Mochi White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Crunchy, crispy, gooey, and chewy!

Hi Bakers!

If you are a mochi fan, a lover of cookies, or a general dessert mash-up enthusiast, you’ll want to make these White Chocolate Macadamia Mochi Cookies! The cookies themselves have crisp edges, crunchy macadamia nuts and a hint of coffee that mellows out the sweetness of white chocolate. But it’s the mochi that takes chewy centers to a whole new level.

This is our last recipe for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. I hope you’ve enjoyed this series and found some new flavors to try. Mahalo!

Mochi is a sweet, chewy Japanese confection made of glutinous rice flour milled from sweet mochigome rice. Mochi has been used to celebrate the new year for hundreds of years, symbolizing strength, long life, and health. Similarly, nian gao, a sweet rice cake, is served to celebrate Lunar New Year.

Besides my mom’s butter mochi, my first experience with mochi was mochi-wrapped ice cream at a neighborhood Japanese restaurant. I loved all the flavors - green tea, mango, chocolate, and vanilla. The textural contrast of soft chewy mochi with the cold ice cream is so unique.

Other filled mochi desserts, called daifuku, include fillings like sweet red bean paste, chocolate ganache, or whole fresh strawberries. The mochi itself can be flavored and/or rolled in sugar or coconut flakes to finish. 

Sesame Brown Butter Mochi

Often stuffed, this time it’s mochi that’s doing the stuffing. Mochi cookies are new-ish to me, but have made their way around the internet baking world these past few years. I’ve seen your traditional chocolate chip to ube crinkle to a variety of shortbread stuffed with chewy rice cakes. Eaten warm, and the gooey center gives a mochi-pull just as satisfying as a melty grilled cheese.

For this recipe, I took a classic white chocolate macadamia nut cookie and stuffed it with mochi. The cookies are crunchy, crisp, gooey, and chewy all at the same time. I added some instant coffee and flaky sea salt to balance the sweetness of the white chocolate.

For the mochi, you can make it with water, milk, or coconut milk for added flavor. I used a microwave method that is surprisingly simple.

Stuffed or otherwise prepared, mochi doesn’t keep its soft, stretchy texture for long. For best results, eat within the first two days of making.