Chocolate Mochi Recipe

My happiest moment is sitting in the sun by my cat and letting chocolate mochi melt in my mouth!

Take a bite through this soft, sticky, and chewy cocoa flavor mochi skin, some rich and smooth chocolate cream will melt in your mouth, following by some silky dark chocolate ganache, and surprisingly some chewy “naughty” boba pearls!

What is a good mochi?

Everyone can have their own points of good mochi.

To me, a good mochi should:

• Have a Soft skin – which is chewy but won’t stick to your teeth; which is thin but won’t break easily when you pick the mochi up.
• Have a Rich filling – each component of the filling should balance well in both flavor and texture.
• Stay chewy and tasty after being stored in the fridge for days.

Check out my peach mochi for another GOOD mochi recipe ->

Delicious Food Requires Patience

You might have seen someone making mochi with much easier ingredients and instructions.

Unfortunately, those easy-to-make mochi won’t taste good (ಥ﹏ಥ)

In order to make authentic mochi that delights your taste buds, the following tips are important:

1. Glutinous Rice flour is a must-have

SO many of you have asked me if you use substitute glutinous rice flour with wheat flour or regular rice flour. I’m sorry, but the answer is no. It’s just like you can’t make guacamole without avocado. 

Glutinous rice flour, also known as sticky rice flour, brings mochi skin a special stretchy taffy-like texture. If we substitute glutinous rice flour with wheat flour or regular rice flour, we will end up with a thick doughy flour paste. 

You should be able to find glutinous rice flour in most Asian markets. It’s also sold on Amazon.

2. Butter makes the mochi skin stay soft even after refrigerated 

30g of butter definitely makes our mochi much higher in calories. And the kneading butter step could be frustrating, especially when you don’t have non-stick food handling gloves.

Therefore some easy mochi recipes may simply skip the butter. I can totally understand it if you decide to skip the butter to save some calories and same some cooking time.

However, butter does make a big difference in this recipe.

Mochi skin without butter can be super sticky. People using a butter-free mochi recipe would have to pour the steamed dough directly to a thick layer of corn starch to avoid sticky. Although the mochi surface is covered with corn starch, your teeth will still feel the stickiness of the mochi skin at your very first bite.

What’s more, if you store these butter-free mochi in the fridge overnight, they will turn hard and dry, which will never happen to my homemade mochi. 

3. Why is my chocolate mochi so sticky?

You are not alone! Mochi is made from glutinous rice flour, which was famous for its stickiness.

It’s more than normal for a mochi dough to be sticky, but finished mochi shouldn’t be sticky to eat. I have some tips for you.

• Cooked glutinous rice flour

    Pan fry 5 tbsp of glutinous rice flour over medium low heat without oil, until they turn slightly yellow and smell like popcorn. Transfer out to cool down. In Chinese, we call these cooked glutinous rice flour 手粉 (hand powder). Apply some hand powder on your hands, on the surface of the mochi dough, on the working surface, and on the ladle to prevent from stickiness.

    Some recipes would tell you to use raw glutinous rice flour/corn starch as the hand powder. However, according to livestrong.com, “eating raw cornstarch may cause stomach upset such as gas and bloating”. It’s the same for glutinous rice flour. So it’s highly recommended to cook them before using them as hand powder.

• Allow the dough to cool down completely

Every mochi dough has its own attitude.

Sometimes I am able to knead the dough immediately after the butter is melted.

Yesterday, the steamed mochi dough decided to be extra sticky. I couldn’t even get it off from my non-stick food handling gloves.

To deal with this situation, I covered the dough with plastic food wrap, keep the dough in the fridge for 2 hours (you can do overnight) to let it cool down completely.

2 hours later, I took the dough out from the fridge, it’s much less sticky, and I was able to knead the dough without non-stick gloves. 

Equipment you will need:

• Kitchen scale

• Steamer

• Hand Mixer

• Non-stick food handling gloves

• Non-stick kneading mat

Ingredients for making chocolate mochi:

– For Mochi Skin

• 100 g glutinous rice flour

• 30 g cornstarch
• 40 g sugar
• 5 g cocoa powder
• 160 g milk (or oat milk, soy milk, almond milk …)
• 30 g butter

– For Chocolate Ganache

• 100 g dark chocolate
• 100 g heavy whipping cream

* Use half of it to make chocolate cream, use the other half as the chocolate sauce filling.

– For Chocolate Cream

• 100 g chocolate ganache (about half of the amount we just made)
• 200 g heavy whipping cream
• 20 g sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract (optional)

– For Other fillings

• Bobas (I bought a bag of dried bobas from my local Asian market and boiled ½ cup of bobas by following the instructions. Feel free to use chopped strawberries, crushed Oreos, nuts, air, or any other fillings you like as a substitue.)

Step-by-step Instructions

– To Make Mochi Skin

1. Add milk, sugar, cornstarch, glutinous rice flour, and cocoa powder to a heatproof bowl. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and well combined.

2. Cover the bowl with a heatproof plastic food wrap. Use a toothpick to poke about 16 holes on the wrap.

3. Steam the mixture over high heat for 30 minutes. (Or you can microwave it for 3 minutes. Take out to check the texture. Poke a toothpick into the mochi, if the toothpick tip is dry, the mochi is fully cooked. If the toothpick tip is wet, cover the food wrap back, and microwave for 30 more seconds. )

4. Take the bowl out from the steamer/microwave, put 30g butter on the top of the steamed mochi dough. The mochi dough is very hot now, the butter will be melted quickly.

5. Mix the butter and the mochi dough with a spoon. Once the mochi dough is not too hot to be touched, use your hands to knead the dough until all the butter has been absorbed. You can put non-stick food handling gloves to avoid from getting sticky. If the dough is still to sticky to be kneaded, wrap up the dough with plastic food wrap, keep the dough in the fridge for 2 hours until it completely cools down. It will be much less sticky after it’s cooled.

6. Knead the mochi dough by pulling and folding it for about 5 minutes, until you can pull it as long as your forearm (about 10 inches).

7. Transfer the mochi dough on a nonstick silicone mat, or a working surface covered with plastic food wrap. Apply some cooked glutinous rice flour on the surface of the mochi dough to prevent from getting sticky.

8. Cut the mochi dough into 6 equal portions. Flatten each small dough into 5-inch diameter circles. Cover with plastic food wrap and set aside.

– To Make Fillings

1. Pour 100g heavy whipping cream into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds until the liquid gets warm.

2. Add 100g dark chocolate to warmed heavy whipping cream. Whisk in one direction until the chocolate is melted. Allow to cool completely at room temperature.

3. Add 20g sugar and 100g chocolate ganache (about half of the amount we just made), and ½ tsp of vanilla extract to 200g heavy whipping cream.

4. Beat until stiff peaks form.

5. Boil ½ cup of bobas by following the instruction on the package. Or you can buy some bobas from your local boba tea shop. Or substitute the bobas with chopped strawberries or crushed Oreos.

– To Assemble The Mochi

1. Place a mochi skin on a soup ladle, or on a small round-shape bowl.

2. Put 2 tbsp of whipped chocolate cream,1 tbsp of chocolate ganache, and 1 tbsp of bobas or chopped strawberries in the middle of the mochi wrap.

3. Pull the edges of the wrap together to cover the filling, press together the edges to seal well.

4. Keep in the freezer for 20 minutes for the best texture and taste, serve.

– To Store

• Keep the leftovers in the freezer for up to 7 days. Thaw at room temperate for 20 minutes before serving.

My other Japanese food recipes you will also like: