Food From My Friend: Chocolate Chip Mochi

I have known Julie H. most of her life, I'm proud to say. When she was a 7th grader at Kalākaua Middle School, I was doing my student teaching. When she entered Farrington High School as a 9th grader, I got hired into the Social Studies department! I was her class advisor during her sophomore year and she and some of her council members came to the hospital to visit me after I gave birth to my oldest son, Christopher. Thought it's been a long time since we've met in person, we have kept in touch and she was one of the first to respond to my recipe request with this great twist on mochi.


With the exception of Tom, who is not a huge fan, mochi is a favorite of the family. In this arena however, I am somewhat of a one-trick pony; I make pumpkin mochi during the holiday season and that's about it. Let's see if I can add to my repertoire! Here's today's cast.


I love recipes that start with mixing wet ingredients in one bowl. Two lightly beaten eggs, evaporated milk and vanilla. That weird white spot in the middle appeared when I added the vanilla. Hmmm.


The dry ingredients were added to another bowl along with about a tablespoon of instant coffee.


By this time, the stick of butter had melted down and cooled a tad.


The melted butter was added to the wet ingredients. It wasn't very hot and since there was an abundance of evaporated milk, I wasn't too concerned that the eggs would curdle. They didn't.


The wet ingredients were incorporated into the dry. Normally I add dry to wet, but yeah. Right around now the kids, who were behaving so well I felt I could sneak off to the kitchen for a bit, began living up to their nicknames of Captain Chaos and Mischief Maker. I don't know what set them off, I just know there was a lot of screaming and toys being thrown. They weren't even interacting; two separate toddler rampages occurring side by side. That's my long-winded way of saying this is why I don't have a photo of the batter in the greased baking pan. It's also why I almost forgot to add the chocolate chips and had to stir them into the batter with my finger after I already placed the pan onto the oven rack...


About 55 minutes later, this beautifully golden mochi emerged.


You should cool it down until it is barely warm before you cut it. Should. I did not. It was out for maybe five minutes before I started cutting a corner out of it so I could taste it. Chris chided me. I was not deterred. It was so yummy! Now, whether it's because of my unorthodox mixing method or because this is what chocolate chips do, the chips had fallen to the bottom where they created a melty, chocolate crust. The coffee taste was subtle but it went so well with the semi-sweet chocolate and that lovely mochi chew.

I shared it with our mail carrier, our neighbors and Aiden's family. I had to. It is too easy to overindulge in these. Julie said they freeze well. Yeah, that's not going to happen.

When all this crazy is over, Julie, we're going out to dinner to catch up in person!

Here is the promised recipe:

 Chocolate Chip Mochi
Recipe Courtesy of Julie Haruki

 Ingredients:

Dry
1 box mochiko
2 c. sugar
1 T. baking soda
1 T. instant espresso powder (I used instant coffee)

Wet
2-12 oz. cans evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. (one stick) butter, melted

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
  1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. 
  2. Combine wet ingredients in another bowl.
  3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and combine well. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  4. Pour mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan.
  5. Bake at 350 for 55 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.


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