Add ube halaya jam to a classic Hawaiian butter mochi to make ube butter mochi! This butter mochi is so easy to make – just mix all ingredients together and bake.
I have a lot of butter mochi recipes on this blog, but this ube butter mochi is one of my most popular among my friends. My friends from Hawai’i even asked me for the recipe, so I feel pretty confident about sharing this one with you.
Actually, I developed this recipe at the request of another friend who recently came back from vacation in Hawai’i and said she had the best ube butter mochi there. So for those of us not fortunate enough to live in Hawai’i, this one’s for you!
What is Butter Mochi?
Butter mochi is essentially a mochi snack cake from Hawai’i. No one really seems to know for sure who invented it. It’s similar to the bibingka from the Philippines, but obviously it uses mochiko from Japan. In any case, you typically bake it in a rectangular dish and cut it into squares to share. Butter mochi is chewy, dense, and so so good.
What is Ube and Where to Buy It
Ube is a purple root vegetable with a mildly sweet flavor, similar to a sweet potato. Ube is from the Philippines and used frequently in desserts there. Recently, however, ube has become a very popular flavor among Asian American desserts. You can now find ube lattes, ube donuts… even Trader Joe’s sells a whole line of ube snacks (although they’re not that good, in my opinion).
For this recipe, I use both ube extract and ube halaya jam. Both of these are pretty well known ube ingredients and can be found at many Asian markets. While I would like to use fresh ube puree, fresh ube can be difficult to acquire in America. Plus, I heard there’s currently an ube shortage in the Philippines?!
If you don’t have an Asian market near you or can’t find ube products, there’s always Amazon, although it will be much more expensive. Alternatively, if you live near a major American city, you might have some luck using Say Weee grocery delivery. I’ve used them to buy ube halaya jam before, and I have no complaints. If you’d like, you can use my referral link for $10 your first order.
How to Make Butter Mochi
Are you ready for this? Okay… to make butter mochi… you dump all the ingredients in a bowl, mix, and bake.
THAT’S IT.
Seriously, no fancy techniques or stand mixers or other equipment needed. Just stir it all in a bowl. Pour into a dish. Bake.
Butter mochi is SO easy. I often let my kids help me make it because it’s hard to screw up. If you’re a beginner baker, even you can do this.
By the way, I wrote my recipe to use exactly one jar of ube halaya jam and one can of coconut milk. You can easily double this recipe and bake it in a 9×13″ dish for one hour. In that case you would need two jars of jam and two cans of milk, but it also uses an entire box of mochiko. So if you hate leftover ingredients, that’s a good option for you.
More Butter Mochi Variations
Butter mochi recipes are in no shortage. I like to say there’s a butter mochi for everyone. If you want to see more, check these out:
- Classic Hawaiian Butter Mochi
- Custard Mochi
- Chocolate Butter Mochi
- Matcha Butter Mochi
- Black Sesame Butter Mochi
The Best Ube Butter Mochi
Ingredients
- 8 oz mochiko about 1 3/4 cups or half a box
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 12 oz jar ube halaya jam
- 1 14 oz can coconut milk
- 4 oz butter melted 1 stick
- 1/2 tsp ube extract
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease an 8×8" baking dish.
- Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, stirring well to ensure no dry lumps of flour remain.
- Pour into your prepared baking dish and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow butter mochi to cool before slicing and serving. Leftover butter mochi will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days.
Video
Notes
- You can double this recipe and bake it in a 9×13″ baking dish for one hour.
- I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale to measure your mochiko. Differences in the amount of mochiko may result in differences in the thickness of your batter, which will affect bake time.
- Different brands of ube halaya may be more or less dry, which may also affect your batter texture and bake time. Expect that more wet batters will take longer to bake.
26 comments
[…] Ube Butter Mochi […]
Yummy! I made this for thanksgiving and it was a hit. I used only half the bottle of the halaya jam and 2 tsp of the extract. I used a little more then half the box, and it came out great! Thank you for the recipe!!
Looks great! I always wanted to find a good ube butter mochi recipe but so many seems to just use extract.
