Saturday, August 15, 2015

Black Sesame Coconut Mochi Donuts


Confession time. I’m a youtube junkie. I can spend hours on the internet just watching particularly jovial strangers have a good time cooking up a storm on Youtube. My current favourite channels have to be Cookingwithdog and Ochikeron. YES I AM AWARE OF HOW LATE I AM TO THE GAME, but they literally make me troll the Japanese supermarket for interesting new ingredients to see what I can put in cakes. Check out their clips here and here (love the Tokyo Banana tutorial!) That being said, my recent trip to Nihon in May fostered a new love for goma, black sesame. I’m also a huge fan of glutinous rice (mocha) flour in cakes because it gives it a springy, QQ texture like nothing else! Bet they'd be a great substitute for the chewiest brownies, mmm! 

Fingers crossed that I might be moving abroad soon, so I’m trying to deplete my current pantry store. And voila! – Sesame coconut mochi cakes with a chocolate ganache and peanut butter drizzle. The coconut flavor is twofold with coconut cream and shredded coconut bits added in. After several experiments, a 1/3 cake flour + 2/3 mochi flour ratio is the best for perfect springy but not too mushy cakes. The sesame – frosting pairing is your choice really, but peanut butter and sesame make a really nutty, fragrant power duo!




Sesame Coconut Mochi Donuts
   150g 
glutinous rice flour
   75g cake flour
   60g black sesame powder
   
1 teaspoon baking powder
   150g white sugar sugar
   180g coconut / cream

   80g butter, melted
   
2 eggs, beaten
   1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
   2 teaspoons black sesame seeds
   ½ cup shredded coconut
1.    Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease your donut pan with oil.
2.    In a large bowl, whisk together the two flours, baking powder, sesame seeds and shredded coconut.
3.    In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame powder,sugar and melted butter, then whisk in the beaten eggs until smooth. Whisk in the vanilla extract and coconut cream until mixed well.
4.   Combine the wet and dry ingredients until mixed well. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes until the top is slightly puffed and cracked.


Bakers Notes
1.  A lot of my toppings / glazes are made in small batches, so I eyeball it and don’t have a recipe. For the glaze, I merely mix a 1 : 4 condensed milk : peanut butter till spreadable, and add more milk to thin. The condensed milk provides an extra depth of creamy sweetness!

2.  In Singapore, you can easily buy the chocolate cereal balls from Phoon Huat stores islandwide.