Sakura Mochi for a Sakura-less Season, and Salted Cherry Leaves (Sakura-Ha)

Spring is rapidly flying out the window, and much to the chagrin of GTA residents everywhere, it's been a bad year for cherry blossom sightings. The erratic, cold start to the season led to a lack of flowers, instead with the trees skipping straight to leafiness. Nonetheless, I made one of my favourite sweets (and a favourite of my little sister), the beautiful and delicious sakura mochi. They differ from regular daifuku mochi in that they're made with whole rice grains as opposed to pounded, smooth mochi, and that they are garnished with aromatic salted cherry leaves.

The idea of obtaining salted cherry leaves might seem difficult, but if you can find a non-pesticide treated cherry blossom tree with young, small leaves, you can do it in minutes. The mochi themselves are also very simple, with the most crucial step being, in my opinion, letting the mass cool down enough before attempting to shape it into balls.

I also used homemade anko (red bean paste) as the coarser, less refined type (tsubu-an) that I like can be hard to get. All of the ingredients are really inexpensive, and yet this is a very impressive sweet to make- and goes really well with a pot of green tea. You can also preserve the cherry blossoms themselves in salt, but it can be harder to find clean ones as insects like to bury into them and you really don't want ones with pesticides.

Make sure you use the mochigome rice, lest you end up with a mess that's either too sticky or not sticky enough. Also don't overdo the food colouring.... cherry blossoms aren't usually blood red (though that would be very cool).

Sakura Mochi
from Wagashi Maniac

200 g. Mochigome/ mochiko rice, rinsed well
Pinch of salt
300 g. Anko paste (non-fried red bean paste)
65 g. Sugar
160 ml. Water
Red food colouring
10-14 Salted cherry leaves (Sakura-ha) (recipe follows)

Soak rice in water overnight in the refrigerator. The next day, drain and crush the rice with a rolling pin or pestle until the grains are broken up, but not too small (most of the grains should be in halves). Spread in an ever layer on the bottom of a cheesecloth or other cloth-lined steamer or metal colander (anything with lots of holes for steam to get through). Set over a pot of boiling water and cover with a lid. Steam for 30-45 minutes, or until translucent and tender throughout.

Transfer the rice to a cool bowl and mix in the salt. 

In a small saucepan, bring the 160 ml. water and sugar to a boil until sugar dissolves. Pour this syrup onto the rice and mix in well. Add a couple of drops of red food colour and mix in until the desired pinkness is achieved. This is done best with a large spoon or rice mixing paddle.

Wait for the rice to cool down and absorb the syrup completely, mixing periodically and keeping covered. In the mean time, divide the anko paste into as many pieces as you wish to make mochi (10-14, depending on what size you want) and roll into balls. Rinse the salted cherry leaves in cool water to remove excess salt.

When the mixture is completely cool, fill a bowl with water- you'll need this to keep your hands moist when handling the rice so it doesn't stick to you. Divide the rice into as many pieces as you have balls of anko paste and form spheres, then flatten them with the palm of your hand (use the water!). Place the anko in the centre, fold in half and roll back into a ball shape between your hands. Place the finished mochi onto a wet plate.

When all of the mochi are done, place a cherry leaf onto each one. Allow to set for about half an hour in a cool place for better texture.

Salted Cherry Leaves/ Sakura-Ha

12-24 young, small cherry blossom tree leaves, rinsed
about 1/2 C. Salt

Bring a cup of water to a boil and place in a pan or bowl. Next to it, prepare a bowl of ice-cold water. Using a spatula or strainer, quickly dip the leaves into the boiling water for about 10 seconds, then place in the cold water to blanch.

Sprinkle the bottom of an airtight tupperware container with salt. Make a layer of cherry leaves, then top with more salt liberally. Repeat until all the cherry blossom leaves are covered in salt. Top with enough water to cover the leaves, then put something heavy (like a saucer or other non-rusting object) on top of the leaves to keep them submerged. Close the lid and keep refrigerated for up to a year.

Pretzel Burger Buns

Though the Victoria Day weekend is over, it lives on in my heart... and my bread basket. I made a large batch of homemade burger buns for the veggie burgers my mum grilled, and to give it a special twist, I also made a different kind of bun... these ones have the outside texture and saltiness of a pretzel, with the inside pillowy-softness of a roll. I used a specially-designated pretzel salt for the outside, but any coarse salt will do.

These are really good with a pat of butter on their own, or for sandwiches. One good idea is to make elongated buns to use with hot dogs. In any case, these are a welcome addition to any grill-oriented feast or celebration.

Pretzel Buns
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

For the Dough:
4 1/2 C. All purpose or bread flour
1 Tsp. Diastatic malt powder or honey
1/4 C. Whole milk powder
2 TBSP (30 g.) Butter, softened
3/4 Tsp. Salt
1 3/4 C. Water
2 Tsp. Active dry yeast, or 30 g. Fresh yeast

For the Water Bath:
8 C. Water
1 TBSP Salt
1/4 C. Baking soda

To Top:
About 1/4 C. Coarse salt

Mix the yeast, water, and malt powder. Whisk together the flour, salt, and milk powder, and add the water mixture, kneading until a soft dough forms. Add the butter and mix until incorporated. Let rise in a covered, greased bowl for 60-90 minutes, or until doubled.

