I was never a firm believer of baked doughnuts. Isn’t it just cake in a different shape? Can anything be a doughnut if it’s shaped like one? When would you choose a baked doughnut over a fried one? (Never.) I’ll admit that I’ve made quite a few baked doughnuts when I first started baking — I was afraid of deep frying and I had a baked carrot cake doughnut with a cream cheese glaze recipe that my friends and family loved. Slowly, I started making baked doughnuts less and less as I got more comfortable with frying. It wasn’t until recently I rekindled my love of using a doughnut pan. I still like to fry my traditional doughnuts but it’s a whole different story when it comes to mochi doughnuts. I started making baked mochi doughnuts and the texture of them are unreal. Baked mochi doughnuts are special because have a tender and chewy interior and a wonderful, caramelized crust. It’s like eating baked butter mochi but because it’s baked in a doughnut pan, each piece of mochi has more crust than a traditional mochi square.
What gives mochi its signature texture (chewy! jiggly! stretchy!) is the main ingredient — glutinous rice flour, also known as sweet rice flour. Glutinous rice flour is different than regular rice flour so don’t be tempted to use the two interchangeably. Glutinous rice can be found at your local Asian grocery store and the brand I like to use is Mochiko. For these baked mochi doughnuts, glutinous rice flour is combined with sugar, coconut milk, egg, and a little bit of baking powder for lift. I added matcha powder for flavour but the recipe is a great blank canvas for you to experiment with flavours — I can’t wait to add other tea flavours for future mochi doughnuts. The doughnuts are baked developed in my Williams Sonoma Nonstick Doughnut Pan until they are just set and a golden crust has form. A nonstick pan is great for sticky batters like mochi. If your doughnut doesn’t have a nonstick coating, remember to grease it really well.
The doughnuts are delicious as is even without a glaze, but for the holiday season, I’m giving them a little festive touch. After the doughnuts have cooled, each doughnut is dipped in a simple royal icing glaze and decorated with a variety of sprinkles and candy decorations. I try not to pick favourites, but the reindeer doughnut with the red sprinkle nose is the one I would go for first.
Products used:
Williams Sonoma Nonstick Doughnut Pan
Williams Sonoma Goldtouch® Pro Cooling Rack
Natale Reindeer Napkins
Matcha Mochi Doughnuts
Equipment
- Williams Sonoma Nonstick Doughnut Pan
- Williams Sonoma Goldtouch®Pro Cooling Rack
- Natale Reindeer Napkins
Ingredients
Matcha Mochi Doughnuts
- 180 g glutinous rice flour (sweet rice flour)
- 1 tbsp matcha powder
- 50 g (1/4 cup) brown sugar
- 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 190 g (3/4 cup) full-fat coconut milk, room temperature
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Doughnut Glaze
- 140 g (1 1/4 cup) icing sugar
- 1 – 2 tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp matcha powder, optional
Instructions
Matcha Mochi Doughnuts
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease doughnut pans and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Set aside.
- In a large measuring cup, whisk together all the wet ingredients until fully combined.
- Pour the coconut milk mixture into the dry ingredients. Fold until combined. If the mixture is lumpy at all, push the mixture through a fine-meshed sieve.
- Transfer batter to doughnut pans, filling the cavities a bit more than ¾ full.
- Bake doughnuts for 25-30 minutes, the centre will still be a bit wobbly. The centres will firm up as they cool. When doughnuts are removed from the pan, they should have a golden top. Transfer doughnuts to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before decorating. Mochi doughnuts are better once they’ve cooled and the mochi gets chewier.
Doughnut Glaze
- Whisk the ingredients together, adding extra milk or confectioners' sugar to adjust the consistency as needed.
- Dip cooled doughnuts in glaze and place on cooling rack to set.
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