Morish mochi meets chocolatey goodness in this recipe for crunchy, chewy salted chocolate chip mochi cookies
There’s only one thing Sugarpuff loves more than a good choc chip cookie and that’s mochi. The sweet and stretchy Japanese rice treat, that resembles play dough, is a kind of dough made from pounded steamed short-grain glutinous rice. Chewy, smooth and elastic, Sugarpuff becomes a one-woman mochi machine when we visit Japan, devouring squishy pillows of the stuff wherever and however she can.
Whether it’s her favourite ichigo daifuku (balls of mocchi filled with sweet red bean paste and whole fresh strawberries), yatsuhashi (Kyoto’s popular cinnamon mochi triangles wrapped around red bean paste), dango (unctuous little dumplings made from sweet glutinous rice flour), or wrapped around ice cream, she loves the stuff. Despite her sweet tooth, she even loves it when it’s used in a savoury way like in delicious isobe yaki (a type of mochi that’s grilled in nori and dipped in soy sauce).
Having depended on rice since ancient times, the Japanese consider mochi a food for the gods, frequently used in in Shinto and Buddhist rituals, and symbolic of health, good fortune and strength. So, with her usual craving for cookies colliding with the super strength on display at the Tokyo Olympics she decided she to learn to make mochi (or dango, because unlike mochi it can be made quickly and by hand) for herself and then stuff it in her favourite cookies for chewy effect, adding a touch of sea salt for balance. The result is 12 of the most delicious, chewy chocolate chip cookies with a ping of salt enhancing the flavour.
Here’s the recipe!
Salted chocolate chip mochi cookies
Ingredients
- For the cookie:
- 125 grams butter at room temperature
- 250 grams firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 225 grams plain flower
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100 grams dark or milk chocolate chips
- Sea salt
- For the mochi:
- 100 gm sweet rice flour.
- 180 ml water
- 30 gm sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius
- Line a baking tray with baking paper
- Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until pale
- Add vanilla and egg and mix to combine
- Sift in flour, baking powder and add a pinch of salt and fold through mix.
- Stir in ¾ of the chocolate chips reserving some for topping cookies.
- In a separate microwave safe bowl mix sweet rice flour, water and sugar until smooth. Cover bowl with cling film and microwave for one minute.
- Stir mix well then place back in microwave and heat for another minute.
- Remove and allow to cool.
- To make cookies flatten a tablespoon of cookie dough and place a teaspoon of mochi into the middle.
- Bring the edges of the cookie dough to the middle to cover the mochi, then roll into a ball.
- Place cookie balls onto tray, about 6 cm apart to allow spread.
- Flatten balls a little, top with extra choc chips and a light sprinkle of sea salt.
- Bake in over for 15-20 minutes until golden.
- Remove and allow to cool on a wire rack.
An award-winning travel writer and photographer, Aleney de Winter was fresh from school when she first set off to explore the far reaches of Australia with a two-man tent and a beaten-up Kingswood for company. Three decades, and two kids later, and she's still on the go, with her itchy-footed offspring in tow. 