Tag Archives: Japanese dessert

All Rise For Cheesecake Souffle

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Presenting the souffle cheesecake with a Wine Country garnish.

Presenting the souffle cheesecake with a Wine Country garnish.

 

Japanese pancakes and cheesecake are having a lofty moment.

Their poofy, airy stature, as if they’ve just been inflated with a pump of helium, can’t help but be attention grabbers.

I’ve fallen under their spell, too. So how could I resist trying my hand at the recipe for “Cheesecake Souffle with Roasted Grape & Vanilla Gastrique”?

It’s from the lush, coffee-table-sized cookbook by Jackson Family Wines: “Season: Wine Country Food, Farming, & Friends” (Cameron & Company, 2018), of which I received a review copy.

The cookbook, which recently won a “Cookbook of the Year” award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals, was written by Justin Wranger, executive chef of Jackson Family Wines; and Tracey Shepos Cenami, chef de cuisine of the wine company; with Tucker Taylor, director of culinary gardens at Jackson Family Wines (whom if you follow on Facebook or Instagram know posts some of the most beautifully vivid photos of fruits, vegetables and herbs that you’ll ever see).

Season Jackson Family Cookbook

Jackson Family Wines is one of the largest wine producers in the world, with a portfolio of 40 brands in California, Oregon and across the world.

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Brown-Butter Mochi Muffins

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Made with dark brown sugar, coconut milk, evaporated milk and mochiko flour, these little treats are gluten-free.

Made with dark brown sugar, coconut milk, evaporated milk and mochiko flour, these little treats are gluten-free.

 

Anyone who has followed my blog for awhile knows about my love for butter mochi.

I can’t resist this Hawaiian baked good made with glutinous rice flour, which gives it a wondrous chewy texture like a big gummi bear.

For those with celiac disease, it has the added bonus of being gluten-free, too.

So when I spied a recipe for “Brown-Butter Mochi” in the New York Times a few months ago, I tore it out, eager to try it.

The recipe is from Berkeley’s Samin Nosrat, a writer, cooking teacher and former cook at Chez Panisse, who recently wrote the seminal, best-selling “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking” (Simon & Schuster).

She first learned to make butter mochi in a standard large cake pan from a friend’s recipe. But then she started tinkering, rejiggering the recipe to use two muffin tins instead. She also incorporated brown butter, which of course, is always a worthwhile addition.

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Meet Chocolate Butter Mochi — Your New BFF

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Sweet rice flour is the secret to this unusual -- and unusually good -- chocolate creation. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

Sweet rice flour is the secret to this unusual — and unusually good — chocolate creation. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

 

Ever since discovering the joys of butter mochi on a trip to Honolulu a few years ago, I’ve become rather obsessed with it.

Made with copious amounts of butter, eggs, whole milk or condensed milk, what’s not to adore?

It bakes up so easily into buttery, bouncy brilliance, too.

In supermarkets and mom-and-pop grocery stores in Hawaii, you’ll find that basic version, plus loads more — coconut butter mochi, chocolate-chip butter mochi, even peanut-butter butter mochi.

And of course, the piece de resistance, chocolate butter mochi. Oh, yes!

After getting rather hooked on baking regular butter mochi at home, I couldn’t wait to turn my attention to the chocolate version, especially when I spied a recipe for it in the new “Flavors of Aloha: Cooking with Tommy Bahama” (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy. The recipes are by veteran cookbook writer, Rick Rodgers.

(Photo courtesy of Tommy Bahama)

(Photo courtesy of Tommy Bahama)

I admit that I’ve always associated Tommy Bahama with its tropical print shirts. I didn’t even realize the company had restaurants, too.

Featured in this cookbook are more than 100 recipes with true island flair, from “Crispy Sriracha Shrimp” to “Kalua Pulled-Pork Sandwiches” to “Pina Colada Cake.”

But back to chocolate butter mochi, shall we?

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