Vanilla & Matcha Melon pan with sourdough starter

Following my last post, Sourdough Annn pan, here is another Japanese bread.

Melon pan!

(Are you thinking 'what's melon pan?', then here is the answer.;D)

Lana, Andy, and I, we all love this sweet buns. This time I made one with vanilla biscuit on top and the other matcha green tea biscuit. The matcha ones also have chestnut paste inside.

I think the beauty of Melon Pan comes down to the skin (the biscuit.) I like my skin to be nice and crunchy, not to thin but not too over powering to the bread. The ratio I usually do is '50g dough to 40g biscuit' for a bun.

Ingredients:

*Bread*

Starter (banana) 120g

Very strong Flour 250g

Milk 150g

Egg 1

Sugar 30g

Honey 1 tbsp

Oil 15g

Butter 35g

Salt 3g

---

*Biscuit*

Butter 60g

Sugar 115g

Plain Flour 200g

(For matcha, use 190g flour +  10g matcha powder)

Egg 1

Not only is the biscuit goes well with the sweet bun, but also it's pretty awesome as is. So, if you get any leftovers, bake them at 175 ºc for 10 minutes, then another 10-15 minutes at 150 ºc.

They are so moreish. ;-d

Inside the Matcha Melon Pan.

Chestnut and Matcha, it's like a dream team!

They are best eaten on the day they are baked (if you could kept them long enough...), but if you're having them the following day, I recommend you put them in the fridge (since it has chestnut paste inside) and take them out to room temperature or warm them up slightly in the oven before you eat them.

Matcha & Vanilla Eclair, Choux

Bon Bon Bon Appetit!

Choux pastry filled with a generous amount of cream, especially what I call 'the double cream' (the combination of whipped cream and custard...) has always been one of my favourite things to make and eat.

This time as well as the classic Vanilla custard cream puffs and eclairs, I also made Matcha flavoured ones.

Seriously..., I've said this before but 'I love matcha soooo much!' This matcha double cream takes the already-awesome-cream-puff to the next level.

Look! It's definitely to die for.;D

Choux pastry is not hard to make, yet the end result looks impressive and can be made into different shapes such as Eclairs, or even with different colours! (Have you seen my Halloween puffs? ;)

I'm now working on my illustrated recipe for choux pastry that will be soon on BON APPETIT., so please bare with me! Meanwhile you can enjoy my quick fun choux pastry making video on Instagram;)

Here comes the Cream puff family♥︎

This is how I make basic custard.
Ingredients:
Egg yolk 2

Sugar 50g

Flour 1 tbsp

Milk 200g

Vanilla beans (1/4-1/2)

1. Mix egg yolk and sugar together.

2. Add flour into 1.

3. In a small pot warm up milk with vanilla (Do not boil!).

4. Slowly mix in the milk into 2.

5. Put 4 back into the pot.

6. Cook the mixture on a low-medium heat until the bubble starts to appear (Be careful not to burn the bottom). *

7. Cook another minute, then pour the mixture in a container to cool it down.

*For Matcha custard, mix 1 tsp Match powder with 1/2 tsp water to make a paste. At step 6 add the paste and mix well.

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!

Matcha danish pastry with Rum raisin

I love adding a bit of Japan into my breads and pastries. As I was making the pastry dough, I thought why not add a bit of green tea in it... so here we have Matcha Danish pastry!

It worked nicely. The flavour of green tea was there but not overpowering, and it went well with rum raisins.

I tried to reduce as much butter as I could to make it healthier, which worked pretty ok as a Danish pastry. I've made some croissants with the same dough that haven't been baked yet. We'll see how they will come out! I'll share the recipe soon. ;)

Frog (?) Loaf

So..., it was supposed to be a frog face... does that look so? I think it's looking more like an alien cat...

