mochi milk cookies / biscuits

mochi milk cookie

Mochi milk cookies? Why not! I recently found out about CSR Sugar's Bake a Difference donation drive from Jeroxie. (Click on the cupcake if you want to join in or find out more!) It really gave me a good push to get around to testing out this cookie idea that I had been toying with lately.

From the CSR Bake a Difference website:

Every year, the lives of thousands of disadvantaged Australians are transformed by the support of Mission Australia. This Christmas, please join with CSR Sugar to give others a fair go by baking gifts for your loved ones, friends and co-workers and donate the money saved from buying presents to Mission Australia. In return, CSR Sugar will match your donation, dollar for dollar, up to a total of $100,000.

I didn't know what I should call these cookies at first. Actually, we call them biscuits/bickies here, but I think many of my readers are from North America, and identify these as cookies. So cookies it shall be. Milk cookies? Shortbread cookies? Sugar cookies? I finally christened them mochi milk cookies, because that sounds like a cute and appealing name (to me, at least). They also happen to be gluten-free and egg-free!

mochi milk cookie dough

It all started with the glutinous rice flour I have left over from when I made my lavender tang yuan. Every time I opened the cupboard, I felt like it was imploring me to use it up. Alright then. I had not baked cookies in ages, so one fine Friday (my favourite day off work for my cooking adventures) I set about making my mochi milk cookies with that guilt-tripping glutinous rice flour. The eggless thing was not actually intentional; I was planning to make the cookies with eggs. But there was only one left in the fridge, and it belonged to Simon's housemate. I might have borrowed if there were still a few left, but it didn't feel right taking the last one. I couldn't be bothered leaving the house just to get eggs - an egg-free recipe was thus born!

I'm sure there is room for improvement, but for now, here is my simple gluten-free and egg-free mochi milk cookie recipe for a small test batch of approximately 20 cookies. P.S. - with Christmas just round the corner, I made them with angel and star cookie cutters to get into the festive spirit!

before baking

mochi milk cookies / biscuits

1/2 cup glutinous rice flour + 2 tablespoons
1/8 cup butter
1/4 cup full cream instant milk powder
1/4 cup caster sugar + 1.5 tablespoons
1/4 cup water
pinch of salt

- Set aside 1/2 cup glutinous rice flour in a bowl.

- Put 1/8 cup butter, 1/4 cup full cream instant milk powder, 1/4 cup caster sugar, 1/4 cup water and a pinch of salt in a saucepan. Bring to boil, then turn down to a simmer, stirring.

- When all ingredients have thoroughly dissolved, pour the thick golden liquid into the bowl with the glutinous rice flour. Mix it up with a wooden spoon.

- At this point, things may still be looking a bit gluggy. Not to worry, just add more of the dry ingredients. In my case, I combined 2 tablespoons of glutinous rice flour and 1 and a half tablespoons of caster sugar, and mixed that in.

- This should form a workable dough that is soft and moist with a hint of oiliness. You can chill it for awhile if you like but I didn't and they still turned out fine. Shhh, I'm breaking all the rules.

- Roll dough out on lightly floured surface. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on lined trays.

- Bake at 180C/350F for about 10 minutes or until edges start to brown. Remove from oven.

- You can decorate these cookies if you like.

Note: Aim for a dough that is smooth, soft and workable - it doesn't matter if the ingredient amounts don't match up exactly with my recipe.

team crunchy...                                                                                                                                              or team chewy?

Since many people can be quite particular about how they like their cookies, I feel the need to note that the texture of these mochi cookies will probably be quite different to what most are used to, though those of you familiar with glutinous rice flour will have some idea of what you'll be getting into! However, you can play with baking times, temperatures and the thickness of the cookies to create rather different outcomes.

I baked them all together at the same time and temperature, but made the cookies in varying degrees of thickness. The thicker ones came out more mochi-like with a moist, dense and chewy texture. The thinner ones turned out hard, dry and crunchy like biscotti. Quite a contrast!

While I don't know if these cookies are for everyone, I am intrigued enough to experiment more with the concept, plus they were well-received by Simon and his housemates, which is always nice! I also found that I really liked them with English Breakfast tea. No need to add milk or sugar, just have the tea plain with these cookies! One bite of cookie, one sip of tea... mmmmmm, contentment.

sweet milk cookies + English breakfast tea = fabulous flavour match!