Corn cake, not bread!

A chewy mochi cake made with summer corn (and it's gluten-free!)

Welcome, or welcome back, to BA Bake Club where every new month brings us a new recipe. For July we have Sweet Corn Butter Mochi With Coconut Crunch, sunflower-yellow on the inside with an alluring bounce to its bite.

If this is your introduction to butter mochi, I am thrilled to be a small part of it. A gentle resistance and slight elasticity make butter mochi a tactile experience. I still remember my first bite, the shock and delight of the chewy, springy crumb, so unlike any other Western-style cake I’ve had in my life. Failing to find suitable words, I will instead invoke two Japanese terms, hazawari (texture felt by the teeth) and nodogoshi (the sensation of food or drink passing down the throat), that precisely capture the compelling qualities of this treat.

Butter mochi is a distinctly Hawaiian sweet, found in bakeries and home kitchens everywhere on the islands. Its origins, like many in food, aren’t crystal-clear. There are solid links to Japanese mochi, and there are also some theories connecting it to Filipino bibingka or Indian bebinca, both influenced by Portuguese culinary traditions.

The interesting aspect here for us Bake Clubbers is the sticky or glutinous rice flour that forms the base of mochi cake. Taking the place of conventional flour, it’s the key ingredient and the secret behind butter mochi’s singular texture (and the reason it’s gluten-free). Think about the moreish qualities of mango sticky rice—glutinous rice flour brings that same viscosity, just in powder form. Regular rice flour is not a suitable substitute, nor is wheat flour. Koda Farms Mochiko flour or Bob’s Red Mill Sweet White Rice Flour are easy to find in North American grocery stores. Thai glutinous rice flour also works well.

Fresh (or frozen! I don’t mind) corn blended with a can of condensed milk plus a few other pantry staples, takes the place of coconut milk, common to many butter mochi recipes. The end result is a textural masterpiece that tastes like buttered corn, toasty coconut, and nutty caramel.

As always, do let me know how it goes on the recipe page, in the Epicurious app, or in our chat here on Substack. We love to hear from you.