Ube Pandan Mochi (Chi Chi Dango)
Chi chi dango is a popular Hawaii style mochi treat originally from Japan. This version of my tricolor chi chi dango has ube, coconut, and pandan mochi layers.
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz box mochiko
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1 cup water see notes
- 1 tsp pandan extract
- 1/2 tsp ube extract
- Green and purple food coloring optional
- Katakuriko for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix together mochiko, sugar, coconut milk, and water in a large bowl, making sure no dry lumps of mochiko remain.
- Separate mochi batter into thirds.
- Add pandan extract to one third and ube extract to another third. If your extracts do not already include food coloring, you can add a few drops of purple to the ube batter and green to the pandan batter. Leave remaining third white.
- Pour the green mochi batter into a well greased 9x13” pan (I recommend Pyrex so it doesn’t stick).
- Bake uncovered for 15 minutes, or until the layer is set.
- Carefully pour white mochi batter on top of baked green layer.
- Return to oven and bake again for another 15 minutes or until set.
- Carefully pour purple mochi batter on top of the white.
- Cover entire dish tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes or until mochi is cooked through.
- Uncover mochi and let cool down to room temperature.
- Turn out the mochi onto a surface dusted with katakuriko and slice into rectangles (use a plastic knife or pizza cutter to prevent mochi from sticking to the knife). Continue dusting with katakuriko as needed to prevent sticking.
- Leftover chi chi dango can be saved in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days.
Notes
My original recipe called for 2 cups of water, and I made my chi chi dango this way for DECADES. Suddenly in the past few years, it's been too watery. I suspect that the coconut milk is different now that most things are moving to be more organic, but I still do not know why there's a sudden difference with the same recipe. That said, I decreased the amount of water by half, and it seems to be back to normal. If you are using a coconut milk that has added emulsifiers (such as guam gar) you may want to use 2 cups of water as the original recipe stated. If using organic, reduce to 1 cup.