Mochi Mondays at River Maiden began when co-owner Aaron Flies found photos of mochi doughnuts on Instagram. “Aaron follows everyone on Instagram,” explained Melissa Layman, his wife and business partner.
But moving from an Instagram photo to a product to serve to customers was a bumpy ride. “The first ones were horrible failures,” Layman said. So Layman enlisted the help of her employee, Bronwyn Akimseu, and Bronwyn’s mom, Carolyn. Carolyn had a family recipe for Hawaiian butter mochi. Layman successfully adapted a lighter version of that dough for her mochi doughnuts.
The main ingredient in the doughnuts is Mochiko sweet rice flour, which is made by grinding glutinous rice. Despite its name, glutinous rice is gluten free. It gets its name because it gets very sticky when cooked. This rice is used in many countries for sweet and savory dishes. It’s commonly found here in Thai sticky rice with mango and Japanese mochi filled with sweetened bean paste or ice cream. If you want to play around with mochi dough at home, Trader Joe’s recently released a mochi cake mix.
The dough doesn’t need to ferment or proof — it’s ready to use as soon as it is mixed. These doughnuts are baked, not fried, giving them a lighter taste.
