Mochi Donut Recipe

What are Mochi Donuts?

Mochi donuts were made by a popular donut chain store called Mister Donut in Japan. Mister Donut called these chewy donuts “Pon De Ring”. Mochi donuts have become super popular the past few years and there are now so many stores dedicated to making mochi donuts. 

I have tried many mochi donuts from various stores, including the ones from Mister Donut in Japan. Depending on the store, there are slight differences in density and chewiness of the mochi donut. I found that the ones from Mister Donut are very light and airy whereas the ones from Hawaii are more dense and cakelike.

The texture comes down to preference but I found the ratio of mochiko flour to tapioca starch is the reason for the difference. The more tapioca starch in the mix, the lighter the mochi donut. Conversely, the more mochiko in the mix the more dense the mochi donut. 

What is Mochiko, Sweet Rice Flour? 

What is mochiko? Mochiko is Japanese sweet rice flour. It is used to make many popular mochi desserts and snacks such as mochi ice cream, daifuku, dango, etc. Mochiko is what gives the dense doughy texture of the mochi donut. 

Making mochi donuts may seem tedious. However, it is fairly simple to make. The hardest part is getting the shape right and frying it. To make sure I get the mochi donut shape, I like to pipe dough onto parchment paper and fry the mochi donut along with the parchment paper. The parchment paper will help keep the mochi donut in shape while it cooks.

You can remove the parchment paper half way through or remove it after it is cooked. It should come right off.  Let the mochi donut cool a bit before coating it with chocolate or decorating it. Even if the shape of the mochi donut doesn’t come out like the ones sold in stores, the taste will be that much better and will keep you coming back for more.  

Ingredients:

• 150g mochiko flour

• 115g  tapioca starch
• 8g baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 75g white granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 150g whole milk
• 24g vegetable shortening
• Neutral oil for frying 
• Parchment paper 
• Ziploc bag or piping bag to pipe dough 
• White chocolate 

• Yuzu spread
• Matcha powder
• Kinako powder 

Steps:

1. In a bowl, combine wet ingredients
2. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients
3. Then combine the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients 
4. Mix until fully combined
5. Fill the dough in a ziploc bag or piping bag
6. If using a ziploc bag, snip a small corner of the bag off so the dough can go through it
7. On parchment paper, pipe about 8 small balls in a circle  
8. In a pot, heat oil on medium heat
9. Fry donut on medium heat on both sides keeping the parchment paper on 
10. Once the donut is light to medium brown in color on both sides, remove from oil and peel off parchment paper
11. While it is resting for a few minutes, melt white chocolate in microwave 
12. Dip mochi donut in white chocolate 
13. Then Immediately powder it with matcha powder or kinako powder
14. If using the yuzu spread, wait until the white chocolate hardens and then spread the yuzu all over 
15. Serve and enjoy!