Anyway, I've seen this kind of loaf before on Japanese website (I don't know what it's called. Maybe a 'Loaf art'...) and I've been wanting to try it out for ages. So..., here we are, my first attempt for a loaf art... Mr Frog.. ;D

First I pictured what 'face' I want in my loaf, then thought about the pieces and ratios of dough I was going to need. I used green tea for the green dough and raisins for the eyes.As I started to assemble, I realised that the piece for the outer shell was a bit thin, but I stretched it out and managed to wrap the whole thing up... Now, all I could do was to wait for Mr Frog to prove.

It was so exciting when I cut into the loaf because you just don't know how it will come out until you actually see the inside! Ok..., to be honest, the face inside wasn't what I expected... but, humm, it still looked like a face of some sort... So, I say my first attempt wasn't too bad, and more importantly it tasted good and was a great fun. :)

I might get addicted to this...

Matcha Macaron

Macarons are one of my favourite sweets. When I visit a bakery or cafe and they have macarons, I cannot walk out without trying their macarons...

Although I love macarons, I find them pretty hard to bake. I've been practicing and modifying the recipe for 'feels-like-forever' time. However, I think (touch wood!) I've finally got it right this time!

I made matcha macarons. And they came out.... simply perfect! They had nice feet on the bottom and crisp outer shells. The inside was soft and chewy. I put matcha jam in the middle. The flavour of matcha was just heavenly...

These perfect looking sweet treats certainly put a big smile on my face... :D

Matcha and sweet beans bread

Green tea and sweet beans...This is my ultimate Japanese bread! Some people might already know but I LOVE green tea, and that's definitely a taste of home for me.

I added green tea powder into a soft Japanese style bread dough. Even a small amount of green tea powder is enough to make the dough beautiful green and you will immediately start to smell the distinctive flavour.

I also kneaded in sweet kidney beans to make it proper Japanesey. :)

I finished baking bread just in time for breakfast, and it was simply awesome... The sweet beans were spread nicely and blended with the aromatic green tea flavour so perfectly.

Nothing can beat freshly baked breads and a taste of home...

Ingredients:

Strong flour 245g

Matcha powder 5g

Yeast 3g

Salt 3g

Egg 1 + Milk =200g

Butter 30g

---

Kidney beans 1tin

Brown sugar 50g

---

Egg for glaze

1. Place the beans and sugar in a sauce pan, cover with water, and cook until the water has reduced and become sticky. Cool it aside.

2. Put all the ingredients except butter and cooked beans in the standing mixer, and knead for a few minutes.

3. Add butter and beans. Keep kneading for 10 minutes.

4. Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover with cling film and rest it until it has doubled in size.

5. Punch the dough to let the air out. Divide into 10 pieces and make them into balls. Cover with cling film and rest for 10 minutes.

6. Gently reshape the balls into the shape you like and place on a baking tray. Rest until they have doubled in size.

7. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Egg wash the bread and bake for 15 minutes.

Vanilla & Matcha mille feuille

I made puff pastry for Andy because he wanted to make a French biscuit that required puff pastry. (I forgot the name of it but the sweet and crunchy biscuits were very nice... so good that they were gone before we had a chance to take photos...)

With the left over puff pastry, I made mille feuille. One with vanilla custard cream and the other with matcha (green tea) custard cream. The puff pastry puffed up a little too much for mille feuille (I should have rolled the pastry thinner... ;( ... ), but they tasted great, anyway.

As I've mentioned many times in the past, I love green tea, and green tea custard is not an exception! It's so good... and a great variation of vanilla custard. Mix one tea spoon of green tea powder with one tea spoon of water, and add the mixture into the vanilla custard.

Enjoy an European style dessert and a taste of Japan at the same time! ;D

Green tea pudding

I haven't had Japanese stuff for a little while and seeing my mum adding a photo of Japanese food on Facebook made me miss a taste of home...

So..., I searched cupboards and found green tea powder that my mum got for me from Japan. Great! Since I have THIS demanding baby in my arms, I decided to make green tea pudding in a super easy way.

Not only is this pudding easy to make but also it doesn't have mike or eggs, so it's good for those who have dietary issues with them. And of course, it's yummy. ;D

The smooth pudding and rich green tea flavour was just what I needed to satisfy my Japanese food craving...

