Mochi is a popular Japanese dessert. These round, colorful confections are made from dough wrapped around ice cream—hence why they’re frozen. To make the dough, you’ll need a popular ingredient called mochi flour (aka mochiko). But what is mochi flour, exactly? It’s made from finely milled sweet rice, which is why it’s also called sweet rice flour. It’s a staple ingredient in recipes for mochi and other desserts, but it’s versatile enough to use in savory dishes too, like rice cakes. Here’s how mochi flour is made, what it tastes like, and how to cook with it.
What Is Mochi Flour?
Mochi flour is a key ingredient in mochi and other recipes. It’s made from a sweet variety of short-grain white rice. In fact, it contains no other ingredients—just sweet rice that’s been processed to a powdered consistency so it can be used like flour. This type of rice is starchier than regular rice, so it’s ideal for thickening purposes such as making dough.
The exact origin of mochi flour is unknown, but it’s believed to have originated in East Asia. It’s likely to have been invented in Japan thousands of years ago. Japan has cultivated glutinous rice—the type of rice used in mochi flour—for centuries, and people began making rice flour not long after. It’s even used in some Japanese rituals, such as the mochitsuki ceremony wherein people pound glutinous rice into rice cakes. The ritual is usually performed at the start of the New Year as a symbol of good luck and fortune.
Though it’s heavily associated with Japanese cuisine, mochi flour is used in other parts of the world as well. For example, it’s used in some Hawaiian and Chinese recipes like rice cakes, rice balls, and various treats.
What Is Mochi Flour Made Of?
Mochi flour is made from one simple ingredient—rice. Specifically, it’s made from short-grain sweet or sticky rice, such as Mochigome rice. The rice is cleaned, dehydrated, and finely milled into the consistency of flour.
Like other types of rice products, the type of rice is important. True mochi flavor is made from glutinous rice, which is also used to make sticky rice. This type of rice has a slightly sweet flavor, which makes it perfect for use in dessert recipes like mochi. Because of the variety of rice used to make mochi flour, it’s sometimes called glutinous rice flour. This refers to the stickiness of the rice—mochi rice is naturally gluten-free.
What Does Mochi Flour Taste Like?
Mochi flour isn’t meant to be eaten on its own or raw. Before eating mochi flour, it’s heated and incorporated with other ingredients, so the taste can vary depending on how it’s used. Generally, mochi flour has a neutral taste and contributes more to a recipe’s texture than its flavor. The type of rice used to make mochi flour, short-grain glutinous rice, is known to have a slightly sweet taste. Mochi flour may be described as having a slightly sweet or earthy flavor, but it’s usually neutral and mild in intensity.
The sweet flavor of mochi flour is more pronounced when used to make desserts like mochi. The outer doughy part of mochi is made from mochi flour, sugar, cornstarch, and milk. Thanks to the sugar, mochi dough tastes sweet. Other ingredients may also be added for flavor, sweetness, and color. Green tea and strawberry are common mochi flavors.
How Does Mochi Flour Differ From Rice Flour?
Mochi flour is a type of rice flour, so the two have some similarities. They’re both made from white rice, and they’re both milled into a fine powder, so they look very similar. They’re also each used in sweet and savory dishes.
However, rice flour labeled “mochi flour” has some distinct qualities compared to other rice flours, making it quite unique.
The main difference between mochi flour and regular rice flour is the type of rice used to make them. Mochi flour is made from a type of short-grain glutinous rice, such as Mochigome rice. It’s also called sweet or sticky rice. Rice flour, on the other hand, is made from long- or medium-grain, non-glutinous white rice.
The type of rice used to make the flour affects the texture of the flour, and consequently how it’s used in cooking. Because mochi flour is made from starchy rice, it yields a more chewy and sticky texture. Regular rice flour isn’t as stretchy as mochi flour. It has a lighter texture and is more similar to wheat flour in that it produces a cake-like consistency in baking or cooking.
Due to their differences in taste and texture, mochi flour and rice flour aren’t perfect substitutes for each other.
How to Cook With Mochi Flour
You may be familiar with mochi flour in mochi desserts. You can buy frozen mochi at many supermarkets, including Trader Joe’s, but it’s not too difficult to make at home. You only need a few ingredients and some time to heat and roll out the dough. Once you wrap the dough around a ball of ice cream, you’ve got homemade mochi.
Aside from the ever popular mochi dessert, mochi flour is used in plenty of other Japanese, Chinese, and Hawaiian treats. For example, in Chinese cuisine, mochi flour is added to puddings to thicken them. In Hawaii, mochi flour is used to make butter mochi—a buttery mochi-based dessert that’s baked in the oven like a cake.
Mochi flour is also commonly used to make savory recipes where its sticky properties are put to good use, such as rice cakes and dumplings.