looks like regular flour, but once baked it turns chewy and stretchy in a way no other flour can replicate. It’s widely used in Hawaiian, Korean, Japanese, and Southeast Asian recipes.
Look for Koda Farms Blue Star mochiko, the brand most Hawaiian bakers reach for. You can find it at Japanese and pan-Asian grocery stores, often in mainstream markets in the international aisle, or online.
Can I substitute shiratamako or regular rice flour? No. Shiratamako is processed differently and gives a softer, bouncier result that turns butter mochi too custardy. Regular (non-glutinous) rice flour won’t give you any chew at all. Stick with mochiko for the texture this recipe is built around.
Hawaiian Butter Mochi Recipe Tips:
The trick to getting these butter mochi chewy is to let them cool completely. I waited a good 3 hours until they were cool enough to achieve the right texture. It’ll be worth the wait. If you eat them before they’re cool, the texture won’t be firm enough and you’ll miss out on all that chewy, fudgy texture. Just let them cool on a wire rack and you’ll notice them firming up.
How to Make Hawaiian Butter Mochi
I used a mini loaf pan and muffin pan because I wanted more of those crunchy edges. I’m definitely a lover of those crispy, crunchy corner/edge pieces when it comes to any baked good so what better way to capitalize on that than a using these rectangular mini loaf pans. You get 4 edges in one piece – winning!
These butter mochi don’t rise that much so feel free to fill them up. You’ll see a bit of rise from the baking powder and egg but not enough to overflow the pan.
Look at those edges! I wish you could hear how crunchy and crispy the top edges are. It’s literally like biting into a crunchy cookie. The edges are nice and hard, but the center will still be too soft to fully enjoy these, so remove them from the pan and let them cool.
This Hawaiian butter mochi recipe is perfect for get togethers or parties. They’re perfect at room temperature and everyone loves it when I bring them to get togethers. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Microwave them for about 10 seconds to soften up or reheat them in a toaster oven. Let them cool before enjoying.
Butter Mochi Variations
One of the best things about butter mochi is how easily it takes to add-ins. A few readers have shared their favorites, and these are worth trying:
- Fold a spoonful of red bean paste into the center of each piece for a nod to Japanese wagashi.
- Press fresh mango or blueberries into the batter before baking.
- Sprinkle shredded coconut on top for extra texture and a toasted, caramelized crust.
- A few drops of pandan extract turn the batter fragrant and pale green.
- For a richer flavor, brown the butter before adding it to the wet ingredients.
I hope you enjoy this Hawaiian butter mochi recipe! Please share, rate, and comment below. I’d love to hear from you!
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Frequently Asked Questions
Gummy usually means it hasn’t cooled fully. Butter mochi needs to cool completely, at least 2 to 3 hours, before the texture sets into a proper chew. Cutting it warm gives you a dense, gummy interior. It can also happen if the batter is under-baked, so make sure the edges and surface turn deep golden brown.
Over-baking dries it out, and low-quality mochiko cut with regular rice flour makes it heavy. Use 100% glutinous rice flour and pull it from the oven once the surface is golden and set.
This recipe uses coconut milk plus water. You can swap the water for evaporated, whole, or oat milk for a richer result. Full-fat coconut milk gives more coconut flavor than lite.
Bake in a mini loaf pan or muffin pan instead of a single large dish so more surface caramelizes. The smaller the piece, the more crisp edges you get.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. After that, refrigerate or freeze. To bring back the crisp crust, reheat in a toaster oven on convection for 3 to 5 minutes rather than the microwave.
Yes. Wrap individual pieces and freeze for up to 2 months. Let a piece thaw at room temperature, or microwave briefly to soften.
Yes. Mochiko is made from rice, so butter mochi is naturally gluten-free. Check that your baking powder and other ingredients are certified gluten-free if that matters for you.
