Best-Ever Mochi Donut Holes
I’ve never heard of mochi donuts until MoDo Hawaii, a pop-up mochi donut shop, became super popular in my area.
Mochi donuts have a different texture from regular donuts. They are slightly chewy, puffy, and completely irresistible. And the best part? They are also gluten-free!
MoDo Hawaii sells distinctive donut rings consisting of multiple small balls pressed together. The most common flavors that I saw were matcha, black sesame, and vanilla glaze. This is what they look like:
MoDo Donuts are priced higher than regular donuts and frequently sell out, so I wanted to figure out a way to make them at home. These donuts are simpler to make than yeast donuts because there isn’t a proof time, and through trial and error I discovered an easy way to make them.
I used glutonious rice flour (mochiko) to make a dough base, and shaped them into donut holes to fry. This is the brand that I use:
At first I tried to recreate the MoDo ring, but it was unnecessarily difficult to fry them while maintaining that shape. So, I turned them into donut holes! I also experimented with a bunch of different glaze flavors too, including matcha, black sesame, chocolate, strawberry, and lemon. My family’s consensus was that chocolate tasted best 🙂
These are the donuts from my first attempt. They look pretty rough, but tasted really good! I converted strategies into making donut holes the second time, and it was faster, nicer-looking, and tasted just as good.
This is what the donut holes looked like before glaze:
And after glaze:
Kitchen Bop Music Rec: Cotton Candy Clouds by Valntn
Best-Ever Mochi Donut Holes
Ingredients
Donut
- 2 cups of glutonius rice flour
- 3 tbsp of whole milk
- 1/2 cup of whole milk
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter melted
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp of baking powder
Glaze
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp melted butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ – 1 tbsp hot water lemon juice for lemon glaze, less for strawberry glaze
- For flavors: add ½ to 1tbsp of either matcha cocoa, black seasame powder. Or, add lemon zest and ½ tbsp strawberry jam for strawberry glaze.
Instructions
- Mix ¼ cup of flour with 3 tbsp of milk in a small, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds.
- Mix the rest of flour, milk, melted butter, egg, baking powder, and sugar together in a stand mixer or large bowl.
- Add in the microwaved dough and continue mixing until a smooth consistency is reached.
- Remove from bowl and place on a well-floured (glutonious flour only!) surface.
- Knead a few times, and divide dough into two pieces.
- Roll into a thin log shape, and cut each log into 10 smaller pieces. Roll them into balls.
- Heat a pot filled with vegetable oil on medium-high heat on the stove. The oil should be at least 1.5inches deep so it can cover your donuts while frying.
- Using a food thermometer, heat the oil until it reaches 350F. Carefully drop in the donut holes in the oil, working in small batches. I use a medium pot and I fry 4-5 holes at once.
- Fry for 3-4 minutes before turning them. Continue frying until all sides are golden brown.
- Remove from the pan and place onto a plate lined with paper towels. This helps remove the excess oil.
- To make the glaze, simply combine all ingredients and your choosing flavoring. You can drizzle it over the top of your donut holes, or just dunk the tops in like I did.
- Enjoy immediately or within the next 24 hours. Do not refrigerate them as they will become hard.
they were absolutely delicious! I recommend making the chocolate and lemon glaze
Thank you so much for the tip about making separate donut holes. I struggled with shaping the “ring” on my first few toys, and was much more successful this time.