PLEASE WELCOME OUR GUEST JENNIFER MORITA #GIVEAWAY

 

PEG:  I am thrilled to welcome our guest Jennifer Morita with a fascinating recipe I'm sure you'll want to try!

 

BUTTER MOCHI by Jennifer Morita

Butter mochi is the go-to recipe you’ll thank me for.

As a working mom, Girl Scout leader and mystery author, I need a tried-and-true dish to bring to the office potluck, school bake sale or book launch that’s foolproof, fast, and a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

And this chewy, but not too sweet, dessert from Hawaii ticks all the boxes.

Butter mochi is a mashup of Japanese mochi and Filipino bibingka, a delicious byproduct of immigrants who left their homes to forge a better future and swapped recipes working in the sugarcane fields.

It’s always a hit at parties, even here on the mainland where guests may mistake it for cornbread but ask for the recipe after the first bite.

Made with sweet rice flour, butter mochi is also gluten free.

It’s easy to experiment with this classic butter mochi recipe, adapted from Ono Hawaiian Recipes. The lilikoi and ube versions I made for the last Girl Scout bake sale sold out, and my Mexican chocolate twist has a nice kick.

A jar of guava jam at the Japanese market near my house changed my game plan for the Ghosts of Waikiki launch party in December. It was a hit, and my book sold out.

Butter mochi is now my lucky recipe, too, and I’m already playing with flavor ideas for my next author talk for the Friends of Sutter Library in February.

What’s your favorite failsafe recipe?

 

Classic Butter Mochi

½ cup unsalted butter

2 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

16 oz (1 box) mochiko sweet rice flour (I always use Koda Farms brand)

2 tsp baking powder

12 oz can evaporated milk

14 oz can coconut milk

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with butter and set aside.

 

Melt butter and mix with sugar in a large bowl. Add vanilla and eggs when cooled and mix well.

 

Combine with dry ingredients, mochiko flour and baking powder.  Next add evaporated milk and coconut milk, and mix using a spatula to break up any lumps.

 

 

 

Pour the batter into the baking pan, then drop lightly onto the counter a few times to release air bubbles.

Place the pan onto a cookie sheet to protect the bottom from overbrowning and bake for 1 hour.

Let the butter mochi cool to room temperature before cutting.

 

Itadakimasu!

 

What’s your favorite failsafe recipe?

 

GIVEAWAY!  Jennifer is giving away a signed copy of Ghosts of 

Waikiki to someone who leaves a comment below.  Let us know 

what your failsafe recipe is! Please include your (disguised) 

email.  Sorry, US only.

In this atmospheric debut mystery, an out-of-work journalist and the homicide detective who broke her heart must cipher out a murder before the clock runs out, perfect for fans of Naomi Hirahara and Jane Pek.

After the newspaper she works for folds and the freelance assignments no longer pay the bills, Maya Wong reluctantly returns to her native Hawaiʻi to ghostwrite controversial land developer Parker Hamilton's biography. But when the Hamilton patriarch is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Maya is unwittingly drawn into the investigation.

Maya’s family and friends aren't happy about her work for Hamilton. And now, with her ex, Detective Koa Yamada, on the case, she’s forced to contend with the very person she was determined to avoid.

All too soon, Maya is dodging assailants and digging for clues while juggling girls’ nights out with her old BFFs and weekly family dinners. Convinced the police are after the wrong man, Maya is determined to stop the killer before it’s too late.

Exploring timely issues in Hawaiʻi, including locals getting priced out of paradise, Ghosts of Waikīkī is an engrossing mystery in the vein of The Verifiers.

Former newspaper reporter Jennifer K. Morita believes a good story is like good mochi - slightly sweet with a nice chew.

 

Her debut mystery, GHOSTS OF WAIKĪKĪ, is about an out-of-work journalist who reluctantly becomes the ghost writer for a controversial developer. When she stumbles into murder - and her ex - she discovers coming home to paradise can be murder.

 

Jennifer writes for a university in Northern California, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. When she isn’t plotting murder mysteries or pushing Girl Scout cookies, she enjoys reading, experimenting with recipes, leisurely hikes, Zumba and Hot Hula.

 

You can reach Jennifer at www.jenniferkmorita.com