Baking For Robby: Turning Japanese

As you may have heard . . . Robby and I just went on a trip to Japan!

It was wonderful and fabulous and I highly recommend going . . .only not in August.

Japan is hot . . . like really hot . . . I am serious!

[SIDE STORY (bear with me . . . . ) ]

The reason we went in August was so that we could climb Mt. Fuji. Any other time of year it is too cold and dangerous at the top. (There is about a 50 degree difference from the bottom to the top.)

(This picture was taken at the summit. About 4am and about 20oF.)

If you go to Japan I highly recommend doing this. Unless you are faint of heart or faint of shape. It is a serious mountain.

As you can see from the picture above it is definitely a climb . . . not a HIKE!

(Above was taken about midnight from ascending trail.)

You climb overnight to reach the summit for sunrise.

It is supposed to be about 5hrs up and 3hrs down. Yeah right!

It took us 7.5 to get up to the summit.

We then sat in the freezing cold for about 1.5hrs waiting for the sun to rise.

Going down took about 3.5 hrs, and was complete torture!

However in the end it was definitely worth it.

(Picture above was taken about 6am from descending trail.)

(OK back to food . . . .)

Japan is not all raw fish and fried ice cream, although we did eat both of those things while there. There are actually about a dozen different cuisines in Japan. In addition to this people are often surprised to find that the Japanese love sweets. Everywhere you look there were little sweet shops filled with multi colored mochi and sweetened bean paste. Each town or city also has there own special treat to sell to tourists to bring home as souvenirs.

One thing that is immediately apparent on the sweets market is the prevalence of green tea. Green tea is not just a thirst quenching obsession, it is also incorporated into a multitude of confections.

For example . . . . . .

. . . . this green tea filled cake, shaped like a maple leaf, from Miajima.

(They are also obsessed with maple leaves, take that Canada!!)

. . . . or this green tea snow cone we had on the top of Mt. Misen

(yes they sell snow cones at the top of mountains)

(and yes we climbed two mountains, but this one was easy compared to Fujisan)

. . . . then there was my favorite, a green tea mochi ball

filled with sweet bean paste and green tea powder.

(this was from a 7-11 in Tokyo) (or Kyoto I forget which)

. . .and finally, the pièce de résistance, green tea ice cream!

(this one was from a little lady in an even smaller booth outside of a shrine in Kamakura)

(Do you see how melty it is!! That is why I say DO NOT got to Japan in August.)

(OK so on to my recipe. . . . )

We didn't have any cakes or full deserts to inspire me so i decided to take my adopted love of matcha (powdered green tea) and mochi (rice gluten) and make up my own recipe!

The mochi (refer to green ball above) is made of glutinous rice. The consistency is a little gummy and a tiny bit spongy. When racking my brain to make something mochi-like without getting into the labor intensive mochitsuki (rice gluten pounding) i though of crepes.

I make a mean crepe cake and i thought that the thin, sweet, slightly gummy crepe with a nice green tea flavored French pastry cream would be outstanding!

so here you go . . . . .

GREEN TEA CREPE CAKE:

(AKA Pseudo-mochi cake with Matcha Cream):

The first thing you need to do is plan ahead.

Both the pastry cream and the crepe batter are best made the day before and stored in the fridge overnight.

Crepe batter/

Pseudo-mochi:

1 cup flour

3/4 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups whole milk

4 eggs

1 tbs vanilla (yes tbs)

1 stick melted butter

Sift together flour sugar and salt

In separate bowl mix together milk eggs and vanilla

(below is a picture of my homemade vanilla extract. I'll share that recipe at some point . .. hopefully.)

Add the dry to the wet, mixing constantly to prevent lumps.

Then add the melted butter and whisk till smooth.

Cover and refrigerate overnight

Green Tea Pastry Cream/

Matcha Cream:

2 cups whole milk

6 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1/3 cup flour

Heat milk until simmering. Turn off heat.

Beat together yolks and sugar in separate bowl.

Add flour to eggs and sugar mixture.

Add cream slowly, whisking constantly to temper the eggs.

Transfer mixture to sauce pan and boil, while constantly stirring, till mixture is thickened. Like this . . . .

Now it is time for the secret ingredient . . . .the matcha. (I guess it is actually not so secret, as it is in the name of the cake.)

Robby and i bought this matcha from a conveyor belt sushi place in Osaka!

You can see the tea in the purple and green capped bottles

on the counter in the pic on the right.

(One is for fatty fish and one is for regular fish. I honestly don't remember which on i got, but i think it is the purple one for fatty stuff, which makes sense with FRENCH PASTRY CREAM!)

Add enough till you like the flavor or it looks green enough. (Aesthetics count too!)

Cover and refrigerate overnight.

(holy moly this blog is getting long . . . . sorry . . . . )

Now to make the crepes and assemble the cake . . . .

How to make crepes:

First take the batter out and make sure it is mixed smooth.

Then get out a nice sized ladle.

Heat a large frying pan over medium heat.

Add 1 tbs of butter. let butter melt then coat pan by swirling it around.

When butter is bubble ladled enough batter into pan so that you can swirl it around to coat the bottom.

let the crepe cook until the edges look slightly browned.

Flip the crepe. Don't be afraid . . just shake it to make sure it is not stuck and do one quick sharp motion with your wrist.

(Even if you ruin a few crepes at first it is worth getting this down. Trying to flip them with a spatula is a nightmare!! Plus if you drop a crepe or rip it it is a good excuse to eat it!)

Put crepe on a plate to cool. Continue until all batter is gone, adding butter to pan as needed.

Assemble the cake:

Put down one crepe on a pretty plate and spread a generous amount of green tea cream.

Add another crepe on top and press down lightly. (If the cream comes out the sides you put too much or pressed too hard . . . . so do it better next time!)

Keep layering till you run out of cream or crepes.