Walnut crust blue sweet potato pie

It’s very a simple and delicious coffee cake. Few ingredients, little process and full flavor.

Purple satsuma imo sweet potato. The potato has already a flavor of almond cream cake, so not much is needed.

I took the flesh of a baked potato, and smashed it with a little coconut cream, a little Grand Marnier liquor and very little sugar. Just mixed.

The crust is walnut, oatmeal, a little sugar, a pinch of salt and very little water, together in the blender. Then put in molds and dried in the oven. Well I should have taken it out before filling…
The taste is really pure walnut

So just fill the crust.

Serve chilled or warm. And enjoy with your coffee.

Zu zu zu lemon tartelette : yuzu, kuzu, anzu

A delicious fresh dessert for all the lovers of sour sweetness.

Why zu zu zu ?

Zu or su, is sourness. Many acidic ingredients have this sound in Japanese. Today :
Anzu : Apricot.
Yuzu : yuzu citrus.
Kuzu : kudzu is a root resembling arrow-root and similarly used as a jelly starch.

About 1 volume of dry apricot for two of oat meal in the blender, then just a little water. Put in the mold, dried in the oven.

Yuzu. I’ve really discovered something here : yuzu and apricot are one of those rare matches made in even. Paired they become something else, a richer fruit flavor.

Kudzu as it is sold. It is 本葛 Honkuzu, pure kuzu. There exist others (explanation here).

For more : kudzu recipes.

I mixed the kuzu powder with the juice and zest of a yuzu, a little yellow cane sugar, enough water (as suggested on the package of kuzu) and cooked while stirring, till it became transparent.

Filled the crust. Let cool a few hours. Garnished with whipped coconut cream, toasted sesame seeds and yellow cane sugar.

No cook crumble, full season flavor

A delicious fruit crumble, fruit crisp if you prefer. Sweetness, fruits, flowers and crunchy cake. And this wonder is ready in 5 minutes. Heaven.

If you want other ideas in the same style :

bananas, chocolate, black sesame almond crisp
Spicy apple crumble

It’s filled with deliciously crisp toki apple and juicy ultra-ripe kaki persimmons.

My baker doesn’t like wasting. Well, he could give them for free, but maybe that’s not convenient. The price is very low. Yes, he sells crumbs. These are some sweet bread crumbs. That’s similar to crumbed digestive biscuits, in tastier.
So that’s ready, but I’m no so lazy. I did hard work :

That took 30 seconds. In the mortar, I reduced to powder some toasted sesame seeds, added the crumbs and pounded slightly to level the big blocks, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Cut the apple, cover with kaki flesh and then with crumbs.

Add flower petals. Mini chrysanthemum.

Yummy !

Autumn leaf daigaku imo

大学芋 Daigaku imo, literally “the university’s potato”, is a street stall sweet. It’s certainly of Chinese origin, but theses sticky potatoes have become part of the furniture in Japan. Osaka has a famous shop that makes some special ones, dipped in crack maybe, as you can’t stop if you start eaten one. I don’t know their secret. Maybe there is none. You take good satsuma imo (Japanese sweet potato), you fry them and coat in a syrup.
And the results depends on the quality of your ingredients and how you master the process.

Flat and small is easier, so I cut shapes of 5 mm of thickness.

I cook them in 3 steps : steaming till they are half-cooked, then I stir-fry them at 160 degrees C till they soften. I put them aside and bring the oil at 180 degrees, to cook them a little more and get crispiness. I put on oil absorbing paper 2 minutes.

Syrup : 1 tbs of sugar + 1 tbs of honey or mizuame (glucose jelly) + 2 tbs of water. Simmer till it starts getting thicker. Add a few drops of fragrant sesame oil. Pass the freshly fried potatoes (still hot) in this hot syrup.
Decorate with black sesame.

NB : I fry them in normal neutral frying oil, not the dark sesame oil for seasoning. It’s possible to fry in sesame oil but only if you have a different white frying sesame oil.

They have to be soft inside crispy around. They are better if you eat them warm, just after making them.

Autumn colors (1) : Pumpkin crust

A pie crust colored by the golds of Autumn. It’s easy, delicious and you can use it for many recipes or pies, tarts, etc.

The season’s star : kabocha pumpkin. You can use other types of pumpkin, some will be more watery so you will need to add less water.

Kabocha pumpkin crust : 1/3 boiled pumpkin flesh, 1/3 flour, 1/3 whole wheat flour. Plus a little baling powder, salt and enough of the squash cooking water to for a dough.
It’s not very solid when raw, so spread it on a silpat or a plastic film.

That gives the neutral version for both sweet and savory pies, but you can add sugar or salt and spices too.

Then I baked them at 160 degrees, about 30 minutes.

A dessert version, very lazy. I’ve garnished with coconut cream, walnuts, unsweetened chocolate (100% cocoa mass), cinnamon. The only “sugar” is a minced prune.