Chi Chi Dango Mochi
Little colorful squares of soft, chewy mochi. In Hawaii it’s called Chi Chi Dango, sometimes it’s just plain and other times it can be made with strong fruit flavors. My favorite has always been good old pink Chi Chi Dango.
The satisfying chew of mochi is so comforting and the sweetness is just enough to not overpower the little snack. The best thing about this recipe is that it’s made in the oven, no back-breaking work required, just an hour of waiting which sometimes can be just as painful when you’re hungry. It’s all worth it when you’re rewarded in the end with this sweet treat.
Chi Chi Dango Mochi
Ingredients:
1 (16 oz) box mochiko
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups water
1 (13.5 ounce) can coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pink food coloring
Potato starch (katakuriko)
Note: Mochiko is a sweet rice flour and katakuriko is a fine, flavorless potato starch, both are available in asian markets or can be found online.
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch baking dish with butter.
In a large mixing bowl whisk together the mochiko, sugar and baking powder.
Add the water, coconut milk, vanilla, and food coloring to the dry ingredients, mixing together well.
Pour the mixture into the prepped pan. Cover tightly with foil and place the pan in the center of the oven and bake for 1 hour. Uncover and cool for completely.
When the mochi is cool, cut into squares using a plastic knife.
Roll the cut pieces around in the potato starch (katakuriko) to keep the mochi from sticking to each other when served.
Keeps for two to three days in an airtight container depending on the weather.
ooh, so pretty! I really want to try these.
Making these today! 😀
how long can you keep these for?
holy moly, these came out great! I only used 1 1/2 C sugar to be safe, and it was sweet enough for me. I grew up eating the chichi dango from Nisshodo so I was surprised that these really hit the spot. I tried blue food coloring, hoping for my boys to be more into eating them. We’ll see. No problem if they don’t eat any, cause I can handle any amount of mochi myself! If you grew up in HI and miss chichi dango, you gotta make this recipe!!!
Needed a quick simple recipe for mochi so I could make it for my boyfriend. I am so excited to see all the other mochi recipes, I will def be trying them out next!
Hi, thanks for posting these wonderful little pink gems. I’m dying to try them out but where I live, they sell mochiko powder in several different sizes. So I’m just wondering if you can clarify, how much (grams? oz? cups?) mochiko powder is it per box that you’re using for this recipe. Cheers
I’m making these right now for a family party tomorrow. I did make two changes — no food coloring and I used cornstarch instead of potato starch. We’ll see how this goes over!
1 box = 16 ounces
@Jade One box of mochiko equals 16 ounces.
@Jes They are better fresh so depending on your climate, a few days.
just made this…so good. living in san antonio, i’m glad that i can make it for myself. no more asking family visiting from Maui to bring me mochi from Longs. : )
I changed the recipe a bit: added a big handful of shredded coconut and reduced the sugar to 1 1/2 cups. I didn’t have potato starch so I used powdered sugar to coat. Yummy!!!
So I think mine burned because I didn’t have coconut milk and used regular milk instead. It was still really good. I just scooped out the good parts and made balls instead of squares. Next time I’ll try the coco milk.
This is what I’m making for my neighbors and friends for Valentine’s Day! Who doesn’t love mochi? Plus, I live in Hawaii so everyone loves this here.
I make this many times throughout the year. Around St. Patrick’s Day I use green food coloring…{~.~}Valentine’s Day red, although I like the pastel colored mochi, I use a few more drops for a deeper pink.Oh, and also a GREAT tip is to leave the mochi to cool down to room temp, then the task of cutting and the stickiness will not be a challenge. There isn’t any difference to the texture or rolling the pieces into the katakuriko. This all depends on how much of a temptation one has to resist waiting for the cool down time certainly! hahaha One day I might use little heart shape cutters,and other shapes for the occasion. Just a thought to throw out there. Enjoy the fun of it all…aloha
How do you store these overnight – on the counter or refrigerated?
Recipe is easy and good.
I followed your recipe to the T and it turned out horrible. The bottom of the mochi was brown and hard and it was real thin. I don’t think that greasing the bottom of the Pyrex pan with butter is right and also using Pyrex pan. When I goggled for chichi-dango recipes a bunch popped up and I tried a few of them and they were great. The only problem was that the edges were brown and hard but the bottom was perfect. I used a metal pan and sprayed it wit Pam. I don’t mean to be negative, I just wanted to inform you what the outcome was with your baking method.
Hi Kerry,
I’ve used this recipe many times and I’ve never had a problem. Unless you used an oversized pan there is no way the dango would be “thin”, mines comes out about an inch thick on a regular basis. I have used both glass & metal pans and the Pyrex usually comes out better…instead of buttering the pan I just use parchment paper and it doesn’t stick. You may have to adjust your heat and baking time , maybe your oven runs hot? I hope this helps.
The oven calibrated so temp is ok, I’ll try it again and see how it goes. Hopefully good, I really love chichidango. My aunt that took care of me when I was a child used to make it for me every week but she did it in a steamer on the stove top in a cloth. I wish I could remember the recipe, unfortunately it died with her.
Recipe is great. You left out the part about adding the food color.
Excellent recipe, Thank you so much! I had always wanted to learn and m latest incentive was after trying home made mocha and I got obsessed about achieving that excellence level. I tried many different recipes until I landed on this one. Thank you for sharing JENN this is a keeper.
Just for reference: I made 1/4 of the recipe because it was just me and I was testing recipes. I baked it in a 5 x 4 baking dish and left them in the oven for 35 min.
My granddaughter such loves chichidango so I decided to make it myself.