Happy New Year! -2014-

Happy New Year, every one! Wishing you all an awesome year ahead!

Are you a sort of person who makes New Year's resolutions? I don't really do a massive 'to do list' but there are some new thing that I want to try as well as things that I am determined to improve this year! And one of them is to learn a traditional Japanese confectionery called "和菓子 (Wagashi)", which is a very delicate and pretty looking sweet, and most importantly it's delicious and I love it!

So, I made my first attempt on making Wagashi for New Year's treats. I made mini "鏡餅 (Kagami mochi)" which is one of the traditional Japanese New Year's decorations.

I probably didn't do this in a traditional way but I was quite pleased with my first Wagashi attempt;) It looked super cute;D

I also made some flowers. The inside is white so it's 'Red and White' which is a colour combination used for celebrations in Japan. Good choice for New Year, I thought...

I put my New Year's treats in おせち(Osechi), which is a traditional Japanese New Year's food. Usually you don't have any desserts in Osechi but I couldn't help it...

In one of the boxes there are my wagashi flowers, super light green tea cakes and rum soaked sweet chestnuts... They all went down so well.

2014 is going to be more breads and cake in the WOS kitchen, and I will be sharing more recipes too!

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

いちご大福 (Ichigo daifuku)

As I promised yesterday, I turned those azuki bean paste into pretty little mochi dessert called "Ichigo daifuku". Ichigo means strawberry in Japanese and Daifuku is a kind of mochi sweet. But also, daifuku means "a big luck" from the way it's written, so...everyone, feels lucky today, huh?

It's got Azuki bean paste and strawberry inside. When you bite it, the juicy strawberry and sweet azuki bean meet the unique mochi texture... it's simply gorgeous...

When you make the mochi, it's quite sticky so make sure that you've got plenty of corn starch ready.

Visit The World of Sweet Recipes, Japan to see the recipe.