blueberry

Afternoon Tea with Cranberry Scone and Clotted Cream

/ Mutsumi / 7 Comments

Afternoon Tea with Cranberry Scones

A little break from the still ongoing Report of food story in Japan.

When I go back to Japan I take some little gift to my family. I found it is quite hard to find something nice that the gift-receiver can enjoy and also not be too expensive… So now I always take some FOOD.

This time I took some Butter and Clotted Cream as well as some sweets. WHY Butter?? Well, you may find it strange but there has been a shortage of Butter in Japan for years! As soon as the Butter section shelves are filled in a supermarket, it empties very quickly. And they are much dearer in Japan. It is same for other dairy products such as cheese or fresh cream.

I like Clotted Cream. Of course I don’t have it regularly. It’s too rich but having it on Hot Cross Buns is a Must to have at Easter time. You normally don’t find it in Japan. This was not the first time I took Clotted Cream to my family. I know it is a little too fatty and high calories for my mother but having it once a year does no harm and I just wanted her to enjoy something she doesn’t usually have.

So I made Cranberry Scones to have with the Clotted Cream.

Cranberry Scones

Continue reading →

Blueberry Cheese Daifuku

/ Mutsumi / Leave a comment
webC 1

Cream Cheese-An (Sweet White Bean Paste base) and Blueberry Jam centre wrapped up with Blueberry infused soft Mochi (Rice Cake)

Since I sub-named this site as ‘Japanese Food and Everything Else’, I could not think of starting a post with non-Japanese food on this blog. But there was a problem. We have a huge variety of fruits at home at the moment. They are plums, kiwi fruits, grapefruit, banana, blueberries, apples and figs. I have to use them. I wanted to make something I can post on this blog by using them. However, these fruits are more suitable for western sweets rather than for Japanese. So I had to think what I can do to make something Japanese with western fruits.

And then my eyes focused on one of the fruits.

webC

Blueberries!

However, they look too western! So I gave a challenge to myself on turning Blueberries into Japanese Sweets.

M’s Blueberry Challenge!
Here is the outcome of my challenge ‘Japanese Sweets with a western twist’.

 <Blueberry Cheese Daifuku>
webC 2

‘Daifuku’ is one type of Japanese sweets that An (Sweet Bean Paste) is wrapped up with Mochi (Rice Cake). Usually the An used for Daifuku is either Tsubu-An (Azuki Bean Paste) or Shiro-An (White Bean Paste) and both go well with most of fruits. So the flavour of Blueberry should also go well with this idea.

But it has such a western face, then I had to give a little bit of twist in Daifuku for making it slightly more western.

The solution was ‘Cream Cheese’. I am going to use ‘Cream Cheese-An’ for this sweets. Basically the idea is making a Japanese version of Blueberry Cheese Cake.

webC 3

It was the first time for me to make ‘Cream Cheese-An’. I have not had it anywhere else yet but the taste of the ‘Blueberry Cheese Daifuku’ was just what I wanted. Soft smooth Cream Cheese-An matched very well with Blueberry Jam. A hint of White Bean Paste’s mild taste combined all the flavours into one.

Obviously it is not Dairy Free but it is still Free from Gluten, Fat/Oil and Egg. It was a good attempt. Success!

Happy Healthy Eating!