This cheesy Korean mochi bread is soft and chewy on the inside and so tasty! It tastes so good, you'll find it hard to stop at one! Shaped into balls, they are the perfect size for snacking on or serving with a soup or salad. It’s an easy and delicious gluten-free treat you’re going to love!
A distant relative to the Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pao de Queijo), these cheesy mochi balls are soft, chewy, and incredibly tasty. I've updated and simplified this recipe from my original version so that it is even easier to make, so there is no excuse not to make these tasty treats! There is no need to heat the milk and you can mix it all with a spoon...no mixer required! Let's get on with it!
Ingredients
- Glutinous rice flour (same as sweet rice flour, Mochiko rice flour)
- Milk
- Neutral-flavored oil
- Cheddar cheese
- Parmesan cheese
- Egg
- Salt
See recipe card for quantities.
Equipment
As with almost all gluten-free baking recipes, using a digital scale (affiliate link) ensures more reliable results because of the greater accuracy in measuring the ingredients. For other recommended equipment items for this recipe, check out the equipment list in the recipe card below.
Instructions
In a mixing bowl, add the glutinous rice flour and salt. Add the milk and oil.
Using a spoon or mixer, mix the flour and milk and oil together until the mixture resembles course pebbles and most of the flour has been incorporated.
Beat the egg and then add it to the flour-milk mixture.
Mix the egg into the pellets until a cohesive dough forms.
Add the grated cheddar and Parmesan cheese to the bowl.
Mix the cheese into the dough until fully incorporated.
Transfer the dough to a work surface lightly dusted with glutinous rice flour. Flatten the dough slightly into a disc.
Use a knife to cut the disc into 8 wedges.
Roll each wedge of dough in between your hands to form a ball.
Place the dough balls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 375F/190C oven for18-20 minutes until slightly golden brown.
Hint: The dough is not meant to be kneaded and is very easy to handle. Lightly dust your hands with glutinous rice flour and simply press the dough together to form a cohesive mass before dividing into 8 pieces.
Variations
Try adding any of these ingredients to the dough before shaping them into balls and baking:
- Green onions
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Mozzarella cheese - substitute one of the cheeses with mozzarella and get a stretch of cheese when pulling a mochi bread ball apart!
See this chocolate version on my website!
Serving Suggestions
I really like eating the cheesy mochi bread just as they are for a snack alongside my favorite hot beverage. However, I also really enjoy eating them with a hot bowl or soup or with a salad. Here are a few of my favorite dishes to serve with the bread:
Commonly Asked Questions
No. Do not use regular rice flour or any all-purpose gluten-free flour blend. It must be glutinous rice flour or sweet rice flour.
No. Glutinous rice flour has no gluten. Glutinous refers to the sticky, chewy quality the flour takes on when cooked.
The only way to make this dairy-free is to omit the cheese and use a non-dairy milk. However, I do not know how the final result or how long the bread will last if there is no cheese to add fat and moisture.
The cheesy mochi bread tastes best the same day it is made, but you can keep leftovers for up to two days. Reheat the in microwave for about 5-10 seconds to soften them up.
Other Recipes You Might Like
I'm a big fan of mochi because of the chewy texture. If you're like me and like mochi, too, take a look at these recipes where I combine mochi with other flavors:
You are going to love this savory cheesy mochi bread with its crackled texture and how cute they are! Eat them soon after you pull them out of the oven and you'll enjoy the crisp outside and soft and chewy inside. They are so good, it will be hard to resist eating more than one!
~ Lisa.
Cheesy Korean Mochi Bread
Ingredients
- 200 grams glutinous rice flour
- 5 grams salt
- ½ cup whole milk
- ¼ cup light olive oil
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 30 grams grated Parmesan cheese
- 45 grams grated cheddar cheese
- ⅓ cup finely chopped green onions (optional)
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven 375 deg F (190C).
- Add glutinous rice flour and salt to a mixing bowl.
- Add the milk and oil to the glutinous rice flour and mix with a spoon or mixer until mixture resembles small pellets.
- Add the egg to the bowl and mix/beat until well-incorporated and a dough forms.
- Add grated cheeses and chopped green onions (if using) and stir well into the dough with a spatula or spoon.
- Dust your work surface and your hands with glutinous rice flour and lightly shape the dough into a disc.
- Cut the dough into 8 wedges, then roll each wedge into a ball.
- Place dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes until you see cracks in the surface of the bread and they are lightly golden in color.
- Let cool slightly before serving.
Notes
- Look for glutinous rice flour or sweet rice flour in your local Asian market. The brand does not matter as long as it's the correct type of rice flour.
- Volume measurements (This recipe works best with weight measurements because they are more precise and yield more reliable results):
- 200g of glutinous rice flour is approximately 2 cups + 5 tsp. This volume measurement was made from spoon the flour into the measuring cup/spoons (so the flour is not packed) and leveling it off.
- 5 grams of salt is about 1 teaspoon.
- 45 grams of cheddar cheese is approximately ¾ cup.
- 30 grams Parmesan cheese is approximately ½ cup.
