Lemon snow-flake mochi and mochinnamon bun (via Gourmande in Osaka)

That was fun…

Snow-ball ? Hedgehog ? Lawn ? Well this is my version of a wagashi (Japanese sweet) popular in this season in Kansai. I don't know the name – so many varieties exist, not all are named. It's often yuzu-mochi. Usually it's flavored with yuzu citrus. Mine is made with Meyer lemon. So "lemon snow-flake mochi" ? Mine look really gross compared to what the artisans make. BUT, it tastes much better than the supermarket version. And I know how to improv … Read More

via Gourmande in Osaka

Mille-citrons, the Meyer lemon mille-feuilles

Not perfect like those in the shop. It’s hand-made style. Taste is great.
Over the perfection of shape, I prefer the freshly mounted ones, especially with freshly baked feuilletage.

The refreshed cream is not easy to spread, it should be piped (I’m too lazy). Adding it on the freshly baked tiles is ideal as they keep crispiness and caramel has not the time to melt.

Recipe :
(2 to 4 pieces, depending on size)

200 g of butter pie sheet (home-made or bought, it can be a left-over)
20 g yellow cane sugar
…
30 g corn starch
200 ml milk (or water + skim milk)
2 small eggs (or 4 yolks)
2 tbs cane sugar (or more)
2 tbs unsalted butter
1 organic Meyer lemon
vanilla extract

Custard cream : Beat well the eggs with the sugar. Wet the starch with a part of the milk. Add to eggs. Bring the milk to a boil. Pour on the egg mix while beating. Transfer back in the pan, and simmer slowly while stirring with a wooden spatula. When it thickens add almond essence, the juice and grated skin of the lemon, and then the butter cut in small cubes. Let the cream cool. Then cover and chill it in the fridge.

Pie : Spread the pie sheet, on silpat or parchment paper, cut set of 3 identical rectangles. Bake between 2 pie mold (or 2 sheets of metal), so it stays flat. Put in the hot oven at 220 deg Celsius, about 15 minutes. Take away the top mold (sheet), spread with cane sugar and bake a few more minutes (about 5) under the broiler to get caramelised.

Finish (do not in advance, otherwise the caramel would in contact with the cream) : Spread with a fork (or pipe) the cream on one layer of pie, add second layer, add cream, third layer.
Serve !

Bouchées doubles : two bites of dessert, fruit, pie and cream

Maybe food blog readers love desserts too much… Sweets are the most visited pages, the most “browsed” food.

You can have many dessert this week because it’s Easter. I could fill this blog with sweets mostly. That wouldn’t be honest. I don’t want them to appear more frequently here than they should on my table.
Many people want to read that it’s possible to eat decadent cakes and sweets everyday and it will be healthy. I’d want that too. That’s not really the case.

Let’s devour them for occasions.
Small bites of dessert are a lesser evil. Fruits are healthy.

It’s a small nest of home-made pie sheet, with a little cane sugar on top and a stawberry.

Very milky crème anglaise, flavored with vanilla sugar and a little grated lemon peel. It’s like as I use “concentrated” skim milk, and a little starch to add thickness (there is a small egg yolk).

Catching bargains and late afternoon light on flavorful fruits

At the end of the day, Japanese grocery stores, markets and supermarket discount fresh products. 5%, 10%…50% as the hours pass. And they make big bags of fruits “for juice”. What is wrong with those fruits ? The apples for instance, they fell. And did you know that a fallen apple was very bad for your health or even less tasty ? No. Because that’s not the problem at all. You can keep the “not-fallen” ones months, and the ones that got some shocks only a few days. That’s enough for me. I buy them to eat, not to store. So a big bag of apples for 100 yen (less than a USD or a euro). A big bag of Meyer lemons. A big bag of grapefruits. Strawberries, not so cheap. “Only” 4 pounds for the price of one. It’s their full season here.
Most fruits I buy are “for juice” category, and they are 99% perfect. So I can eat a lot, three to five servings a day.

For juice.

Dice the apples, mix them in lemon juice, cut the strawberries. Dressing is made with the lemon, fresh basil and milled Sichuan peppercorns.

Mix it all…

With quick crackers. I don’t make them from scratches. I buy dumpling skins and I toast them 2 minutes in the oven toaster and they inflate like the Italian flat bread carta di musica.
On top, a small amount of mikan mandarin orange jam, and dried coconut.

If you take both, crackers with fruit salad… yummmmmy !

Wagashi saga. Full edition.

mikan daifuku

The Japanese are sweet lovers. Now, all sorts of Western and Asian sweets can be found in big cities, and there are many talented bakers.

Wagashi means “Japanese sweets”, and it refers to the snack, usually sweet, served with tea. Eating desserts is not the custom. You eat lunch at 11~12 , then at 3 pm, you have a sweet with tea.

murasaki hanamame

The bulk of wagashi are made on a base of 2 ingredients : rice and azuki beans. And the artisans carve hundreds of refined designs -inspired by nature and seasonal events. So you may have the impression that they all taste the same and are only decorative. Actually, even in traditional shops, there exist many other flavors, sesame, roast soy beans, sweet potato, nuts, yuzu, chestnut, ume plum, cherry blossom, matcha, dry fruits, cassia cinnamon…
I have no ambition to compete in refinement of making with the famous shops. I have them on occasions, not too often as the quality ones are not cheap. Making my snacks is mostly a hobby and a way to avoid the supermarket range ones.
My home-made wagashi don’t always follow the traditional recipes, but I try to indicate when I adapt. Usually, I want mines to be less sweetened.

BASIC RECIPES FOR HOME-MADE WAGASHI

Sweet pastes
There are several sweet pastes called “an”.
“anko” the most common is made of red azuki beans. Other beans are used too, white for “shiro an”, and also red, yellow, black…
“kimi-an” is yellow and egg flavored. “kuri-an” is made with chestnut. Etc

Cooking azuki beans

Making anko (brown filling) from the beans. Tsubuan and koshian. Easy recipe.

Making kimi-an (yellow filling, with egg)

Rice, rice flour, processed rice flours