Matcha Coconut Mochi (GF)

Matcha Coconut Mochi.  An excellent Japanese sweet to serve with tea or coffee.

Summer's here and I have the kids full-time.   Aside from locking them out of the house once because they were fighting, I think I've been able to keep them busy enough to stay out of trouble.



Locked out? Bad mommy! haha.  I told them that they were to stay outside until I heard them having fun.  Eventually, I let them in after I noticed they were playing badminton in the back yard together.  I think they had forgotten what the argument was about by that time too.

The 7 yr old is always wanting to do baking.  In particular, she's really into the mixing part.  Unfortunately regular cake recipes are too difficult for her but this Matcha Mochi is perfect.  Without any gluten to develop, there is no danger of overmixing.  If you are not familiar with Mochi, it's a Japanese sweet made of sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour).  Glutinous rice flour is a misnomer because in fact there is no gluten in it.  The term describes the texture that results when you cook with it.  It's sticky and chewy and quite dense.  You can use either the Chinese sweet rice flour, which is substantially cheaper, or the Japanese kind.  I used a whole box of "Mochiko" Japanese sweet rice flour.

In the end, I had to actually help her a bit with the mixing because there were big pockets at the bottom of the bowl that hadn't been incorporated.  All was well, albeit lumpy as the coconut sugar seemed to stay in little clumps.  I smushed those as best I could and the resulting "cake" was perfectly smooth.  No lumps.

For those people who want a stronger matcha flavour, just double the matcha powder.  This matcha mochi dessert is actually not as sweet as others because I used some coconut sugar.  If you'd like it sweeter, just use straight cane sugar.   The lovely subtle coconut flavour comes from coconut milk.  If you want to dust the top with more matcha you can do that too.

So the kids made this dessert all by themselves from prepping, to measuring and baking and washing.  I even taught my 11 yr old how to properly take out the hot pan from the oven and where to place it to cool without burning herself or my counter.  You'd think that it was obvious, but really this should be directly taught.  This little baking exercise was fun and they were very proud of their cake.  The bonus for me was it was gluten free so I had a piece too.  Very yummy!

COCONUT MATCHA MOCHI CAKES
1 16 oz box Mochiko flour [I used Blue Star brand]
1 cup organic cane sugar
1 1/2 cups organic coconut sugar
2 tablespoons matcha powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 12-oz can Evaporated milk
1 14-oz can Coconut milk
3 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 stick butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Spray a pyrex pan (13 x 9 x 2") pan with coconut spray.
2.  In a large bowl, sift together mochiko flour, sugars, baking powder and matcha.  Mix well.
3.  In a separate bowl, combine the evaporated milk coconut milk, eggs and vanilla and mix well.
4.  Pour into the prepared pan
5.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown.
6.  Cool to room temperature before cutting.

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