Have a wonderful Weekend!
japanese tea
Weekend Photo – Sakura with Matcha
Have a safe and wonderful Weekend, Everybody!ย (^_-)-โ
๐ธ Sakura, Sakura ๐ธ
Wow, time passes so quickly! It is already April and we are officially in Spring! This winter was so mild in England and spring has arrived early too. I heard that in several areas in Japan the symbol of Spring โSakuraโ Cherry Blossom has been flowering slowly this year and still not fully opened, however, it has been flowering everywhere in London. The trees in the park where I live nearby actually lost most of the flowers and leaves are coming out already. Since I was looking forward to seeing beautiful cherry blossom, it is sad that the best season is going so quickly.
Anyway, when this season comes I have to make some sweet in the Sakura theme for April.
Sakura/ Cherry Blossom
So, this is my โSakuraโ Cherry Blossom sweet this year.
Petal Mochi (Hanabira Mochi)
Happy New Year to you all again!ย Hope you had great Christmas and New Year’s Day. The first sweet I would like to introduce you in 2017 is this sweet called ‘Hanabira Mochi‘.
Petal Mochi (Hanabira Mochi)
‘Hanabira‘ means flower petal in Japanese so I shall call this sweet Petal Mochi.
It is a sweet we traditionaly have only during New Year period. It started in the palace to celebrate a New Year by eating two layers of white and red mochi with some other food. Until the Meiji period the custom spread out to people in the country and the food got simplified onto some similar type of sweet that I made here.
๐ Happy New Year 2017!๐
๐ Happy New Year!๐
Brand New Year has arrived! During 2016 I experienced many new things and thank you all the people who visited my Blog. I wish you all a very Happy New Year! ๐
Matcha Ukishima Cake with Sweet Chestnut
This is one of the sweets I assorted for creating the Sweet Gift Box in an Autumn theme which I introduced on my previous post. It might look like a normal western cake but it is actually very Japanese sweet.
Dorayaki with Matcha Custard Cream Part2 – Matcha Custard Cream
So I finalised the perfect recipe for making soft and moist ‘Dorayaki‘ Japanese Pancake. I am so proud of the taste and the texture with silky finish. We traditionally have it by sandwiching some Sweet Bean Paste such as Azuki ‘Tsubu-An‘ or White Bean ‘Shiro-An‘ Paste between two pieces. It is very recent that people started to put all sorts of cream and fruit instead. For me anything can be OK as long as the Pancake is tasty. I like trying any new flavour combination.
This time I went to a fusion of Japanese and the Western for my perfect Dorayaki. It was Matcha Custard Cream. I love Custard and this time I added a hint of Japanese ‘Matcha‘ Green Tea to this Western flavour. It is a versatile tasty cream to have with any sweet & dessert and it goes so well with Dorayaki’s soft and moist texture as well. How can you resist it by seeing the Matcha Custard Cream is oozing out from the Dorayaki?!
Matcha Custard Cream
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Dorayaki with Matcha Custard Cream Part1 – Soft & Moist ‘Dorayaki’ Pancake
I made ‘Dorayaki‘ Japanese Pancake and posted here at the beginning of this year. Although it was good enough for me I was not convinced that it was the best I can make so I did not include the recipe to share it with people. I have tried making Dorayaki many times since then and now I think I have the best recipe which I can be proud of.
So here it is…
Dorayaki (Japanese Pancake)
This recipe gives you a very soft and moist Pancake which is perfect for Dorayaki. Make one side smooth brown surface and the other side with a bouncy airy texture.
The Taste of Kyoto: Cinnamon Mochi Wrap ๏ผๅ ซใคๆฉใฉใใ๏ผ
Have you been to Japan? Where did you visit? I am sure one of the places you’ve been in Japan must be Kyoto. Everybody loves visiting Kyoto. It is the old Capital City of Japan with lots of temples and Shinto Shrines. You find old fashioned shops standing on narrow stone paved path. You feel like you’ve been Time slipped into 200 years ago.
There is lots of famous food in Kyoto. One sweet many people buy when they visit Kyoto is ‘Yatsuhashi (ๅ ซใคๆฉ)’. It is a Mochi type of sweet with Cinnamon flavour either soft (Nama-Yatsuhashi) or baked hard. You might think Cinnamon is very western spice but I believe we started using Cinnamon quite a long time ago. It came from China and it still has the Chinese name ‘Nikkei/Nikki‘ as well as the western name.
The famous soft type Yatsuhashi is normally cut into a square shape and folded into a triangular by wrapping sweet Bean Paste inside. The spicy scent of Cinnamon is very appetising and it goes well with Tea or Coffee as well as Green Tea.
Cinnamon Mochi Wrap ๏ผๅ ซใคๆฉใฉใใ๏ผ
I made my version of Yatsuhashi in a slightly western appearance.
How Japaneseโ Mind works in Hot Summer Day – “Shaved Ice with Matcha Syrup”
When it becomes hot and humid in summer, there is only thing comes to Japanese peopleโs mind.
Summer + Hot = …
“Kakigori” Of course!
โKakigoriโ is Shaved Ice with some sweet syrup. We love it during a very hot and humid Japanese summer. Japan is composed of a collection of many islands that lies very long from the North to the South so that there is slight difference in weather but anywhere in Japan we cannot escape from the heat and humidity in summer time. So, what do we do? We enjoy eating the food that beats it!
That is the way how Japanese people’s mind work. ‘Kakigori‘ shaved Ice is the best remedy. Actually I have introduced ‘Kakigori with Mango‘ last year (Remember this โ flag?). Mango flavour is fairly modern in Japan, so this time I made the most traditional flavour for Kakigori. That is ‘Uji Kintoki‘ flavour.
Uji Kintoki Kakigori (ๅฎๆฒป้ๆ๏ผ
Uji-Kintoki Kakigori, Shaved Ice with Matcha Syrup & Sweet Bean Paste
Sakura Junction 