Strawberry Mochi Waffles (Naturally Gluten Free)

These strawberry mochi waffles are so good, Leslie Knope would definitely approve. If you haven’t had mochi waffles before, they are a naturally gluten free waffle made with sweet rice flour. They are crispy on the outside and extra chewy and dense on the inside. You can sub out the butter for vegetable oil or vegan butter to turn these into vegan waffles too! They’re super easy to make, and the only special equipment you need is a waffle maker. Waffles for everyone!

What are Mochi Waffles?

Mochi waffles, like many of the mochi recipes I ate growing up, is another Asian fusion food from Hawaii. Instead of wheat flour, it uses mochiko. Mochiko is a rice flour made from the glutinous sweet rice. If this is your first time hearing about mochiko and mochi, you might want to take a look at my Asian food glossary to get your bearings.

Are Mochi Waffles Gluten Free? Vegan?

This recipe is! Despite mochiko being called a “glutinous” rice flour, it’s actually a misnomer. There’s no actual gluten in it. I believe the reason it got the name, though, is because it’s SUPER CHEWY. And when it comes to mochi desserts, chewier is better.

My recipe calls for a couple tablespoons of melted butter, but you can easily sub that for vegan butter or any flavorless oil to keep the recipe dairy free and vegan.

How to Flavor Mochi Waffles

One thing I’ve learned from making countless mochi desserts is that it’s kind of difficult to have strong flavors in mochi. In order to have the strawberry flavor pull through, I recommend using a combination of freeze dried strawberries and strawberry extract. If you don’t have strawberry extract, or if you’re trying to avoid artificial flavors, feel free to omit it! When you’re grinding the freeze dried strawberries into a powder, leave some larger chunks. This will help you get a strong strawberry flavor when you bite into your waffle.

Other Mochi Waffle Flavor Variations

This recipe is based off a plain mochi waffle recipe I got from our family friend Donna Won, who is from Hawaii. If you’d like plain mochi waffles, simply leave out the strawberries!

I also have a matcha mochi waffle recipe, which is the same as this one but with matcha powder instead of freeze dried strawberries.

And you could easily use any other fruit flavor you’d like by using freeze dried fruits and/or extracts! It’s that easy!

By the way, if you want to try your hand at mochi pancakes, it’s very similar to this waffle recipe. My friend Shannon at Our Hawaii Test Kitchen has a recipe here.

Other Tips and Tricks to Making Mochi Waffles

First, the almond flour. I’ve made this recipe both with and without the almond flour. I felt like the almond flour helps get a slightly more waffle-y texture, more crispiness on the outside, and reduced how sticky the waffles were. But, it definitely worked without it as well, so feel free to leave it out if you don’t have any.

As for the freeze dried strawberries, you’ll see my recipe says to use 3/4 cup. I just scooped the strawberries into a measuring cup and dumped it into the blender. I know that you’re SUPPOSED to measure it out with a kitchen scale to get it exact, but I was feeling lazy. The rest of this recipe was so easy just to scoop and dump, I didn’t want to bother with the scale. So I guess I’m saying that 3/4 cup is really an estimate. Don’t sweat it! It’ll still taste good!

The only other thing I’d say to look out for is to know how to use your waffle maker. Mochi is VERY STICKY. My Hamilton Beach Belgian waffle maker*^{(affiliate link)} has a really good nonstick surface. I still use some nonstick spray, and I’ve never had a problem with it sticking. However, every maker is different and cooking times will vary depending on what waffle maker you have, so watch it carefully.

Ready to make mochi waffles? Leave me a comment below or on my Instagram telling me how it went!