Yoghurt & Kinako wholemeal bread

There are two secret ingredients in these super soft loaves of bread..., Yoghurt and Honey...

Try using yoghurt instead of butter and honey instead of sugar, and you'll find that the bread becomes amazingly soft. And even better, on the following day the bread will stay as soft as when it was freshly bake.

Recipe for Yoghurt & Kinako Bread.

I added kinako (soya powder, my one from Japan had black sesame in it) in the dough which gave the loaf a nice bit of nutty flavour. Apparently, kinako is a good source of iron and calcium. That's good for my growing little lady;)

Recipe for Yoghurt & Kinako Bread.

I love the way she eats...

わらび餅もどき (Fake Warabi mochi)

Yesterday it was a nice hot summer's day in London and I had a sudden craving for this Japanese summer dessert called "わらび餅 (warabi mochi). It's made from starch and a bit like jelly but more wobbly....

To make warabi mochi you need warabi mochi powder but of course I can't find it easily here in England. But that didn't stop me from fulfilling my want for Japanese food...

So, I made "わらび餅もどき (fake warabi mochi)" with gelatin. I simply set sweetened water with gelatin and ate it with kinako and date syrup (normally it's eaten with brown sugar syrup). Hummm, it didn't have the texture of Warabi mochi but certainly had the taste! I liked it.

I'll tweak the recipe to get the texture right but for now it filled my Japanese food hole. ;D

きなこカップケーキ (Kinako cupcake)

きなこ(kinako, soy powder) is one of my favourite food since I was a little kid. I used to sprinkle sweetened kinako on my rice which is for me an ultimate comfort food...

Yesterday I fancied a comforting Japanese sweet so decided to make some cupcakes with kinako. I mixed kinako in my very easy basic cupcake recipe and used dark brown sugar for a rich taste.

It took me only less than 30 minutes to make this cupcakes which is really handy when you have a little baby. These cupcakes are fairy healthy too that is another good thing when you're watching your diet. (I kind of am... because of breast feeding...)

The cupcakes tasted very "homely" which was just what I was looking for... I loved them, but Andy said "it's not for me..." because he doesn't really like kinako... Ok well, if you like kinako, then that's for you...:)

If you like your cupcake sweet then add more sugar (you can add up to 100g or so...)

Ingredients:

Flour 70g

Kinako 30g

Baking powder 1 tsp

Dark brown sugar 50g

Egg 2

Butter 100g

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Melt butter.

2. Beat eggs and sugar together until it's light and fluffy.

3. Mix in melted butter into2.

4. Sift flour, kinako, baking powder into 3.

5. Pour the mixture into cupcake tins and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Dessert for a Japanese night...

Last night friend of mine from Japan (Oh, her name is also Yumiko!), who is currently traveling the world came around stayed with us. Because she spent last 9 months in South America, I thought she must be missing Japanese food.... So, I made a very Japanese dinner for us;)

Japanese curry with some sticky Japanese rice, and of course Japanese dessert! A sort of green tea pudding... The reason I said "sort of" is because it's not like usual egg based pudding...

I used almond paste powder and gelatin to set the pudding, which gave the pudding a very unique texture. It was like pudding, jelly and bit of mochi in one... Hum, addictive... We had it with sweetened soy powder, きなこ(Kinako), which for us "Just like Japan"....

Hope my friend, Yumiko-san, felt a bit of Japan before moving on to another place... :D

Ingredients;

Almond paste powder 3 tbsp

Gelatin 1 tsp

Water 450 ml

Green tea powder 2 tsp

1. Boil water. Add almond paste powder and mix well.

2. Combine green tea powder and a few tsp of water and make a paste.

3. Add 2 into 1 and mix well.

4. When it the liquid becomes little sticky, turn the heat off and sprinkle gelatin in. Mix well.

5. Cool it in the fridge until it's set.