September has just started. It means it’s the time that my sweet for this brand new month should be introduced. During the spring – summer season we get various fruits and vegetables harvested or found in a shop and I have used some as inspiration for the flavour or the image of my sweets such as mango, strawberry or Raspberry. So what kind of plant or fruit I can use for my sweet this month?

The variety of fruits are becoming less in this season. Luckily I found a very good one. Actually it was in my garden. I noticed that there were some branches stretching out from the next door. That was a grape vine and the fruit was just getting ripen. Yes, it is not my plant but some branches are coming into my side and reachable, AND nobody-else seems to care, And I think it is a sin to waste food so I took some grapes and tasted. It was a little sour and tangy comparing to the shop bought ones but not too bad to eat.

The Grapes from my garden

So, it is the Grape season now and I used this inspiration for creating my September Japanese Sweet.

Grape Mochi

This is a Mochi type sweet. I decorated the plain Mochi with Grape pattern as a reminder of what is inside.

It has sweet White Bean Paste inside but that is not all. I tried something new this time.

The centre of this sweet is a very juicy whole fresh seedless Grape (peeled). Oh, I have to tell you that the fruit inside is not the one from my garden. I used a fully ripe delicious one from a shop.

The fresh fruit matches very well with the softness of the outer Mochi layer and the sweetness of the White Bean Paste. It is very refreshing.

This sweet is free from Gluten, Egg, Dairy and Oil.

This Grape Mochi is served with a tasty Matcha Tea at Wasoukan Café until the end of September.