What brand of ube halaya would you recommend? I do live by some filipino markets but I know some brands may be better than others.
Also if I doubled the recipe for 9×13 pan, would I use 2 sticks of butter? Only asking because the other butter mochi recipes in 9×13 pans use only 1 stick of butter.
Hi! My favorite brand that I’ve used so far is the dragonfly brand. And yes, double the entire recipe, so that means 2 sticks.
Understood, Thank you!
If I want to cut them into squares and place each square into cupcake liners for a school event, will the mochi stick to the paper liners or should I dust the bottom and sides with cornstarch beforehand?
You should be fine without dusting unless you live in an extremely humid environment.
I made this last night, and we loved it! I’m wondering if it would work if instead of putting the batter in a pan, if you baked it like individual cookies. Have you ever done it? How does it come out? Thank you for the great recipe!
Glad you liked it! I don’t think this would work for cookies, but I do have an ube cookie recipe already posted.
I made my own ube jelly, so how much would I need of that instead of the jar? Still 12oz?
Yes, that’s what I would recommend.
Hi! Really excited to try this recipe! Was wondering if I could substitute the ube halaya with ube puree and if I would have to make any adjustments? Thank you!
Hi Sophie, you definitely could use ube puree! The only issue is that the puree may contain more liquid than the halaya. The recipe should still work out, but you may need to bake the mochi longer. The texture may also become more stretchy and gooey as opposed to cakey, if that makes sense. I would expect that it would still turn out delicious.
Thank you for the advice! I made these by substituting the ube halaya with an equal weight of ube puree and they did turn out a bit more gooey but were still delicious! Next time I might try adding a bit more rice flour but a great recipe 🙂
Looking forward to making this. One question – i noticed your other butter mochi recipes combine evaporated milk and coconut milk. Any reason to omit evaporated milk in this recipe?
Hi Sejal,
Thanks for considering this recipe! No specific reason to omit the evaporated milk; if you decide to double the recipe for a 9×13” pan, you can substitute a can of evaporated milk for one of the cans of coconut milk if you wish. Coconut and ube tend to go together well, which is why I used only coconut milk for the smaller batch.
Can i use rice flour instead? I can’t find here in Norway.
Sorry, it has to be glutinous rice flour, and preferably mochiko specifically. 🙁 you can try ordering online?
Would you recommend salted or unsalted butter?
Hi, all my recipes use unsalted unless otherwise specified 🙂
Made this yesterday for a work party. Followed the recipe and it was super easy to make. I measured out 8oz of mochiko and the brand of Ube halaya jam I used was Monika brand. For my conventional oven, 350F at 45 mins was not enough, I had to bake for around 1hour and 10 mins for the toothpick to come out clean. Everyone enjoyed it and said it was the best ube butter mochi they had! Thank you for the recipe!
Made this twice for my family now and they LOVE it. I plan to make it again.
Unfortunately, both times I’ve made it, the center doesn’t seem to cook thoroughly — I refrain from baking longer because the outside edges are bouncy already. I have forgotten my scale both times but measured out 1c 3/4c of mochiko. \
The only thing I can think of that wasn’t “correct” was the coconut milk — the can says 13.5oz vs. the 14oz in the recipe. I also put less sugar since my family does not like desserts too sweet.
Thanks for your comment, Rosanna! Can I ask what kind of baking pan you are using? I have had some followers tell me that the center didn’t set well when using disposable baking tins or ceramic dishes. I recommend using a light colored metal baking tin and continuing to bake until a toothpick put in the center comes out clean. The edges may be more crunchy, similar to brownies, but a lot of people really like brownie edges and may like mochi edges too!
Both times I have used a glass pyrex 8×8 pan. Will definitely try a metal pan next time and toothpick more in the center. Thank you so much for responding and providing insight. Everyone still loved it either way.
Is the extract crucial to this recipe? I can’t find it locally and I’m dying to make this today 🙂
Hi Susanne! Without the extract you probably won’t get a strong ube flavor, but it would still taste good. You also aren’t likely to get a vibrant purple, but you could add purple food dye to achieve the same effect.