The Blog

An ultra-simple, fresh recipe that often reminds us of our childhood. I’m a fan of rice pudding and its cousin, semolina pudding. Here’s a classic version with rum raisins, which you can of course leave out. I’ll also give you my little trick for maintaining the creamy texture I love so much.

A fresh, moist recipe, but above all surprising for those to whom you could introduce it. These are mochi filled with strawberry and azuki bean paste. Ichigo refers to the Rosaceae family, but in this context it clearly means “strawberry”. The soft mochi dough blends perfectly with the juicy, sweet fruit and the anko dough, which is ultimately not very sweet and has the consistency of a firmer chestnut cream. A must for all lovers of Japanese pastry.

As promised, here’s my recipe for dorayaki! At the same time, you can use the same dough to make fish-shaped taiyaki. When I used to go to Japan regularly (another era), whenever I visited a temple, I’d find myself in one of those little stalls selling these little sweets. I wasn’t the biggest fan of anko (that sweet azuki bean paste), but I quickly acquired a taste for it. Today I love it and am delighted to be able to make these cakes at home. It’s much simpler to make dorayaki (dora means gong, its obvious shape), which is done with a simple non-stick pan, than taiyaki (tai was a pink sea bream), which requires a special waffle iron that I bought in Tokyo.

A recipe that does not fail to divide! Either we like it or we really can’t. It took me a while to really appreciate, then love this sweet red azuki bean paste. I used to buy pastries in Tokyo the many times I went there in another life, which contained them and at first I was a little skeptical. Then it became my little routine to finally taste it every time. I wanted to give you the recipe of the anko, with the two possible versions: the tsubuan, with the whole cooked beans and the koshian, with the mixed and sifted beans. This will of course be followed by a dorayaki recipe!