Chewy Hawaiian Butter Mochi
Equipment
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 3 cups Mochiko sweet rice flour
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- pinch salt
Wet Ingredients:
- 13.5 oz lite coconut milk
- 1 ½ cups water
- 7 Tablespoons butter, melted
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a nonstick mini loaf pan or muffin pan thoroughly, including the corners and up the sides.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the mochiko, sugar, baking powder, and salt until no lumps remain.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the coconut milk, water, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk until the batter is smooth and pourable, with no streaks of dry flour.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans, filling each well nearly to the top. The mochi rises only slightly, so it won't overflow.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the surface and edges are deep golden brown and the center feels set when lightly pressed. In a 9×9 baking dish, bake for about 1 hour.
- Remove the pieces from the pan and set them on a wire rack. Cool completely, 2 to 3 hours, before serving. This is what firms them up into the chewy texture, so don't cut them warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
Can I use almond milk in place of coconut milk and can I add red bean filling?
Hi Beni! I haven’t tried that before so can’t say but I’d love to hear how it works out if you do try it.
Hi there!
Thank you for this recipe.
We made a double batch – added a little shredded coconut to half and some lemon zest to another.
This is a foolproof recipe and I look forward to making it again!
Thank you Ann-Marie! Great idea adding coconut and lemon to these! I’ll have to try the lemon myself. So happy you enjoyed this! 🙂
They’re so gooood! Thank you so much, Jamie! I followed your x3 of the recipe and husband and I both brought some to work and they were a hit! Thank you! ?
Thanks Ruthie! Glad to hear it! 🙂
This recipe looks so good! I was wondering if you could make this the day before a gathering? Just want to give it the appropriate time for cool down to get the right texture 🙂
Hi Gwen! Absolutely you can make it the night before. Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Any suggestion for toppings for these guys? Was hoping to put something on top!
Hi Chelsea! You can try adding shredded coconut to the top or to the bottom of the pan for a bit of texture. 🙂
If you don’t have mochiko flour, can you substitute it for a corn flour/wheat flour mixture?
Hi Debbie! I would only use Mochiko flour for this recipe as corn flour and wheat flour have different textures and would affect this recipe. Mochiko is a popular brand but as long as it says “sweet rice flour” or “sweet glutinous rice flour” that will do. To make things more confusing, sweet rice flour is different from regular rice flour. I linked the one I used in the recipe. Hope that helps!
Hi Jamie!
I was wondering if glutinous rice flour is the same as sweet glutinous rice flour? I have a bag of Erawan Glutinous Rice Flour, but no Mochiko flour is available around me.
Thank you!
Hi Julie! I haven’t tried this brand but I found a description for this on the Walmart website and it said it has a “chewy and elastic quality” which is what you want for this recipe. As long as it’s finely milled and powdery, it should work. Hope that helps!
This recipe is so easy to follow. My mom loves it. Thank you for sharing.
I wanted to share the pictures that I baked but don’t know how. ☺
Thanks Frisian! So glad your mom loves it! 🙂
They were a real hit! Love how you bake them in smaller moulds for extra crustiness. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I reduced sugar to 2/3 cup and only used 1 cup of water instead as it looked very runny already.
Thanks for trying them out Monica! 🙂
I halved the recipe and it was perfect for a mini muffin tray (24). I baked them at 375 for 30 minutes and they came out a light golden brown. They popped out of the tin easily. I let them cool for 30 minutes. The texture is just as described. Crunchy on the edges, sort of chewy and a little gummy on the inside. It’s definitely unusual, but we all enjoyed them. Next time I would probably add a tsp of almond extract in addition to the vanilla and maybe top them with a half a maraschino cherry or some sliced almonds before baking. They’re good, but don’t have a ton of flavor. More like an eggy sweet bread than a cake. I think adding almond or some other stronger flavor would make them a bit more special. Overall, a hit. I wish I could add pictures, because they’re super cute. Would definitely make again. Thank you for the recipe
Thanks Kim! I’m so glad you enjoyed them. You can definitely add additional flavorings to switch things up! I like your idea of adding almonds to them!
Hi, how many eggs did you use when you halved the recipe? I’m looking to do the same thing. Thanks!
These are so good!!! The best Mochi recipe I have tried. They remind me of some lovely traveling memories and I can’t wait to make them again soon. I would love to try some other flavour variations too!
Thanks Frank! So happy you enjoyed this! Let me know what other flavors you’d like to try and I’ll come up with a recipe. 🙂
Can I use regular organic coconut milk or does it have to be lite coconut milk?