You can use normal milk instead of soy milk if you prefer...;

Green tea powder 1tbsp

Sugar 1tbsp

Soy milk 200g

Corn flour 1 1/2 tbsp

1. Combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan and mix well.

2. Cook over a low heat until the mixture thickens.

3. Pour the mixture into a cup. Let it set in the fridge.

Green tea brownie (抹茶ブラウニー)

So..., yesterday I rediscovered the fun of making brownies, which made me want to bake them more. In fact, I was thinking about making them whole day today. Well, that's what people call addiction, no?

Anyway, followed by yesterday's orange-coloured carrot brownie, today I went for green! Yes! My favourite frog, Kermit said "It's not easy being green." However, when you use a good quality green tea powder, you really get a bright green. Not only that, it has a lovely bitter green tea taste, which goes well with sweet white chocolate...

The intense taste and heavy texture will satisfy you after a small portion. With a hot cup of green tea (not sweetened please...), this brownie goes down nicely... Aghaaa, having a taste of home..., that's one of the moments when I appreciate being Japanese...

Ingredients;

White chocolate 50g

Butter 30g

Egg 1

Sugar 50g

Flour 40g

Green tea powder 15g

1.Preheat the oven to 180ºc.  Melt white chocolate and butter together.

2. Beat egg and sugar until it's fluffy.

3. Pour 1 into 2. Mix well.

4. Sift flour and green tea powder into 3. Fold in.

5. Pour the mixture into a cake tin. Bake in the preheated oven (180ºc) for 20 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.

抹茶あずきかき氷 (Macha Azuki shaved ice)

There are things that I love in the Japanese summer... a long nap during a boiling hot day, loud cicada's sound, fire works festival, and of course icy foods and drinks...

かき氷(Kakigori, shaved ice, similar to snow cone) is one of my must-have Japanese summer desserts. As you might have guessed from the name, it's a shaved ice dessert served usually with flavoured syrups such as strawberry, lemon, melon... But my favourite is "green tea with azuki (抹茶あずき, Macha Azuki)" and condensed milk poured on top... hoy yeh, lovely...

So... I made... yeah let's say... "an attempt" to make it at home although I don't have a machine to shave the ice finely...
My way was damn easy. I cooked azuki nice and sweet (see how to cook it here), dissolved macha powder in milk, mix it with the azuki, then put them in the freezer. I kept crushing the ice bits every couple of hours until it finally set... The final result was rather impressive!! Nice, icy and sort of airy home-made Kakigori was done!

Tasting time... tasting time... tastin... well.., as always... I ended up destroying it... I guess that tells you how good it was...
Green tea and azuki... taste of home and childhood... can't beat that!!

Macha Financier

On the other day, we took a day trip to France to get some nice bits there. Aaah, I love french supermarket. Especially, their kitchen section has more variation of baking moulds.
There I found a petite financier mould made with silicon, which make up 20 small financiers. Very pretty... immediately..., it was in the shopping basket...

So... today, I used my lovely new mould to try a French-Japanese fusion cake, Macha Financier. I love macha. It is another taste of home for me;) A table spoonful of macha powder is enough to get the unique flavour and beautiful green colour of macha (see the picture!) :D

A hint of macha flavour in the light yet moist almond cake really made me want to have a strong Japanese Hojicha. Great way to feel the French and Japanese in the same mouthful!

Ingredients;

Egg white 3

Almond powder 50g

Flour 50g

Sugar 120g

Macha powder 1tbsp

Butter (Melted) 130g

1.Preheat the oven to 200º. Beat egg white until it's fluffy.

2. In a bowl, mix together almond powder, flour, sugar and macha powder.

3. Make a well in the centre of 2, and pour 1 into it. Fold in lightly.

4. Add melted butter into 3, fold in.

5. Pour the mixture into a financier mould.

6. Bake in the preheated oven (200º)for 12 minutes or until the edge of financiers become slightly brown.