Divide into 10-14 pieces and shape into balls. Let rest for 20-30 minutes- in the meantime, preheat the oven to 200℃ and bring the water bath ingredients to a boil in a wide, large pot. 

Using a slotted spoon or spatula, lower the dough balls into the boiling water bath and let cook for 30 seconds. Flip and let cook another 30 seconds, then remove and put onto a parchment-lined baking pan.

Score the tops of the buns with a sharp knife in an 'X' pattern and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Brown Butter Banana Walnut Cake

After mysteriously being locked out of my account after resetting browser history (can you tell I'm bad with computers?) I once again tune it to share this unassuming, humble-looking but delicious banana cake recipe.

I accidentally added too much sugar to a banana bread recipe, but it still turned out delicious and very worthy of sharing. It's made with browned butter instead of oil for an added layer of nutty flavour, and uses a combination of sugar and golden syrup to give it a twist. I also add plenty of cinnamon and something that I've only recently discovered... the mysterious "mixed essence" of the Caribbean, which contains a variety of essences and flavourings to lend a unique taste to baked goods. Of course, you can just as well use vanilla, but the mixed essence is interesting enough to seek out at your local Caribbean specialty store (I got mine in Kensington!). It disappeared way too fast for me to take better photos, so you'll have to take my word for it- this is an unusually light banana cake, more fluffy than dense, so don't expect it to be like a traditional pound-cakey banana bread. It actually reminds me more of the walnut cakes sold in Toronto's Koreatown, with the added flavour of bananas and browned butter.

This recipe made about 16 pieces of cake for me, in 2 small round pans, but you can also bake it in a couple of loaf pans or a large square pan. Serve with milk or coffee for a fantastic pick-me-up.

Brown Butter Banana Walnut Cake
Adapted from Scientifically Sweet

1 2/3 C. All purpose flour
1/4 Tsp. Salt
3/4 Tsp. Baking soda
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
2-3 Ripe bananas, mashed well (about 1 C. mash)
1 C. Sugar + 2 TBSP golden syrup, or 1 C. golden brown sugar (or 1 C. fine cane sugar) Note: the original recipe used half as much sugar, so you can certainly get away with reducing this!
1 Tsp. Mixed essence or vanilla extract
1 Egg
1/2 C. (115 g.) Butter 
1 TBSP Lemon juice
1 C. Walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to 170℃ for a deep pan (like a loaf pan) or 180℃ for a shallow pan. Grease the pans you plan to use, lining the bottom with additionally-buttered parchment paper to prevent sticking. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Cook while stirring frequently until the butter begins to turn brown and smell toasty. You will see small brown pieces in the butter- these are caramelized milk solids, and you can leave them be. Once the butter is about the colour of a hazelnut, remove from heat and let cool.

Mix the butter, sugar and syrup (if using). Mix in the banana, egg, essence/extract and lemon juice until well incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the walnuts and spoon the batter into your pans, evening the top with a spatula.

Bake for 40-55 minutes, checking frequently in that time- once a fork or toothpick poked inside comes out clean, remove from the oven and let cool 15 minutes before cutting into pieces.

Fantastic Brownies

This will mark my first baked good in my temporary new home, a nice apartment not far from where I'll be torturing Caenorhabditis elegans with toxic molecules (for science!) for the next 4 months. As excited as I am about doing my first real research, I'm also looking forward to many baking projects.

Now, about the brownies. Holy crow. They're fantastic (as the name suggests). I was looking for a recipe that used a lot of dark chocolate, as I had a 90% Ritter Sport Extrafino Dark chocolate and I collect the wrappers of that brand. I also had some 70% dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate, all slightly mushy from the heat in my recent move with it. So I added tons of chocolate chunks, some walnuts, and a bit of espresso powder and vanilla to play up the flavours in the chocolate. I added a little baking soda that wasn't in the original recipe to make it puff up nicely, but you can omit it for a flatter, denser brownie.

My favourite parts are the crisp, crusty outer bits, giving you a nice handle with which to dunk them into milk. Make sure you whip the batter real good to develop that shiny crust!

Fantastic Brownies

Adapted from Technicolor Kitchen

100 g Extra dark chocolate (70-90%), in pieces

50 g Semisweet chocolate (50%), in pieces

5 TBSP (70g) Butter
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
2 Eggs, large
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract or paste

1/3 cup (47g) All purpose flour

1/2 Tsp. Espresso powder

1/4 Tsp. Salt

1/2 Tsp. Baking soda, optional

200 g. Mixed chocolate pieces and nuts (I used bittersweet, milk and white chocolate along with walnuts)

Preheat oven to 160ºC. Line a 8" square baking pan with foil and grease.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Melt the butter and add the dark and semisweet chocolate, mixing until completely melted.

Whisk in the sugar, followed by each egg one by one. Beat well at this stage to develop the trademark crinkly crust.

Remove from heat. Add the vanilla and sift in the flour, salt, baking soda and espresso powder. Mix in the nuts and chocolate pieces and immediately pour into the pan, spreading the top evenly with a spatula.

Bake the brownies for 30-35 minutes or until the top is dull and crackly. When cool, lift up the foil by the sides to remove. Cut into squares.