This easy Korean sesame mochi bread is so delicious. They are crisp on the outside and perfectly chewy and custardy with some hollows on the inside with specks of nutty black sesame seeds.
Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C) for conventional oven, 350 F (180 C) for convection oven
Get all the ingredients ready as once you start cooking the batter, you want to have them within your reach
Beat 2 medium eggs or 1 large egg in a bowl with a fork. You will not need all eggs, but you will need at least 1 medium egg and a few teaspoons extra, depending on the consistency of the batter
Prepare the batter:
Put butter, sugar, salt, and milk in a saucepan over low-medium heat. Just let it cook until the butter just melt but the milk is not boiling. This is important because if the milk is too hot and when you add the flour, the mixture turns very lumpy. Immediately add the all-purpose flour and keep whisking with a whisk until it turns into a paste. Turn off the heat. Add the tapioca starch and switch to a spatula to combine. The mixture seems very dry and impossible to mix at first but just keep mixing. It should turn into a smooth and very thick paste, like a dough
I put a trivet on the scale and the saucepan on top of it, tare the scale to make sure it's zero and add 50 grams of beaten egg. Use a spatula and keep stirring until they are combined. It seems difficult to combine at first and the batter and eggs separate but just keep stirring and it will turn into smooth shiny paste
Test the batter consistency: (very important step)
Do a "V" test. When you pull the batter up with a spatula, it flows off smoothly and some batter would hang down from the spatula forming a "V" shape. The batter would look smooth and shiny too. If the batter doesn't fall off and just hang on the spatula and looks very thick and choppy, add about 1 teaspoon of beaten egg and mix again. Test the consistency again and add more eggs as needed until you reach the consistency described. I ended up using a total of 52 grams of egg and sometimes up to 54 grams of eggs. It all depends on how much liquid has evaporated when you cook the paste and how much liquid the flour absorbs
If the batter is not the right consistency, your bread will turn out dense and won't have hollow chewy inside. It depends on the moist batter to expand and grow in size during baking
Then add the toasted black sesame seeds and fold to combine
Pipe the batter:
Transfer the batter to the bag and pipe about 1 - 1.5 inches in size. You can pipe bigger if you like, about 2 - 2.5 inches. Hold the bag straight and pipe upward. The tip should stay in touch with the dough paste. Make sure you pipe it "tall", not wide to the side. Make sure you have about 1-inch gap in between as the batter will expand a bit as it bakes.
Dip your finger in water and smooth out the top of the batter so the top won't burn during baking
Baking:
Pop this inside the oven (middle rack) and bake for the next 20-25 minutes if you make small ones like I did. If you pipe bigger, you need 30 minutes. DO NOT open the oven door during this baking time. If the bread deflates when you take them out from the oven, that means they are not cooked enough. Pop them right back into the oven and bake for another 3-5 minutes and check again
Serving:
Transfer the bread to a cooling rack to let them cool off a bit. These mochi bread are best served warmed or room temperature on the same day. They are the best within a few hours of making. The outside will be slightly crusty and the inside is pleasantly soft and chewy. The bread stays soft even after the next day but will lose the crispness on the outside, which can be revived by a quick reheating
Leftovers:
If you do have leftovers, store them in the container. They will lose that outside crisp and that's normal. Simply reheat in an oven at 350 F (180 C) for 5 minutes or until the crust is crisp again. Serve immediately