Real talk: what dish/food/yummy something has brought you the most joy during the last few months? For me, there have been a few, but mochi anything definitely sits high up on the list. That and maybe pizza. Or burgers. Or mochiko chicken—but that’s kinda mochi-y too, I guess.

It’s kinda wild that the end of summer is rapidly approaching, because in a lot of ways, it feels as though it hasn’t even started yet. I mean, if it wasn’t for seasonal produce, I might not have realized it was here. Speaking of seasonal produce, in case you missed it, we have a little plot in our community garden and outside of our kitchen, it is the spot that has made me happiest during these times. I swear, everything tastes better when freshly picked from your own personal garden: cucumbers, tomatoes, centercut squashes, wax beans, koginut squashes, you name it, it’s better if you grew it.

Most of the cooking I’ve been doing during this time has involved the veggies from our garden, recipes from home (aka any recipe you can find in my cookbook Aloha Kitchen), or the many cookbooks I’ve been collecting (Moses might say hoarding). So while I’ve gotten really good at things like quick stir-fried bacon and wax beans and black bean centercut squash sautés, I haven’t been doing much recipe development. That being said, I have been talking about all things mochi with my friend Kristina. You may know her as Eatchofood or maybe the queen of dumpling making, but basically she makes the most amazing things, all of which I want to eat.

We decided (via text) that we wanted to make mochi donuts together, but as we are all socially distancing and staying at home, we made our own versions and are sharing them today. I originally set out to make fried, flower-shaped funfetti donut, which was good, but also involved quite the setup and felt pretty time consuming for donuts for two (two = me and Moses), so I opted to go the baked route a la Snixy Kitchen. Since Sarah (Snixy Kitchen) knows what’s up when it comes to mochi, I opted to adapt her already amazing mochi donut recipe.

There's a spot near my house called Lodge Bread Co. that makes these mind-blowingly good miso chocolate chip cookie and I thought it might translate well into mochi donut form. The miso brings a roundness to the flavor profile of the donuts, a subtle umami note if you will. It’s that extra something that you can’t quite pinpoint but would miss if it wasn’t there. The donuts themselves are springy and chewy all at the same time all the while somehow managing to not be too dense or heavy to eat a couple, or a few, at a time.

Kristina whipped up these kinako powdered mochi donuts that sound like everything I’d want in a powdered donut. Kinako is a roasted soybean powder that is super nutty and I usually use it to coat panfried mochi (I mix it with granulated sugar). So it makes a ton of sense in my mind to powder donuts in it! Head over to her blog to check them out!!

Miso Brown Butter Baked Mochi Donuts with Chocolate Miso Glaze

Adapted from Snixy Kitchen
makes 12 donuts

INGREDIENTS

Mochi Donuts

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 ¾ cups whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons white sweet miso paste
½ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
2 cups mochiko flour
2  teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Chocolate Miso Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
4 ½ - 5 tablespoons whole milk
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon white sweet miso paste
A few tablespoons of cacao nibs, chopped (optional)

TOOLS

2 6-cavity nonstick donut pans

FIX

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease the 12 molds of a donut pan with butter or cooking spray.

In a small saucepan, set over medium heat, melt the butter, swirling the pan every so often, until it is frothy and it smells nutty. You should see some brown bits on the bottom. Don’t walk away while browning, as this process moves quickly and you’ll run the risk of burning it if you do. Immediately remove from the pan from the heat and pour the browned butter into a small bowl to cool.

Once the butter has cooled to room temperature, in a large bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, vanilla, miso paste, sugar, brown sugar, and browned butter using a whisk or handheld mixer on medium-low speed. In another bowl, whisk together the mochiko, baking powder and kosher salt. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until well combined either with a whisk or handheld mixer on medium-low speed. Spoon the mixture into the prepared donut tins, filling to the rim of each mold and gently rap the pan on the counter a couple of times to bring any air bubbles to the surface.

Bake until the mochi is set and golden brown on top, about 30 minutes.Set the pan on a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before popping each donut out to cool on the wire rack completely.

To make the glaze, mix the powdered sugar, milk, chocolate, and miso together until smooth, either with a whisk or a handheld mixer on medium-low speed. Once the donuts have cooled completely, dip them in the glaze, holding them up for a few seconds to allow the excess to drip back into the bowl. Sprinkle on the cacao nibs if using.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.