Mia Bakes: Mochi Cheese Balls

Many years back, I've once tried to bake myself some chocolate mochi bread (recipe HERE) but they turned out pretty fail. Dense, hard and not as chewy as it should be. 

Fast-forward to 2018, I found Ochikeron. HAHA, who else is a fan of her recipe too, drop me a comment down below! :) 

 

Don't they look cute? <3

So let's get over the ingredients so we can get started!

To get 12 mochi cheeseballs, you'll need:

100g glutinous rice flour 

(ochikeron used shiratamako, but I used those Thai brands glutinous rice flour we can easily get in the supermarkets)

100ml milk

50g grated parmesan cheese

30g shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese 

adapted from Ochikeron's No Egg Japanese-Style Pao De Queijo

It couldn't get any simpler to make these mochi cheeseballs. First, mix the milk and flour and until it's fully combined. I'll say ditch the spatula or wooden spoon and just go in with your hands. The dough is going to get pretty sticky and tough to mix. 

Then, add in the cheese and knead until well combined. While mixing, you can use your hands and break up any large pieces of mozzarella and cheddar into smaller bits so that they can get more evenly distributed. 

When the cheese are all mixed in, try to squish the dough in between your hands and see if they come together into a ball easily. If they don't, add in a little bit more milk and knead well until they do. 

Shape your dough into a disk or a log and cut them up into 12 equal pieces, or to any sizes you fancy. They're just going to puff up very slightly in the oven, so don't make them too small. 

With clean hands, roll the dough into round balls and set them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. As I've said, they'll only puff up ever so slightly during baking, so you need not spread them out too much. Just make sure they're not touching each other. 

With a pastry brush, brush each ball with some water to wet the surface before sending them to bake in the oven that's pre-heated to 180 degree Celsius for about 15 to 20 minutes.

And TADAA~ 

These mochi cheeseballs are AMAZING! The outer shell is not exactly crispy, but does have the slight crunch of a french baguette, while the inside is chewy with bits of melty cheese. 

They're best eaten warm, nearly piping hot, fresh from the oven as that's when the shredded cheese are melty and oozy. 

The mochi part of it will still remain soft and chewy even after having cooled down, but those shredded cheese obviously won't be oozy anymore. 

And I've also made a chocolate chip variation by adding some icing sugar and unsweeten cocoa powder to replace the grated parmesan, and some dark chocolate chips to replace the shredded cheese. 

The BF and my mum prefer the sweet version as they thought it's weird having salty mochi, but I personally though the cheese one was DA BOMB! 

Did I mentioned I ate FIVE balls in one shot right after they came out of the oven? 

Till then,

Mia Foo