Hi,
This recipe looks delicious but my family can not have coconut milk. What could you substitute it with to have the same taste/results?
Hi J! You can use any type of milk for this recipe. The more fat the milk has, the richer it will taste. You can also use light or nonfat milk as well. Hope you enjoy!
Thanks for the recipe! I used mini muffin tins and they turned out delicious, except for the fact that I had a hard time getting them out from the muffin tin as they were quite stuck. Wondering if you have any suggestions? I used non stick spray and buttered the sides of the muffin tins, but they still turned out very stuck once baked.
Hi Rachel! I’m glad you liked them! Did you happen to use a non-stick pan or a regular metal pan? I’ve had more success with non-stick pans compared to metal pans even after buttering the sides. Otherwise, you can try lining a pan with parchment paper as well. Hope that helps!
Dear Jamie,
Thanks for sharing the recipe, I’m looking forward to trying it!!
I’m wondering if it’s possible to substitute mochiko flour with tapioca flour? When I make Brazilian cheese bread, it calls for tapioca flour and it also gives crunchy outside and chewy inside…so curious if it’s possible to use tapioca flour too!
Thanks and greetings from NL
Hi Hsin! I wouldn’t recommend using tapioca flour instead as they have slightly different textures and consistency, even though they are both known to be chewy. Hope this helps. 🙂
Reading your post made me so nostalgic for my trip to Hawaii!! That was the first time I had a chance to try butter mochi also, and I have been dreaming about it ever since. Since I won’t be doing any travel for a little while, I decided to go searching for a recipe to replicate my favourite delicious sweet treat.
This is DIVINE. Much easier to make than I thought, and took me straight back to enjoying this sweet in the sunshine. Love it- thank you!
Thanks Amber! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂
I’ve seen similar recipes using evaporated milk vs, water (as far as ingredients). Thoughts on how that may affect your recipe?
Hi Ed! Using evaporated milk will make the batter a bit thicker as its consistency is thicker than water. It also has more fat and protein than water so it may affect the texture of the mochi from how it came out with my recipe. I haven’t tried it but will give it a try next time I make these!
Hi there! I look forward to making these. Have you tried making these in a silicone muffin pan? Will the edges still turn out good? Thank you!
Hi Coco! I haven’t tried these in a silicon muffin pan so can’t say for sure, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t. I’ve only used silicon baking sheets for cookies and the edges turn out great on them, if that helps.
Hi! Thanks for sharing the recipe :). For the regular sized Mochiko rice flour box (16oz), I realized there’s still some rice flour left after measuring our the 3 cups. I just wanted to be sure that it’s the same for you and you also have about a 1/2c of rice flour left as well…or do you pretty much use up the entire Mochiko box? Thank you!!
Hi Esther! Yes I had a bit left over too and just used it for other things, like Mochiko chicken. I definitely wouldn’t use up the entire box since it’ll be too much for the recipe. Hope that helps and you enjoy the butter mochi! 🙂
Absolutely delicious – I made this for the first time yesterday, and it has already been finished up by my family! I have been instructed to make again this week 🙂 Thanks again for such a lovely recipe!
Hi – a friend of mine brought this to my house and they were delicious so I I asked for the recipe. They turned out in terms of texture and I made sure to use all of the right ingredients. When I made my recipe, it had a distinct egg taste. Any suggestions as to why this happened?
Hi Tanya! I would add a little more vanilla extract or other flavorings to mask some of the egg taste. You can also add some shredded coconut if you find it too eggy. I also have a vegan coconut mochi recipe that doesn’t have eggs, if you’d like to try it. It’s a much lighter version of this recipe.
Would it be possible to use brown rice flour instead?
Hi Almie! Unless it says sweet rice flour or glutinous rice flour, I would avoid using it since they’re different varieties of rice with completely different texture.
Oh darn! Okay. The one I have is Bob’s Red Mill – Whole grain brown rice flour. I’ll keep searching for Mochiko here in the Philippines 🙂
It’s looks like Bob’s Red Mill also has a sweet white rice flour that could work in place. I would look to see if it’s at the same store you bought the brown rice flour at.