Baked Mochi

Happy New Year!

One of the great traditions of New Year's when you are in a Japanese family is making mochi. Many of my friends get together and their families pound rice into mochi. To the left are various types of mochi. I would describe mochi as sort of a stiff, smooth rice pudding.

Well, our side of the family has sort of scattered, and while freshly made homemade mochi the traditional way is incredibly delicious, it is hard to make and sort of takes a village.

So, here is a cheater's mochi - a sweet dessert mochi very easy to be baked by one person. It comes out white in brownie-ish squares.

Baked Mochi

1 box (1 lb) mochi flour (mochiko)
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 can coconut milk
1 can water (use the coconut milk can)

cornstarch (or potato starch)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix dry ingredients together with a whisk. Add all the liquid ingredients and whisk until smooth.

Grease and lightly cornstarch a 9"X13" pan, pour the batter in and and cover with foil. Bake one hour or until mochi does not look raw anywhere on the pan.

After the mochi comes out of the oven, let it cool for an hour. Put cornstarch on a cutting board. Plop the mochi out of the pan onto the cutting board. Cut the mochi into rectangles, and roll each piece lightly in cornstarch. You can put them in individual muffin papers for an extra fancy touch.

Store covered or in tupperware. Delish!