Mochi Brownie (Chocolate Tteokppang)

Mochi brownie is a PERFECT balance of sweet, chocolaty, and buttery flavors, with a light, spongy, and chewy texture that comes from using sweet rice flour instead of regular flour, which makes it also gluten-free! Even my husband and daughter, who don’t like chocolate, loved this chocolate mochi brownie!

Mochi Brownie (Chocolate Tteokppang)

I LOVE chocolate, especially dark chocolate and I have been wanting to make a chocolate version of my tteokppang so here it is! So I shared my first Tteokppang recipe back in 2014 while I was living in Korea and back then no one talked about this kind of cake. But 20 years later, I see many recipes calling it Mochi Cake or Mochi Butter Cake, which I find similar but not the same.

I’ve also found a few recipes that say Mochi Brownie, Chocolate Mochi Cake and Chocolate butter mochi which seem to use different ingredients. Some use coconut milk, some use sweet condensed milk, heavy cream and so on. Some add chocolate ganache to it vs cocoa powder and I tried both of them but I have to say I like the combination of cocoa powder and chocolate chips the best.

And then I wanted to have a similar base Tteokppang recipe using regular milk, so here it is!

I am soo excited to share this recipe with you because even my husband and daughter (who are not chocolate lovers) so enjoyed this mochi brownie!!!

Tips for Mochi Brownie Ingredients

With this recipe, I feel the kind of ingredients can make a difference in the taste, so I want to share exactly what I used. And I will list them in terms of importance.

• Sweet Rice Flour – the most easily found one is called Mochiko flour and you can buy this on Amazon, at major grocery stores and Asian markets. You can also buy what Koreans call Chapssal Garu 찹쌀가루 at Korean grocery stores. You can also grind your own sweet rice flour at home if you have one of those stone grinders.
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips – I tried using unsweetened chocolate chips, and it came out too bland. Semi-sweet Guittard chocolate chips is what I used and I LOVED IT. I’m sure you can use other semi-sweet ones. If you are going to use unsweetened, I suggest increasing the sugar amount in the recipe.
• Cocoa powder – I used Trader Joe’s unsweetened cocoa powder, and it was perfect. But feel free to use whatever brand.
• Butter – In baking, it’s important to use unsalted butter if the recipe calls for it as the saltiness can amount to too much since we are using 6 Tbsp. To MELT COLD butter from the fridge, try microwaving for 30 seconds at a time, mixing, then re-microwaving again. I usually find that a total of 1 min 30 sec does the job.
• Milk – I used whole, organic, grass-fed milk, but you can use low-fat. I haven’t tried non-cow milks but I think most would work fine. I would love to hear from you if you have used other non-cow milks!

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. PREHEAT OVEN to 350 ℉.
2. Mix Dry Ingredients – In a mixing bowl, add sweet rice flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and sea salt. Mix the dry ingredients well with a whisk until well blended.
3. To the bowl with dry ingredients, add milk, egg, vanilla extract and melted butter. Mix until you get a smooth, cake-batter consistency, without big lumps.
4. Add chocolate chips and stir.
5. Pour batter into the pan – make sure the batter is mixed right before pouring so the chocolate chips don’t sink to the bottom – like the picture below. Which is not the end of the world, but if you can I think it’s good to have it spread throughout the brownie.
6. Bake for 45 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let it cool for a few minutes before serving. It tastes best when it’s still warm.