These matcha mochi bites are delightfully chewy, mildly sweet, and incredibly easy to make. They are perfect for a quick breakfast, snacking on with a cuppa hot tea in the afternoon, or tucking into a packed lunch. Top them with melted chocolate, it's a delicious way to combine two flavor favorites!
If you like matcha and you like mochi, you have come to the right place.
Matcha is a type of green tea made from grinding young tea leaves into a very fine powder.
Mochi is a Japanese rice cake, most popularly known as the chewy doughy "shell" that is wrapped around a ball of ice cream..
Matcha is one of my favorite flavors and I love it in a latte, ice cream, or cakes...
...and I love the slighty sticky and chew quality, characteristic of mochi.
So it only made complete sense to combine the two into one delicious treat!
Mochi and Matcha
The key ingredient to making the mochi is glutinous rice flour, also known as sweet rice flour or Mochiko flour. Despite the names, this rice flour is neither sweet nor does it contain gluten. "Glutinous" simply means that the rice flour was made from short-grain rice and it refers to its sticky, chewy quality upon being cooked or baked with liquid.
Do not get glutinous rice flour confused with regular rice flour which does not have the same chewy qualities...you will not get the same results!
As for matcha, there are a number of different grades of the tea powder, each have varying qualities of color, smell, and taste.While you do not need to use a "ceremonial" grade matcha for this recipe (it's much too expensive), be sure to use a good quality one that has a nice green color and smells and tastes good. Cheaper matcha powders tend to be murky green in color and either lack in flavor or are bitter.
Personally, after trying a number of different matcha powders for drinking, I like the Rishi Everyday Matcha most. The color is beautiful, it has a nice deep matcha flavor, and it is affordable.
How Do You Make These Mochi Bites?
The dry ingredients are simply of glutinous rice flour, matcha powder, baking powder, and salt that are whisked together. Milk, an egg, melted butter, honey, and vanilla extract make up the wet ingredients.
Whisk together the dry and wet ingredients very well until the batter is nice and smooth, and then pour the batter evenly into the lightly greased or parchment-lined cups of a muffin tin.
Expert Tip: I use a 1-quart measuring glass or a medium/large bowl with a spout to mix all the batter ingredients because the spout makes pouring the batter into the muffin cups incredibly easy. If you do not have a large enough measuring glass to make the batter, you can still pour from you mixing bowl or use a ladle or large spoon.
Place the muffin tin into a 325F/165C preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Don't Panic...
When you look at the mochi bites baking in the oven, they are going to be big, puffy, and beautiful. When you remove them from the oven, they are going to slowly deflate...but don't panic! This is completely normal and while you're first instinct is to think you've failed, you haven't!
The flattening or sinking is characteristic of mochi cakes and it is what makes them different from a muffin. Muffins or cupcakes are light airy, crumbly, and filled with air holes. Mochi are more dense and are meant to be chewy and solid enough so you can take a good solid bite from it. The compression in the dough that happens after baking is what contributes to that chewiness that we all like and expect from mochi.
Adding Chocolate
Adding chocolate to your mochi bites is completely optional, but I think the flavor combination is lovely and a drizzle of melted chocolate also makes them look a lot fancier!
If you want to add chocolate to your mochi bites, I recommend adding it after they have already been baked. In developing this recipe, I found that adding chocolate to the batter, whether it was chocolate chips, chopped chocolate, or melted chocolate, was too heavy and ended up sinking to the bottom. I even tried adding chocolate just to the top of the batter after I poured it into the muffin tin, but the chocolate literally got swallowed up and there was nothing on top when it came out of the oven!
I melt the chocolate or chocolate chips and simply drizzle it over the matcha mochi bites in whatever whimsical pattern I like. You can use whatever chocolate you like, but I personally like how dark chocolate (about 65%) complements the matcha.
Another easy way to add chocolate is to place a chunk of chocolate or a few chocolate chips on top of the mochi immediately after it comes out of the oven. The residual heat will melt the chocolate enough so that it becomes embedded in the top of the mochi bite, and once the chocolate is melted, you can use a toothpick or tip of a butter knife to spread it out.
Recipe Questions
Ingredient Substitutions
As I mentioned above, glutinous rice flour is the same as sweet rice flour is the same as Mochiko flour, so any of these will give the same results for this recipe. Do not use regular rice flour which will not produce the correct results.
The whole milk can be replaced by coconut milk, evaporated milk, or even water.
The honey can be replaced by regular granulated sugar, if you wish. Based on my own experiments, mochi bites made with sugar created a slightly thicker, drier crust, whereas ones made with honey were softer.
The melted butter can be replaced by a neutral flavored oil.
Storing the Mochi Bites
The mochi bites taste best the day they're baked and the day after, thus why I have made this recipe to yield only 6 pieces. Obviously, you can double the recipe to make a full muffin tin of mochi bites if you plan to share them or if you have more than one person in your household who enjoys them!
Store them in a sealed container on the counter for no more than 2-3 days for the best results.
You can store them in the fridge for longer, but you will want to warm them in the microwave in 10 seconds intervals to soften them up again. Keep in mind that if you have chocolate on top of your mochi bites, heating them will soften the chocolate as well.
Can I Make It Into A Cake?
Yes! I would double the recipe and use a 9x9 square pan, lined with parchment paper, and bake it for 45-50 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chunks over the entire cake while it is still hot and let them melt, or drizzle melted chocolate over the mochi cake after it has cooled. Cut into squares to serve. Again, it would taste best the day it is baked and the day after.
