What's about Japanese sweets?

Like many Japanese girls, my favorite sweets are French. If I make a dessert for a dinner party for friends, I generally choose to make Italian desserts as they are quicker and I have a lot of experience through my work. ( I am teaching Italian as well as Japanese!)

However, Japanese sweets have the advantage of being health as traditional Japanese sweets are made with Azuki bean paste and rice flour. This means that traditional Japanese sweets are gluten, dairy and fat free!

In Japan, there are many specialist sweets shops much like you would find in France. The display and presentation is very beautiful. I stop to watch display whenever I find sweets shops! Japanese sweets have developed over time to accompany tea ceremonies. In there tea ceremonies, very strong green tea is served. Therefore a sweet is a perfect company. For the ceremony, the presentation is the most important. The sweets for the ceremony have brighter natural colouring and quite often express season and nature. For example, you will have a cherry shaped and pink coloured sweet in March. The creation of these traditional sweets must be trained for many years, much like sushi chefs.

I sometimes combine European style sweets with Japanese ingredients. I made some biscuits for a little cookie monster! He is a son of my friend's sister. It's really easy to make and gluten free!



Gluten free biscuits

200g rice flour, shifted
50g corn starch, shifted
150g unsalted butter, softened
120g caster sugar
1 egg york
1 lemon zest
1 tbsp soy milk, milk or water
a pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 150C
Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream until it becomes pale and smooth like mayonnaise.
Add the egg york, the salt and the lemon zest and mix well.
Add the flour and cornflour and blend briefly, just until thoroughly combined. If its difficult to mix, add a little soy milk into the mixture.
Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead to form a smooth dough.
Shape into roll and put in the fridge for about 1 hour.
Make 1 inch ball shapes and press the middle of each ball with your finger.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until pale golden. Cool on a wire rack.