Honey Lemon Mochi Doughnuts
I think I had the most fun coming up with these Honey Lemon Mochi Doughnuts since they too are inspired by several parts of the movie, Big Hero 6, like like my Melt Your Face Off Chicken Wings recipe.
My kids LOVE baking doughnuts. Baked doughnuts are really just a ring shaped muffin and not an unhealthy fried sugar bomb, they're easy to mix up I have my girls help me now when we make them. They request them almost every weekend. My 6 year old especially loves chocolate ones. I only make baked doughnuts about once a month for a treat since I try to keep the sweets to a minimum, my kids are hyper enough one their own, they don't need to be all hopped up on sugar. Most the time I decrease the sugar in a recipe or use a sweetener like honey or coconut sugar. Still sugar, but tends to not taste as sweet.
Whenever I bake doughnuts for some reason I underfill the first batch thinking I won't have enough for the second, since I only have one doughnut pan that makes 6 doughnuts. My first batch comes out smaller and the second batch comes out bigger. Always. One of these days I will buy a second pan.
There are several reasons for these doughnuts as far as the inspiration from Big Hero 6. First off "Honey Lemon" is the name of one of the characters. According to Disney Wiki "a quirky chemistry whiz at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. Williams said "She's a glass-is-half-full kind of person. But she has this mad-scientist quality with a twinkle in her eye - there's more to Honey than it seems". She is this sweet almost air-head appearing girl that cares very much for Hiro, almost acting like a big sister to him. She is brilliant and her "weapon" in the movie is her power purse which she could program and make these balls of different chemical concoctions to get her team out of trouble. I ALMOST made round Honey Lemon Mochi to go with the "balls" she threw but I knew doughnuts would be better for another reason.
Another reason I almost made these round was because Hiro's Aunt Cass had a cat in the movie named Mochi who was a great big fat cat. But with the idea of mochi in a doughnut form came to mind, round was out. But Mochi stayed in honor of the fat cat.
And the reason I chose doughnuts is that Aunt Cass runs a bakery and grabs a doughnut to eat saying she is "stress eating". That cracked me up. In another scene she grabs doughnuts to eat with the boys after cafe hours. So there you have it, all the reasons behind these really delicious honey lemon mochi doughnuts.
These are gluten free since they are made with a Japanese sweet rice flour as the flour component. I found the flour to be a little grainy after the first batch I made and a little on the dry side so I made them again and adjusted a few of the ingredients and they came out perfect. These are best eaten the day they are made and the icing is key. I used lemon curd for my lemon flavor in the icing and the little drizzle of honey over the top of the icing made them that much better.
Honey Lemon Mochi Doughnuts
Ingredients
- Zest and juice of one lemon - about 2 teaspoon zest, 1 tablespoon juice
- 2 cups sweet rice flour, Koda Farms mochiko brand
- 3 tablespoon blonde coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 large eggs, well beaten
- ⅓ cup+2 tablespoon honey
- 1 c canned coconut milk
- 3 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the glaze
- 1 ½ c powdered sugar
- 2-3 tablespoon coconut milk
- ¼ cup prepared lemon curd
- 2 -3 tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 Deg F. Prepare donut pans by brushing the wells with melted coconut oil
- In a small bowl mix and rub together the lemon and sugar with your fingers making sure it is well combined. This brings out the scent of the lemon even more. Pour this to a larger bowl and add in the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk together.
- In a smaller bowl whisk the eggs then add in the honey and whisk until well combined. Add in the coconut milk and oil, lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix well. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture and stir with a spatula until just combined.
- Transfer to a pastry bag or a plastic baggie with one corner cut and pipe into the wells of the donut pan, filling each about halfway. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the donut springs back when lightly pressed. Do not over bake.
- Let cool in pan for 2 minutes then remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before icing.
To make the icing
- Mix together the powdered sugar and coconut milk, if its too thick to stir add in a little more coconut milk, a teaspoon at a time. You still want it pretty thick before adding in the curd and honey. Add in the curd and 2 tablespoon of the honey, stir and check for a thick but runny consistency when a spoon is dipped into it. Dip the doughnuts into the icing. Let it sit for a minute then drizzle a little honey over the top. Serve immediately
Cathy says
Hi Shanna,
I am interested in making your baked Honey Lemon mochi donuts. In your recipe, you mentioned using a dount pan. Is this a silicone baking pan with 6 donut shaped wells in it?
Shanna says
I use a metal pan, I believe its aluminum. I don't care for the silicon ones. If you have had success with the silicon bake pans go for it. I much prefer the metal ones.
Asaiyumi says
Aloha! I'm curious if baking them in the molds still gives the inner area that classic translucent look or is it more dry and cake like?
Shanna says
Do you mean like using a traditional mochi mold? I haven't tried this recipe with one of those. These are more cake like, just have the mochi flavor, not as chewy as traditional mochi donuts. If you do try them with a mold please let me know how they come out!
Moalana says
For the 1/3 + 2 tbsp honey, is it 1/3 tbsp + 2 tbsp? Also, what should the consistency of the dough be before piping it into the donut pan? Thick like bread dough or more runny? Excuse my lack of baking vocabulary (:
Shanna says
1/3 cup plus 2 Tablespoons. Sorry about the typo. The consistency is like a thick muffin batter
Leah says
Hi Shanna!
You mention adding the lemon juice to the batter but there’s no lemon juice mentioned in the recipe. Do I take the lemon juice from that one lemon I zested? The whole lemon?
Shanna says
Yes! Sorry about that not sure why it wasn't there. The zest and juice of one lemon. About 2 tsp zest and 1 tablespoon juice
Hungry says
Hiya, you mentioned adjusting the ingredients after the first batch was a bit grainy and dry. Did you end up using less of the mochiko? I'm having trouble with grainy mochi donuts and am not sure how to adjust.
Thank you!
Shanna says
Hi yes this is the adjusted recipe. I mentioned that was part of testing the recipe. Let me know how they come out. They are best eaten same day as mochi tends to dry out faster than regular flour