I enjoy eating a mochi bite with a hot cuppa tea...my favorite choices being my Soothing Ginger Honey Tea or Ginger Milk Tea Latte as I find they complement the matcha mochi really nicely. I also find it really difficult to keep myself to just eating one...they're simply too easy to eat and just taste so good!
If you love matcha and you like chewy, I think you're going to love these matcha mochi bites. And then if you like chocolate, too (seriously, who doesn't??), you're going to have to go the extra step and drizzle some on...but you'll be glad you did!
~ Lisa.
Watch How To Make It!
Chewy Matcha Mochi Bites
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 125 g glutinous rice flour (see Recipe Notes below)
- 1 tablespoon matcha powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients:
- ½ cup whole milk (see Recipe Notes below)
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate (optional):
- 2 squares dark chocolate
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven 325F/165C.
- Lightly grease 6 cups in a muffin tin with butter. Set aside.
- Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.
- In a medium mixing bowl or 1-quart measuring cup, whisk together milk, eggs, honey, melted butter, and vanilla.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and whisk well until smooth.
- Divide batter equally among the muffin cups.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Let cool 10 minutes in the pan before carefully removing the bites to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store in a sealed container at room temperature for 2-3 days max for best results.
Ways To Add Chocolate:
- Add a piece of chocolate to the tops of the mochi bites once you pull them out of the oven and let the chocolate melt and soften.
- Melt chocolate and drizzle over cooled mochi bites.
- Add a few chocolate chips to the tops of each mochi bite and let melt and soften.
Notes
- 125g is just over ¼ lb. Using weight measurement for the glutinous rice flour yields the best and most accurate results.
- Glutinous rice flour is the same as Mochiko flour and sweet rice flour. Any of these can be used with the same results. Do not use regular rice flour.
- Whole milk can be substituted with coconut milk or evaporated milk. Water also works perfectly.
- Using water reduces the calories by 150 calories per piece.
- Using coconut milk in place of whole milk reduces the calories by 80 calories per piece.
- Honey can be substituted with granulated sugar or another sweetener.
- Stirring chocolate chips or pieces into the batter before baking will result in them sinking to the bottom.
- Omit the chocolate completely, if desired.
- Tastes best when eaten with 2-3 days.
- Store in the fridge if keeping for longer than 2-3 days and warm in the microwave for 10 seconds to return the mochi bites to their soft and chewy texture.
Nutrition
Margaret
I’m following the recipe precisely and can’t figure out why mine are coming out with a more cake like consistency, maintaining the puffy muffin shape rather than collapsing and a bit brown in color throughout. Any idea what I could try to fix them?
(They’re still delightful treats though!)
Hi Margaret! It's very difficult for me to know what caused the different result without me having been there, but my first question would be to ask if you made sure you were using glutinous rice flour and not regular rice flour. If you used regular rice flour, then the cake-like consistency makes a lot of sense (I'm glad you still found them delightful!). Glutinous rice flour (or sweet rice flour) is required to get the chewy mochi texture, and there isn't really any way you can fix them after they've already been made. I hope that helps and thanks for your comment.
Margaret
Thanks for your reply! Hm I am using Mochiko sweet rice flour, so it must be something else. I’m going to experiment and I’ll update here if I figure it out.
If you're using Mochiko sweet rice flour, that would be the right type. Now I'm very curious as to what could have made the difference in texture. Yes, please, do give an update if you figure it out! Thanks, Margaret!
Mrs. G
Hi, have you ever tested this recipe with flax egg?
Hi Mrs. G! No, sorry, I haven't. You could give it a try and see how it turns out, though, keeping in mind that the flax egg might affect the color of the matcha bites. They might still be good, though!
Britt
This recipe was so easy to follow! For some reason my new oven seems to be extra hot (I always burn the bottoms of pastries!) so I reduced the temperature to 300 and cooked for 30 minutes and they came out perfectly.
Thanks, Britt! I'm glad you were able to get them to work by adjusting the oven temperature!
Lily
Hi, I've tried this recipe twice, and for some reason i struggle to get a pouring consistency without adding a lot more liquid than the recipe specifies. Has anybody else had this issue?
Hi Lily! I actually ran into this very issue while helping my niece make mochi bites at her house. I can't exactly explain why it happened, but I just added more liquid, a bit at a time, until it reached the right consistency and they baked up, no problem. Every kitchen is different and even ingredients can vary slightly, even if they're all called the same thing on the package. Thanks for the question!
KC
Hi, can I use Mochiko (sweet rice flour) for this recipe?
Hey KC! Yes, Mochiko flour is the same as glutinous rice flour, so feel free to use it.
Helen
Love the recipe!
If i want to replace the honey with brown sugar, fo i need to add more liquid as well?
How much brown sugar & how much liquid?
Thanks!
Thanks, Helen! I would try substituting the same amount of brown sugar for honey, and adding more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time and mixing well after each addition, until you get the same sort of thick pourable consistency as the original recipe. See how that works, and let me know!
Jo Dee
If use mini muffin pan, how long should I bake for?
Hey Jo Dee. This is a guess, but I would try maybe 20 minutes. What you want to look for is the mochi bites puffing up (and they will sink once out of the oven) and cracks in the surface, and slight browning along the edges. Let me know if that works. Thanks for the question!
J Wong
I absolutely loved this recipe! I was searching the internet for a healthier mochi recipe and this was perfect. It's fairly low in sugar and you can use non-refined sugar - I used maple syrup. I'm definitely going to try more of your recipes. If you ever get a chance, I would love to see a Hawaiian butter mochi recipe from you, I'd like to see your healthier take on it!!
I'm so glad you found my recipe and liked it! And thanks for the suggestion about a healthier Hawaiian butter mochi recipe...I'm working on it! 🙂