Easy Matcha Butter Mochi Recipe

My matcha butter mochi recipe is a fun, tea-flavored take on Hawaiian butter mochi. This mochi dessert is essentially a buttery mochi cake flavored with matcha and topped with optional shredded coconut. It’s a gluten free dessert that’s easy to make and will feed a crowd!

What is Butter Mochi?

Butter mochi is a popular Hawaiian dessert (or snack). It’s got all the same ingredients as a butter cake but uses mochiko, a kind of glutinous rice flour, instead of wheat flour. You typically make butter mochi in a 9×13″ pan, which makes it great for bringing to potlucks. Because it uses mochiko, a flour made from the same rice as mochi, the end result is a super chewy, soft, bouncy cake!

I recently had some friends from Japan over for dinner and served them this matcha butter mochi. They had never heard of butter mochi before. In fact, their initial reaction could be summarized as confusion.

Their exact reaction was: “Mochi? This is not mochi?!”

Do you guys know that awkward feeling trying to explain to someone that a word/food from their country has come to mean an almost entirely different thing in another country?

“Yes, I know it’s not mochi. But it’s the name of this food. Butter mochi. Everybody calls it butter mochi. There is no other name for it. It’s just a thing in Hawaii, trust me. Everyone there knows butter mochi.”

In the end, I still could not get them comfortable calling this dish “butter mochi.” I think they resolved on “mochi cake.” But everyone agreed on calling it one thing – “good.”

Matcha Butter Mochi Ingredients

The great thing about butter mochi is that it’s REALLY easy to make. In fact, this recipe is my standard butter mochi recipe just with some matcha added in. It uses a can of evaporated milk, which I know for some people is a turn off, because they don’t keep evaporated milk on hand. If you’re a frequent butter mochi maker, or you envision yourself to be in the future (*manifest*), I highly recommend just keeping some evaporated milk in your pantry. It lasts forever. And I do think that butter mochi with evaporated milk has great flavor.

BUT if you really are against evaporated milk for whatever reason, I have an everyday butter mochi recipe that uses regular whole milk instead. You can add a few tablespoons of matcha to that recipe to get a matcha butter mochi as well.

The only thing that may be difficult to source is mochiko, the glutinous rice flour. I can find mochiko at my local Asian market, but I also see it at Target and Safeway and other standard grocery stores in my area. But, as usual, you can also get it on Amazon (*affiliate link*). I always use the Koda Farms blue star brand.

Oh and here’s another ingredient hack for you: not sure what to do with leftover shredded coconut? Or thinking of omitting it because you don’t want to open a whole bag? Keep leftovers in the freezer! I actually made this butter mochi using an open bag of shredded coconut I keep in my freezer. You don’t even need to defrost before sprinkling it on. It’s ready to go. Convenient, right? Now you can sprinkle a little shredded coconut on all your desserts at a moment’s notice. You’re welcome.

More Baked Mochi Recipes

If you liked this butter mochi recipe, be sure to check these out:

• Chocolate Butter Mochi
• Custard Mochi
• Baked Mochi Donuts
• Chi Chi Dango

And if you’re curious about the differences between mochi in Japan vs. Hawaii, be sure to read through my Ultimate Guide to Mochi.