Easy Mochi Donuts Recipe: Fry or Baked Pon De Rings

Our mochi donuts recipe makes sweet and crispy pon de rings with a soft, chewy centre. We've included 2 versions of our pon de ring recipe so you can fry or bake them at home. 

We'll also show you how to make our favourite mochi donut glaze, including classic sugar icing, matcha, and strawberry.

Jump to:

• Mochi Donut Ingredients
• Mochi Donut Glazing Ingredients
• Mochi Donuts Recipe | Pon De Ring
• Cooking Tips
• How to Bake Mochi Donuts
• How To Store 
• Mochi Donuts vs Regular Donuts 
• Origin 
• Popularity 
• Calories 

Mochi Donut Ingredients

Our mochi donut recipe uses the following ingredients: 

• Glutinous rice flour
• Silken tofu
• Granulated sugar
• Baking powder
• Yoghurt
• Cake flour
• Vegetable oil for frying

For our recipe, we're using glutinous rice flour, which produces a soft and chewy texture. However, more traditional recipes use mochiko instead of glutinous rice flour. If you want to make mochi donut entirely gluten-free, use tapioca flour to replace the cake flour in our recipe. This will also give you a fluffier and lighter texture.

Using Mochiko or Glutinous Rice Flour

Mochiko is a sweet glutinous rice flour that produces mochi donuts' signature chewy yet soft texture. However, it is typically harder to find outside of Japan and often expensive. Therefore, for our mochi donut recipe, we use glutinous rice flour. Shiratamako works as a good alternative, but it's also usually quite hard to find.

Mochi Donut Glazing Ingredients

Each of the following mochi donut glaze ingredients is enough for 8 donuts.

For Matcha White Chocolate Glaze:

• 1 teaspoon Matcha powder
• 120 g white chocolate
• 4 tablespoon double cream

For Strawberry White Chocolate Glaze:

• 12 pieces of fresh strawberry
• 120 g white chocolate
• 4 tablespoon double cream

For Sugar Vanilla Glaze (Krispy Kreme Copycat):

• 30 g melted unsalted butter
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoon condensed milk

We like making our mochi donut glaze using fresh double cream and white chocolate as a base. From there, we like to add flavours like matcha, fresh strawberry, or more chocolate. Adding a few drops of food colouring can also add an aesthetic appeal to your mochi donuts.

The most common option is a classic sugar glaze, which tastes sweet and has a sticky, gooey texture. Icing flavours for this snack are often a hybrid between American and Japanese favourites: matcha, cinnamon and sugar, black sesame, and chocolate with rainbow sprinkles.

Cooking Tips

Mochi Donut Dough Tips

Ideally, your dough should not be too sticky. However, if you feel the dough is too sticky to handle, add it to a piping bag instead. Then, pipe out the small balls directly on the parchment paper. You want to avoid a runny texture, as that would make it hard to pipe. 

Lastly, piping the balls in a chain can be pretty tricky. Be sure not to pipe them too far apart or too close either. Drawing out a circle template beneath the baking sheet would help you keep the shapes uniform.

Use your hands or a pastry brush to dab water on the dough balls to ensure they stick together. The water also helps to smooth the surface for a prettier final look.

Mochi Donut Frying Tips

After frying one mochi donut, reheat the oil to the target temperature. The oil's temperature will drop as you fry more mochi donut.

Be careful to get the oil temperature just right. If the oil is too hot, it can make the dough brown too soon, producing a crispier texture but an undercooked centre. On the other hand, a very low temperature would take longer to cook, causing the dough to absorb too much oil. We recommend using a cooking thermometer to ensure optimum temperature throughout the deep-frying process.

Since we were using a small pot, we only fried one mochi donut at a time. If you use a bigger pot, you can fry multiple at a time, but make sure to maintain the frying temperature. However, if you're not confident, we don't recommend crowding the pot as it makes temperature control harder.

The best way to glaze mochi donuts 

The trick to making the perfect glaze to coat your mochi donuts is getting the consistency right. The glaze shouldn't be too thick, as it will form clumps, nor too thin, as it will drip down the sides. The right consistency will be thick and drip down in ribbons.

If the glaze is too thick, add some milk to water it. Conversely, if the glaze is too thin, add more icing sugar to thicken it. Before glazing, ensure the snack has cooled down; otherwise, the glaze will melt and drip off the sides.

How to Bake Mochi Donuts

Baked mochi donuts are a healthier option if you're health-conscious. The steps for our baking method aren't too different from deep-frying. However, it will take slightly more time, approximately 75 minutes in total.

1. Start by preheating the oven to 170°C.
2. Follow our main recipe for making mochi donut dough.
3. Add each pon de ring to a squared parchment paper.
4. Bake for 10 minutes.
5. Then flip over your mochi donut and remove the baking sheet. Bake for another 5-7 minutes.

Make sure to bake the mochi donuts thoroughly until lightly golden brown as removing them too quickly will deflate them.

How To Store 

Like most pastries, it's best to eat mochi donuts while they're still fresh. However, if you cannot devour them right away, you could store them in an air-tight container at room temperature. This should last up to 2-3 days. 

Mochi Donuts vs Regular Donuts 

Pon de rings differ from the ubiquitous Krispy Kreme or Dunkin' Donuts because of their chewy and stretchy texture. This textural delight comes from glutinous rice flour, a common ingredient in Japanese desserts such as the red bean daifuku. Some recipes also use silken tofu to create a fluffy yet chewy bite. 

Regular doughnuts use wheat flour instead, giving them a soft and fluffy bread-like texture. They are also commonly deep-fried, but you'llthe glutinous rice variety can be deep-fried or baked, depending on your preference. Mochi donuts also contain about half the calories of regular doughnuts, making them a much healthier alternative. An added plus is that the majority of them are also gluten-free. However, some places do use plain flour or cake flour, so there's still a chance they contain gluten.

Origin 

The origin of this tasty delight isn't clear, but we know that the story involves a few countries, i.e. Japan, America, and Brazil. The popular Mister Donut global chain first created the signature Pon de Ring in 2003. Although the chain originated in the US, this creation came from Mister Donut in Japan.

The dessert is made up of 8 dough balls connected to form a ring. Pon de Ring draws its inspiration from Pao de Queijo, a famous Brazilian cheese bread with a chewy texture similar to mochi donuts. 

The initial Pon De Ring's made by Mister Donut was topped with a basic sugar glaze, but the chain has since experimented with various flavours and designs. Popular options include strawberry glaze, chocolate dough, and brown sugar.

Popularity 

This modern Japanese dessert has become a worldwide sensation, with shops popping up in Asia, Europe and America. However, the hype for these yummy treats started in the US when Liliha Bakery in Hawaii began making poi mochi donuts from taro root. 

MoDo Hawaii opened a store in Mitsuwa Marketplace in Waikiki sometime in 2017, drawing crowds of people desperate to try the famed dessert. With the cute designs, delicious taste, and America's natural obsession with doughnuts, the dessert did not take long to become popular nationwide. 

The snack first gained popularity on the West Coast before taking over states like Philadelphia, Boston, and NYC. Most of these places have experimented with taste, texture, and design, providing people with all sorts of options. The possibility of delivery of mochi donuts to homes further enhanced the popularity.

Calories 

Mochi donuts contain about 277 calories, which is half the calories of regular doughnuts, which are around 400-500 calories.

However, the calorie content also depends on the method of preparation. For example, if you deep-fry the dessert in oil, it will contain slightly more calories than the baked version. 

Did you like our recipe very 'mochi'? Try your hands at our homemade mochi next.