- Leftover mochi bread can be stored in a sealed container or bag for up to 2 days.
- Heat up any leftover mochi bread for 5-10 seconds in the microwave to soften.
**This post was originally published August 18th, 2019 and republished May 20th, 2024 with an updated name and recipe, new writing and new photos.
Anna
These turned out so well, and so tasty. It really reminds of the Brazilian bread that they serve at Gauchos. I think the only thing i would change just for me personally is to make the breads a bit smaller and make more, perhaps 12-16.
Thanks so much for making them, Anna! I'm so glad you liked them, and making them smaller and getting more out of the recipe is a great idea.
Debbie
Why 2 different forms of measurements?
Please use all standard measurements!
Hi Debbie! Except for the liquid measurements, I have listed all the dry ingredients in weight because volume measurement can vary greatly. Weight measurements yield more reliable results. However, if you look at the Notes section of the recipe, I did give the best approximation of volume measurements for the dry ingredients that you can try if you'd like. Thank you for your comment!
Cynthia Villanuevs
Hi Lisa. good day to you. Thanks for this recipe. I just wanted to find out if I could use evaporated milk instead of whole milk. Please let me know. Regards.
Hi Cynthia! Thanks for the question...I think evaporated milk should work fine. I would certainly consider giving it a try.
Karlie
I am an average cook at best but these turned out great! Thank you!
Fabulous, Karlie! Thanks for letting me know!
Evy
Hi, this recipe could be "the one" i've been looking for, for quite some time! I want to try in minutes but i only have regular rice flour, in my country there's no glutinous rice flour, would a regular rice flour work? Or do you have anything in mind to add to ingredients if i use a regular rice flour? Thanks a bunch in advance 🙂
Thanks for the question, Evy. Unfortunately, this recipe will not work with regular rice flour as it is completely different from glutinous rice flour. They will end up hard, dry, and not chewy in any way. The only thing I can think of substituting or mixing into a bit of regular rice flour is tapioca starch (more starch than rice flour), but that still will not yield the exact results as if you used glutinous rice flour.
Evy
Thank you Lisa, that's still great news for me, I already have tapioca starch at home, wow, got so exited! I just miss bread a lot and i got bored from all other flours or couldn't like the smell or taste... I absolutely will try your recipe! So, to make it clear, if you had to, how would you try it? Do you think i should use, say, 120gr tapioca starch plus 80gr regular rice flour?
If I were to try this experiment, I would start with 150g tapioca starch and 50g rice flour to see how it works. You could also make just half a batch to run the test. Good luck with it, Evy, and let me know how it turns out. Also, another option for a chewy bread type recipe is my Pao de Queijo. The recipe is similar, but not exactly the same as the Mochi Balls and it uses all tapioca starch. https://www.adayinthekitchen.com/chewy-brazilian-cheese-bread/
Evy
🙏🏼 I cannot thank you enough! I've just checked your Pao de Queijo recipe and this is the first time i saw tapioca starch used this way. I absolutely surely will try both recipes and let you know, thank you again 😊🙏🏼
Didi
Hi I followed the recipe .. is the crust supposed to be hard. Insides are soft. I baked 30 mins at 190. Any recommendations to have the outer crust softer?
The crust is supposed to be crisp, but I'm not exactly what you mean by hard. You could try brushing the outside of the mochi balls with some oil before baking, or alternatively, you could try adding a bit more oil to the dough, keeping in mind that adding more liquid will make the dough a bit stickier to handle. Let me know if you try the recipe again, Didi.
Jay
Hello, I just wanted to drop in and say that QQ is not the Korean word for chewy that is a Taiwanese word. The Korean word for chewy is jjolgit jjolgit.
(I say this as someone who is both Korean and Taiwanese)
Wow. Thanks, Jay! I appreciate you enlightening me! I've corrected the information in the post to reflect that information.
Jenny
Hi, I was wondering if I could replace the light olive oil with regular vegetable oil or unsalted butter?
Yes, those should work fine. Thanks for the question, Jenny!
Juliana
I tried once by using exactly the same recipe and they tasted wonderful. For better control of calories, I cut half on cheese volume and they were still good enough to attract my colleagues. Really want to try out green tea.
That's awesome, Juliana! I'm still working on the green tea version and hope to come out with the perfected version soon!
Jade
Just made these! Can you freeze them?
Sorry, Jade. I've never tried so I don't know if they freeze well or not. If you wanted to test it, I would freeze one, then bring it to room temperature before reheating.
ham
I followed this recipe, but i can still taste the flour texture and the flour smell. Any ideas where I missed out?
I'm not sure. You could try adding more cheese, or perhaps mixing in some onion or garlic powder into the rice flour to see if that makes any difference.
Miann
Hi! These look delicious but I am wondering if I can substitute the milk for a non diary option or use water instead? Thank you.
I have not personally tried this recipe with water or a non-dairy option, so I am not sure how they would work out. If you're looking for non-dairy in this recipe, you may also run into an issue with the cheese, and if you omit that, then you'll want to find a different way to add flavor. If you try the recipe without dairy ingredients, please let me know how they turn out! Thanks for the question, Miann.