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Someone holding a mochi muffin with a bite taken out of it.
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5 from 41 votes

Vegan Mochi Muffins (Hojicha)

A super easy, no-mixer Vegan Mochi Muffins recipe that is naturally gluten-free. These Hojicha Mochi Bites are the perfect sweet-but-not-too-sweet treat for those on a plant-based diet or GF diet. Once you've had them fresh from the oven, the crisp exterior and the soft, stretchy, chewy dough will leave you wanting more!
Prep Time1 hour 55 minutes
Cook Time50 minutes
Course: Appetizer, Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American, Fusion
Servings: 12 muffins
Calories: 378kcal
Author: Zen

Equipment

  • Muffin tin Dust each muffin compartment with semolina, regular wheat flour or rice flour (after buttering them to ensure they don't stick!) Substitute with a cake pan: You can bake this as 1 large cake instead of mini mochi bites/ muffins but I prefer the latter as there is more crispy "skin" to contrast with the soft chewy inside.
  • Whisk
  • Large bowl
  • Sieve (optional)
  • Ice cream scoop

Ingredients

Wet ingredients

  • Cup coconut milk, unsweetened (600g/ 21.2 oz) Substitute: 1 part/ 120g/ 4.24 oz coconut cream to 4 parts/ 480g/ 16.96 oz water
  • Cups water

Dry ingredients

  • 3 Cups glutinous rice flour Substitute: mochiko flour etc. See notes for other varieties of glutinous rice flour
  • 1¼- 1½ Cups white sugar  I use 1¼ Cups of sugar but if you have a sweeter tooth, you can go up to 1½ Cups without the hojicha mochi bites becoming too sweet. Some brands of Hojicha are more bitter, in which case you would have to use more sugar i.e. 1½ Cups.
  • 1- 1½ Tablespoons Hojicha powder f you only have Hojicha tea leaves, steep them in hot coconut milk till very fragrant before using in this recipe
  • teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • Hojicha powder + icing sugar mixed in a 1:1 ratio  Optional, for dusting

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350F/ 177C (157 fan.)
  • Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. If your flour is clumpy, sieve before mixing well. (I never need to sieve for this recipe though!)
  • Pour the coconut milk into the dry ingredients. Mix till there are no lumps, bits of flour, or air pockets in the batter. Don't stress about over-mixing as the glutinous rice flour has no gluten and can't be overworked/ become tough.
  • Use an ice-cream scoop to scoop the batter into the muffin tin- this helps to ensure that every muffin is approximately the same weight and thus takes the same amount of time to bake. Fill each muffin compartment up to ¾ of the way (you want to give the vegan mochi muffins space to rise up)
  • Tap the filled muffin tin gently to remove air bubbles in the dough before placing it in the hot oven.
  • Bake for 45-55 minutes or till the edges have turned crisp and golden/ toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. The finished vegan mochi bites will still have a slightly translucent, gooey interior but a crisp golden exterior. The inside will look a little wet even when it's done!
  • Optional: for a nice finish, you can dust the muffins with a light sprinkling of Hojicha powder mixed with icing sugar.

Notes

There are several types of glutinous rice flours, which I've summarised in this post. Thai glutinous rice flour is usually the cheapesst, but Japanese and Korean sweet rice flours can be used for vegan mochi bites too.
If you want to bake 2 flavours, simply reduce this recipe by half. You can make another batch using matcha powder (just substitute Matcha powder for Hojicha powder.) See this matcha mochi bites post for alternative flavors.
Storage
Keep these vegan muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-4 days (or in the fridge/ freezer if you need them to last longer.) Reheat before serving, if possible!
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity.

Nutrition

Calories: 378kcal | Carbohydrates: 67g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 1827mg | Potassium: 134mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 0.05g | Vitamin C: 0.5mg | Calcium: 42mg | Iron: 2mg