Hawaiian Passionfruit Butter Mochi

If you're looking for good gluten-free dessert recipes, one place to start is with cultures that use other grains, like rice and corn, for their pastries.  So Asian, Italian, and Mexican cuisines are often my go-to for inspiration.

I was trying to come up with a dessert to take to my wonderful step daughter, who is gluten-free.  I was GOING to make Tang Yuan, those delicious balls with glutinous rice flour and black sesame inside -- but they aren't really suited to the hurly burly of 20-something life.  So I thought of making mochi, which freeze very well.  Then I remembered a wonderful cross-cultural dish I'd had many years ago in Hawaii -- butter mochi.

Butter mochi are a great combination of western and eastern cooking -- it combines glutinous rice flour, known as 'mochiko' in Hawaii, and the standard eggs and butter of Western desserts.  It's got that great mochi texture and it's not too sweet.  What's not to like?  I love the taste of passion fruit, so for this recipe I substituted passion fruit pulp for the traditional evaporated milk.  If you like, you can sprinkle sugar or a passion fruit-sugar glaze, or coconut, on top to make this prettier, but it's pretty addictive as is.  I think I'm going to try matcha butter mochi, too.

Passion fruit pulp is available in most Hispanic groceries.

Ingredients:

1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
16 oz glutinous rice flour (mochiko)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 14 oz can coconut milk
3/4 cup passion fruit pulp

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and line a 10x14 baking dish with parchment.  Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and pour into the baking dish.  Bake for 45-50 minutes, until golden brown on top.  If you are adding coconut or sugar, you should add it in the last 10 minutes of baking.  If you are glazing, add the glaze after you take it out of the oven, but before it's completely cool.  Cool and cut into whatever size you like.  Note that the texture and taste of the mochi will change quite a bit between when you take it out of the oven and when it is cool, so leave some time between baking and serving.  Mochi stores quite well, but I usually store it in the refrigerator, wrapped up.