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Chewy, Bouncy Strawberry Mochi Squares made with Freeze Dried Strawberries
Move over, artificial food dye—we’re doing things the clever way. If you’ve ever bitten into a piece of baked mochi and felt personally victimized by a hard, crusty corner piece, you have come to the right place. These Chewy Strawberry Mochi Squares are here to save your dessert game. They are soft, they are jiggly, and they are unapologetically pink!
Why You Will Be Obsessed with These Chewy Strawberry Mochi Squares
There is a time and a place for a crunchy dessert, but mochi is not it. By taking the gentle route of steaming our batter, we lock in all that beautiful moisture. That means every single bite—from the very center to the outer edges—is consistently soft, chewy, and perfectly springy.
Freeze-Dried Strawberries: The Secret Weapon
Who needs red food dye No. 40 when nature literally hands you freeze-dried fruit? Blitzing up freeze-dried strawberries into a fine fairy-dust gives this mochi an authentic, tangy-sweet strawberry flavor that liquid extracts just can’t match. Plus, it gifts our mochi the most spectacular pink hue.
Welcome to the Steam Team (Why We Don’t Bake This Mochi)
Baking mochi can leave you with dry, hard edges and a gummy middle. Steaming cooks the batter gently and evenly, so the squares come out soft, moist, and chewy from edge to edge. Nobody has to fight over the “good” middle piece.
Try more mochi recipes…
Black Sesame Filled Daifuku Mochi
Meet your new obsession: pillowy-soft Black Sesame Daifuku Mochi stuffed with creamy, nutty black sesame paste. No microwave gymnastics, no rolling-pin wrestling — just steam, cool, cut, fill, and pinch. These little chewy clouds stay soft for days (if they last that long, which… they won’t)
Matcha Mochi Squares
These Matcha Mochi Squares are what happens when chi chi dango swaps its food coloring for real matcha. Coconut milk is out and whole milk is in, so the green tea flavor gets the spotlight. They’re steamed instead of baked, so every bite is soft, smooth, and chewy all the way through, with no crusty edges. Bite-sized, gluten-free, and hard to stop eating.
Visual Step-by-Step Guide for Making Strawberry Mochi Squares:
What’s in the strawberry mochi squares
- freeze-dried strawberries
- sweet rice flour
- granulated sugar
- coconut milk
- baking powder
Strawberry Mochi Squares
These Chewy Strawberry Mochi Squares are naturally flavored and beautifully colored with real freeze-dried strawberries! Steamed instead of baked, they deliver edge-to-edge pillowy softness without any of those pesky hard, crusty edges.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes + cooling time
- Yield: ~72 bite sized squares
- Category: Dessert, Snack
- Method: Steaming
- Cuisine: Asian, Chinese, Japanese
- Diet: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Vegan
Ingredients
- 1.2 ounces (34 grams) freeze dried strawberries
- 8 ounces sweet rice flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 9 ounces coconut milk
- 5 ounces water
- 7 ounces granulated sugar
- neutral oil for greasing pan(s)
Topping
- 1/3 cup roasted white sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons potato starch
Instructions
- In a food processor, add the freeze dried strawberries and pulse until it becomes a fine dust.
- Prepare a steamer pot with a steamer rack. Add water until it sits about 1 inch below the steamer rack. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce the heat to low for a slow simmer.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the strawberry dust, sweet rice flour and baking powder. Whisk until combined well.
- In a medium mixing bowl, add the coconut milk and water. Whisk until combined well. Add the sugar and whisk again until the sugar is dissolved. Add the sweet rice flour mixture to the coconut mixture and whisk until it forms a smooth paste. Mixture will be thick.
- Set a mesh strainer over a clean medium mixing bowl. Strain the mochi batter through the mesh strainer, using a silicone spatula to scrape and push the batter through. Discard anything left on the strainer.
- Line and grease the containers for steaming. I am using two 5.5″ square glass pyrex containers for steaming. Line with parchment paper and then brush oil across the bottom and up the sides of the parchment paper. (Don’t skip the parchment paper. The mochi will stick on unlined greased pans.) Fill each lined container with about 1 inch of batter. If using a 9″ round cake pan, you can use 1 pan and it will be slightly thicker than 1 inch.
- Set your container on the steamer rack place the lid on the steamer pot. Steam in low heat for 40 minutes if using a smaller container and two batches. Steam for 45 minutes if using a larger container in 1 batch.
- Carefully remove the lid so the condensation does not fall into the mochi. Let the mochi cool on a wire rack at least 30 minutes. The mochi will continue to set as it cools.
- If using sesame seeds, sprinkle the sesame seeds on the top side of the mochi while it is still in the container. Lift the mochi by the parchment paper and turn it over on to a clean work surface. Peel off the parchment paper and sprinkle more sesame seeds on all the sides. Cut the mochi into squares for your desired shape. Sprinkle more sesame seeds on the cut sides.
- If using potato starch, sprinkle 1 teaspoon on to your work surface and use your hands to spread it in to a thin layer on your work surface. Flip the steamed mochi on to the dusted surface and remove the parchment paper if you have not done so yet. Sprinkle with more potato starch and rub off any excess starch from the surface. Cut into your desired shape and sprinkle more potato starch on the cut sides so that they are not sticky anymore.
- Enjoy immediately or store in an airtight container (not in the fridge) for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6 squares
- Calories: 141 kcal
- Sugar: 13.6 g
- Sodium: 17.5 mg
- Fat: 3.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.7 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 1.1 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 25.7
- Fiber: 0.2 g
- Protein: 0.6 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
❓ FAQ’s for Strawberry Mochi Squares
Mochi is made from glutinous rice, or sweet rice flour in this recipe. Despite the name, glutinous rice has no gluten. This recipe is gluten-free.
No. Regular rice flour won’t give you the stretchy, chewy texture. Look for sweet rice flour or glutinous rice flour (Mochiko is a common brand).
Freeze dried strawberries give you concentrated flavor and color without adding extra water, which would change the batter’s texture. Fresh berries would make the mochi soggy and the flavor weak.
You can, but you’d lose the real strawberry flavor, which is the whole point.
These Chewy Strawberry Mochi Squares taste like sweet strawberries with a light coconut flavor. The texture is soft, stretchy and chewy, a bit like a gummy candy crossed with a marshmallow.
Steaming cooks the mochi gently and evenly. The result is soft, moist mochi without the dry, hard edges baking can cause.
You probably skipped the parchment paper. Line the container with parchment, then brush the parchment with oil.
Cold temperatures make the starches firm up, and the mochi turns hard. Keep it in an airtight container at room temperature.
It’s best the day it’s made and keeps up to 3 days at room temperature in an airtight container.
Yes. Set a rack or a heatproof trivet inside a large pot with a tight lid. Keep the water below the rack and cover the pot lid with a towel to catch condensation.
You can, but baking tends to give mochi firmer, crisp edges. Steaming keeps these squares soft and evenly chewy all the way through.
Yes. Use two 5.5″ square containers (40 minutes each) or one 9″ round pan (45 minutes).
Mochi can get firmer after freezing. If you do freeze it, wrap each piece well and thaw it at room temperature. Fresh is best.
Yes. It uses coconut milk, and there’s no egg or dairy. Check that your sugar is vegan-friendly.
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