Tender fluffy mochi pancakes are crazy easy to make, mildly sweet, have a slight chew, and are gluten-free! These are so scrumptious, you're going to love them!

Mochi pancakes.

You have no idea what you've been missing.

These pancakes are soft, tender, tasty, and have a slight chew to them that makes them stand out from regular pancakes.

They're also ridiculously easy to make and gluten-free.

This is a total winner of a recipe that you are going to love!

I had never heard of mochi pancakes until my friend, Marlies, mentioned them. She was attempting to make them at home after having them on a recent Hawaiian vacation. I was intrigued by the sound of them, and she commented that I needed to help her figure this recipe out.

Who was I to turn down a challenge like this?

The Mochi Component

The mochi part of these pancakes comes from mochi flour, which is the same as glutinous rice flour, a flour that gets sticky when cooked. This flour is what contributes to the bit of chew in this pancake that makes it so good. If you were to use all glutinous rice flour, however, the pancakes would be too dense and chewy, which doesn't quite make for good pancakes. Combining it with regular rice flour gives the pancakes the perfect balance of texture.

I have seen versions where regular wheat flour was used in combination with the glutinous rice flour, but I was interested in trying it with rice flour instead which would then make them gluten-free. Bonus!

If you're interested in other recipes that use glutinous rice flour, check out my Chewy Korean Mochi QQ Balls!

Making The Pancake Batter

The glutinous rice flour and regular rice flour are combined with baking powder, baking soda, and a pinch of salt to make up the dry component.

The wet component is made up of milk, honey, oil, and an egg yolk...which brings me to separating the egg.

The egg yolk gets mixed with the other wet ingredients which then get mixed with the dry. The separated egg white gets loosened up and frothed up a bit with a fork and set aside until later.

When the egg yolk milk mixture gets mixed with the dry ingredients, you'll end up with a slightly lumpy batter, which is totally okay.

Then you add the frothy egg white and fold it into the pancake batter.

So why add the egg white separately? Adding the egg white into the batter at the end helps make the pancakes a little fluffier than if you simply mixed the whole egg into the batter. And while there are recipes out there that tell you to whip the egg white into soft peaks, I have found that going through that effort is not necessary at all. The results are the same whether the egg whites are whipped or not...so why go through the extra work?

Cooked Up In A Jiffy

I heat my 12-inch skillet over low-medium heat and lightly grease it with some light olive oil. I then use a ¼ cup measure (not fully filled) to scoop some batter onto the pan. I can usually fit four 4" pancakes on the pan at once.

As with any other pancakes, once the bubbles start to break through the surface, it's time to flip! At this point, you only need to let it sit for no more than a minute and they are ready to remove from the pan.

Then it's time to stack and enjoy!

Like Regular Pancakes...But Better!

These pancakes are tender like regular wheat pancakes, yet they are not so flimsy that they fall apart if you pick them up with your hands. The are soft and soak up maple syrup just like regular pancakes, but they also have a bit of a chew to them, all thanks to the glutinous rice flour. They are also not as crumbly as regular pancakes, so they hold together better when you cut into them or poke them with your fork.

Oddly enough, I also don't find them as heavy as regular pancakes, and I find the flavor a lot nicer. They are delicious eaten completely on their own, or eat them the traditional way with maple syrup poured on top.

Considering I do not know what the mochi pancakes were like when my friend, Marlies, ate them during her Hawaiian holiday, I found these pancakes to be too scrumptious not to share. And again, you will not be able to tell that there is no gluten! I have made them several times in testing the recipe and they have been snarfed up so fast...my family loves them, and I know you will, too!

~ Lisa.