Regular rice outnumbers glutinous rice two to one here, and the cooked rice is pounded only halfway, so whole grains still show under the bean paste that wraps each piece completely. The paste is cooked in the pot from unsweetened raw bean paste, sugar and water. Half-pounded rice is very sticky, so cut it small for children and older adults.
In New Orleans the beignet is a doughnut with no hole: yeast dough cut into squares and fried. Milk, egg and butter let it puff up soft and bready in the oil, and the heap of powdered sugar shaken on straight away melts a little into the warm surface and clings.
Coarsely chopped roasted peanuts crunch through a soft, buttery crumb in these mold-baked street cakes. Grinding the peanuts too fine keeps the nutty flavor but loses the crunch. They stay chunky, with a few pieces set on top for looks.
Baking soda and vinegar react in the batter and push this thick brown sugar cake high in its cloth-lined colander. In Kagoshima it is also called soda-gashi or fukurakan for that soda rise. It grew out of the Satsuma domain's Edo-period control of sugarcane and brown sugar, and was once eaten at harvest festivals and as a snack during farm work. Warm from the steamer it is fluffy; once cool it turns chewy.
A topping of butter, honey and sugar boiled together with sliced almonds bakes right on the yeast dough of this German cake, and once cool the round is split crosswise and filled with vanilla cream. The cream is not just whipped cream: it is built on a no-cook instant vanilla pudding mix with milk and gelatin. Pudding powder meant for cooking cannot go into it as is.
Only three quarters of each peanut butter ball goes into the chocolate, leaving a pale circle of filling on top. There is no flour, egg or oven involved. The powdered sugar firms the center as much as it sweetens it, and cutting it back makes the balls hard to dip. Let the chocolate cool to barely warm, since a hot coating softens the chilled center and loosens it from the pick.
Cocoa sponge is layered with cherry compote and whipped cream, then coated thinly in cream and topped with grated dark chocolate. There is no butter in the sponge; it rises only on eggs and sugar whipped to about three times their volume.
Glutinous rice flour is mixed with hot water, wrapped around cinnamon-scented red bean paste, folded into half-moons and fried slowly over low heat until golden. A little honey or sugar sprinkled over them straight from the pan is a common finish.
Black rice flour turns these muffins a deep purple and adds a toasty, nutty grain flavor that coconut then sweetens. Coconut milk and neutral oil stand in for dairy and butter, which keeps the crumb soft even after the muffins have cooled completely.
Thick yuzu peel cooks down translucent and glossy while keeping its shape, and because the fragrant yellow layer is barely trimmed, the finished pieces smell strongly of yuzu. Sugar equal to 80% of the peel's weight is added in three rounds, and shaking the pot instead of pressing the peel keeps the pieces whole. Water is only a small top-up to prevent scorching, which is why almost no syrup is left at the end.
Sifted black rice flour turns the cream cheese filling pale lilac and leaves a toasty grain flavor behind the tang of the cheese. Chilled and sliced, the lilac filling sits in a clean line against the shell.
Each chestnut keeps its brown inner skin and sits glossy in syrup. Makers in Saitama picked large nuts from growing areas such as Hidaka, and this autumn sweet once appeared only at festivals and celebrations. The outer shell comes off shallowly from the base, because even a small nick in the inner skin opens up over the repeated boils.
Black rice flour tints these muffins grey-purple inside, and toasted black sesame seeds, left whole, are scattered all through the crumb, popping as you chew.
Cannoli are only worth eating while the fried shells are crisp, so the ricotta filling is piped in from both ends just before serving. Draining the ricotta in a sieve beforehand gives a richer filling, and the ends get a press of dark chocolate chips.
A 15-minute rest in the fridge before baking helps the batter rise into the madeleine's raised hump. Black rice flour gives the crumb a purple cast, and coarsely chopped walnuts turn up here and there.
Packaged soft caramels, melted with a splash of water, coat a crisp raw apple without any stage of cooking sugar to a dark caramel. Whether the coating clings depends on the fruit's skin: water droplets and heavy wax both let it slide. Small apples coat more evenly and make a manageable portion. Once on their sticks they go in the fridge rather than sitting out on display, and come out only as they are eaten.
Black sesame paste is stirred into a dark chocolate batter for these dense, fudgy brownies, and its nutty flavor stays on well after the chocolate. The paste goes in only once the eggs are fully mixed, so it spreads through the batter instead of clumping in one spot.
Caramel poured into the mold sets hard, then melts again as the flan bakes and chills, so when it is turned out an amber sauce runs down over the custard. The sugar is taken past gold to deep amber, which gives that sauce a slight bitterness. The custard itself bakes slowly at 150°C, set in a pan of hot water.
Each piece stands cut side up in a muffin tin, so a dark spiral of black sesame shows across the top. There is no croissant-style lamination: an enriched yeast dough kneaded with butter is spread with sesame paste and honey, rolled up and sliced.
Popcorn that is already popped gets a coat of brown sugar and corn syrup caramel, then dries in a 120°C oven for 45 minutes. Baking soda stirred in off the heat makes the syrup foam up, and the foam spreads thin through the popcorn. It comes out of the oven tacky and turns crisp as it cools.
A generous amount of black sesame paste bakes the loaf a deep grey-brown, and while it is in the oven the kitchen smells of toasting sesame. Only a little baking powder goes in, so it rises modestly and the crumb stays tight. The sesame flavor deepens if you wait until the next day to eat it.
Boiled glutinous rice balls hold red bean paste inside and wear a dry, crumbly coat of roasted soybean powder mixed with sugar. Each ball gets a very thin brush of honey before it is rolled, so the powder clings evenly and the outside picks up a faint sweetness.
Split one by hand while it is still warm and a strong roasted sesame smell rises from the grey crumb. Black sesame powder is mixed into the flour, and the dough is brought together with cream and egg instead of milk, then pressed into a 2.5cm round without kneading.
Cooked glutinous rice, flecked with black sesame, is pressed thin and pan-toasted like nurungji, the crisp rice crust Koreans scrape from the pot. The sheet then breaks into pieces that are tossed in a grain syrup glaze, which turns glassy and crisp as it cools.