Tokyo Desserts

My friend's finished house

 
I still enjoy making and decorating gingerbread houses at Christmas. The first step is to make a template for the house you want to make. This is your chance to be design the house of your dreams!! My advice is to keep it simple though.

The gingerbread recipe below is very crispy and does not become soft easily. Good for making houses, not so good for making cookies.

Secondly, you need icing which is not too wet so that it dries relatively quick and the house can stay together.



Recipe makes 1 medium size house:
Sugar　85 grams
Baking powder 2 grams
Salt 3 grams      
Molasses (light or dark) 125 grams
Ground ginger 1 gram
Cinnamon 1 gram
Flour 325 grams
Water 25 grams


1. Mix the first seven ingredients in a bowl until well blended.  Add the flour and water next. Continue to mix until dough forms.

Cut the dough in shape of the template

2. Roll the dough directly onto the cooking sheet and cut out patterns using the gingerbread house template.
3. Cut the gingerbread with a sharp knife working from the inside out.  This means, if there are windows, etc. cut them first.  Then cut the sides.  Bake at 180 Celsius for about 15 minutes. Check for hardness. If soft, bake again for several minutes.



The house is ready to be baked

 


1. Combine powdered sugar and meringue powder. Add the water and beat until it becomes fluffy. Icing should be able to hold its shape when piped.



1. Prepare a piece of cardboard covered with foil for the base. Make a line with the icing on the foil where the house will be put. Start with the back of the house and continue with the sides.

2. Place the back of the house along the back icing line. Then place one of the sides next to the back of the house and put a line of icing along the side to hold the two pieces together. Repeat the same process for the other side.

Lemon Mint Cookies

It is the last day of August and feels like it is the end of summer. The temperature in Tokyo has dropped from a scorching 34 degrees Celsius (93 F) to cool a 23 (74 F). I am sure we will still have a few warm days left, but I think the year end count down has started.

I didn't bake much this summer since it was too hot, but I did try one new recipe - lemon mint cookies. This is a great combination for a summer treat and goes well with a cold glass of ice tea.

These are very fast to put together and bake quickly so you don't need to use your hot oven for a long period.

Here is the recipe:

Butter 80 grams (softened)
Sugar 80 grams
1 Egg yolk
Lemon juice 2 tablespoons
Flour 200 grams
Baking powder ½ teaspoon (sifted with the flour)
100 Mint leaves (chop about 60 of them)

3.       To bake, use a teaspoon to spoon out pieces (about 15 grams each) and put on a baking sheet. Use a fork to push down each piece. Place a mint leaf on top before baking.

4. Bake at 170 Celsius degrees at for 15 – 20 minutes. Happy eating.

Cake decorated and ready to go

 It's still the rainy season in Tokyo so summer isn't quite here yet. Once July hits though, the heat will be full on. Mousse cakes are refreshing in the summer but you need to add extra gelatin so they can keep their firmness.

For this recipe, you could substitute any types of fruit puree. The lemon mousse matches with many other flavors such as mango or passion fruit.

There are 3 items to make in this recipe. The biscuit that is around the cake, the lemon mousse (bottom of cake) and the raspberry mousse.

You can buy the store bought biscuits if you want to shorten the preparation time.

Biscuit:
Egg whites 4
Egg yolks 4
Sugar 125 grams
Flour 125 grams (sifted)

1. Put the egg whites in a bowl and whip until stiff.  Add the granular sugar in portions and whip until stiff.
2. Add the egg yolks and mix with a spatula. Add the flour and continue to mix.
3. Put in a pastry bag and pipe the dough into row
4. They should be same height as the ring that you are using.

After cooking, you can always cut the biscuits to fit the ring even if they are too long.

Lemon Mousse:
Milk 270 grams
Fresh cream 50 grams
Zest of 2 lemons
Sugar 30 grams
3 egg yolks
Fresh cream 40 grams
Gelatin 12 grams

1. Put the milk & cream (50 grams)  into a sauce pan. Grate the lemons then add the zest to the milk. Heat the milk until just boiling then turn off the heat and let the zest steep for about 10 minutes. Strain to remove the zest.
2. Mix the egg yolks and the sugar. Then add the milk to the egg yolk mixture and mix. Pour back into the sauce pan and use a low heat until the mixture thickens. Do not boil!! Take off the heat and add the gelatin. Mix until smooth. Cool over ice water.
3. Whip the cream (40 grams) then add to the lemon cream mixture.

Raspberry Mousse:
Raspberry puree 180 grams
Raspberry or strawberry liquor 15 grams
Fresh cream 200 grams
Gelatin 12 grams (softened in water)

Italian Meringue
Egg whites 60 grams
Sugar 20 grams
Sugar 100 grams
Water 30 grams

1. Heat the raspberry puree for about 5 minutes to reduce the water. Add the liquor and mix. Add the softened gelatin.
2. Whip the egg whites and the sugar (20 grams) in portions. Mix until stiff.
3. Heat the sugar (100 grams) and water in a sauce pan until 110 degrees Celsius. Remove from the heat and pour into the whipped egg whites. Continue to mix until stiff.
4. Add the raspberry puree to the Italian Meringue and mix with a spatula.  Add in the fresh cream and mix.


Putting together:
1. Put the biscuits inside a ring on top of a plate.
2. Pour the lemon mousse into the bottom and smooth with a spoon. Put in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.
3. Remove from the refrigerator. Pour the raspberry mousse over the lemon and smooth. Keep in the refrigerator for at least one hour before serving.

When working with mousse be careful that the mixture doesn't become solid too quickly.

Cherry Blossom Roll Cake

March is cherry blossom season and the beginning of spring. We had a snowy winter by Tokyo standards so I was happy to see the close of winter. I was excited to eat something special for the start of spring so rounded up all of the ingredients for making this cake.

The recipe is a basic sponge cake. You can use any filling you like with it. For this occasion I flavored the cream with cherry blossom flavor.

I found these cherry blossoms that were soaked in a syrup. I put them at the bottom of the pan and poured the batter on top.

These may be difficult to find outside of Japan so apologies for that.

The container on the left side had the cherry blossom pieces which had been soaked in a sweet syrup.