Class description
From strawberries-in-the-snow gelatin to wind-in-the-pines cake, and
crossing through red bean paste and green tea flavorings in everything
from steamed bread buns to ice cream, there’s a reason the Iron Chefs
thought squid ink was a viable dessert ingredient. Learn to make Japanese
desserts and snacks including mochi (rice cakes), dango (dumplings on
a stick with sweet soy or red bean sauces on top), vegan-friendly “gelatin”
desserts set with agar-agar rather than animal products, and red bean
or green tea ice cream. (No squid ink here — I promise!) Class meets
Nov. 21.
Class outline
- Discussion of categories of desserts, a lot of them were based on
what went well with matcha for tea ceremony (or included matcha in
the flavoring, a la green tea ice cream) and that ovens didn’t exist,
meaning steamed buns are much more common than cakes in history and
most houses don’t have anything larger than a microwave so a lot of
cake mixes are designed for toaster ovens. - Sample recipes to make and taste:
- Mochi:
- Traditional methods
- Modern methods
- Traditional flavorings and toppings: Kinako, matcha, yomogi, ube,
koshi-an, ichigo-daifuku (strawberry), sesame seeds - Non-traditional flavorings and toppings: Cafe au lait, chocolate,
custard cream, peach, Mayan chocolate (my invention) - Traditional constructions: Daifuku (stuffed), sakura-mochi (wrapped
in a cherry tree leaf), kashiwa-mochi (wrapped in an oak leaf),
Abekawa-mochi (grilled and rolled in kinako), yaki-mochi (grilled)
- Dango
- Anko: red bean paste sauce
- Mitarashi: grilled, soy-based sauce
- Dorayaki: pancake sandwich filled with bean paste and a chestnut
- Kuri-kinton
- Kuri-manjuu
- Green tea ice cream
- Umeshu-kan: plum wine gelatin