Kurumi daifuku / soft rice cake with sweetened azuki bean paste and walnuts

Toasted walnuts add a rich taste and crunch to a standard everyday daifuku rice cake. Turbinado in soft gyuhi mochi goes really well with walnuts and tsubuan crumbly azuki bean paste inside. Best on Day 1 for contrasting texture with walnuts, especially while still warm.

1 daifuku cake (1/4 of recipe):
130 calories; 2.8 g protein; 3.0 g fat; 23.4 g carbohydrate; 21.6 g net carbs; 1 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1.8 g fiber; 145 mg potassium

Bakuraba / baklava

This satisfies Tom's new habit of eating sweets without increasing sodium intake. But when I made these baklava earlier last year, he blamed me for him gaining weight, as I repeatedly experimented to figure out a good proportion of ingredients, especially erythritol (calorie- & net-carbs-free sugar substitute) so it does not re-crystallize when completely cool and does not trigger any noticeable cooling sensation in the mouth.

My original thought was, if I made 28 small pieces in one batch, they should last for 28 days or at least a few weeks. Making baklava from scratch is time consuming, but it would be not bad if each batch lasted that long ... So far I have been proven ridiculously wrong. Tom cannot stop reaching for more pieces. Although the recipe below is not heavily sweet, as with other sweets I make, it could be addictive. 

Whole recipe:
2,396 calories; 37.5 g protein; 175.1 g fat; 225.9 g carbohydrate; 165.9 g net carbs; 44 mg sodium; 158 mg cholesterol; 15.3 g fiber

1 piece (1/28 recipe):
86 calories; 1.3 g protein; 6.3 g fat; 8.1 g carbohydrate; 5.9 g net carbs; 1.6 mg sodium; 6 mg cholesterol; 0.5 g fiber

Momo daifuku / soft rice cake with peach and sweetened bean paste

A fruity rice cake with a juicy filling. Pickled ginger added to the bean paste accentuates the sweetness of fresh peach. Best chilled on Day 1. Tom's current favorite (after learning that "momo" meant the fruit, not our cat, which happens to be named "Momo").

One daifuku cake (1/4 of recipe):
111 calories; 2.2 g protein; 0.1 g fat; 27.7 g carbohydrate; 25.9 g net carbs; 4 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1.8 g fiber

Yuzu daifuku / soft rice cake with sweetened bean paste and candied yuzu citrus peel

This sweet rice cake will send your senses into overdrive as you bite into the soft rice cake envelope that surrounds silky sweet bean paste and candied yuzu peel. The shiroan below straightforwardly delivers invigorating yuzu aroma. If you prefer a deeper taste, try pairing yuzu peel with azuki koshian, or strained tsubuan for a slightly more complex taste. All taste a bit different but are equally good. Great with unsweetened Japanese or Chinese tea.

One daifuku cake (1/4 of recipe; figures for granulated sugar for yuzu peel excluded):
104 calories; 2.1 g protein; 0.1 g fat; 26.1 g carbohydrate; 24.5 g net carbs; 0 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1.6 g fiber

Kuri chakin / mashed steamed chestnut cakes

These little sweets are a personal experiment that I made as a substitute for kuri kinton, a chestnut dish for financial luck that is often part of the New Year's Day meal. While standard ingredients for kuri chakin are only chestnuts and sugar, I mixed chestnuts with shiroan bean paste and roasted satsumaimo. These sweets are not as yellow as typical kuri kinton, so they might not have the Midas touch, but they can provide a gently sweet reward and relaxing moment.

One chakin cake (1/10 of recipe):
54 calories; 1.0 g protein; 0.2 g fat; 12.1 g carbohydrate; 10.7 g net carbs; 1 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1.4 g fiber

Satsumaimo no ukishima / steamed bean paste cake with roasted sweet potato

This moist and gently sweet sponge cake is another great teatime companion. While it contains sweet bean paste, its egg and flour content lets it also complement Western meals when served as a dessert.  Below, I replaced some shiroan white bean paste with yakiimo roasted satsumaimo sweet potato, and threw in some apple bits cooked with mikan tangerine and cinnamon.

Whole recipe:
464 calories; 14.9 g protein; 5.8 g fat; 88.3 g carbohydrate; 78.7 g net carbs; 77 mg sodium; 196 mg cholesterol; 9.6 g fiber

Karukan / steamed yam cake

A regional specialty with 300 years of history from Kagoshima in southern Japan. Traditionally made with yamaimo or jinenjo Japanese yam (Dioscorea japonica), regular rice flour, sugar and water, this simple snow-white cake has a nostalgic sweet taste. Karukan has a supple texture like mochi rice cakes but much lighter and spongy like steamed buns, which seems to make your hand automatically reach for one more piece, and another, and ...
The recipe below features more commonly found nagaimo Chinese yam and an egg white for additional fluffy texture. Plain, white cake without topping is the basic style, yet there are a number of flavor and color variations today.

Whole recipe (approx. 360 g), without kumquat confiture:
676 calories; 12.2 g protein; 1.2 g fat; 152.5 g carbohydrate; 150.9 g net carbs; 70 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1.6 g fiber

1 piece (approx. 40 g; 1/9 of recipe), without kumquat confiture:
75 calories; 1.4 g protein; 0.1 g fat; 16.9 g carbohydrate; 16.8 g net carbs; 8 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 0.2 g fiber

Sakura daifuku / soft rice cake with cherry blossom bean paste

A seasonal variation of daifuku, a soft rice cake with sweet azuki bean paste inside. While sakura-an -- cherry blossom bean paste -- is usually made with shiroan, salted cherry leaves and red colorant, I mixed in sakura no hana no shiozuke salted cherry blossoms and beet water to shiroan white bean paste to create a softly salty, aromatic filling in sakura-iro pale pink.

104 calories (one cake, 1/4 of recipe); 2.1 g protein; 0.1 g fat; 26.0 g carbohydrate; 24.5 g net carbs; 5 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1.5 g fiber

Uguisumochi / warbler cake with sweet azuki paste

As plum blossom season approaches, this chubby oblong cake coated with green soybean flour starts to appear at sweets shops. The cake form symbolizes the spring songbird, uguisu, or Japanese warbler -- I wouldn't blame you if you don't see the resemblance in appearance, but once you put it in your mouth, the combination of soft outer cake and silky azuki bean paste inside reminds you of the tenderness of spring.

One cake (1/4 of recipe): 
110 calories; 2.5 g protein; 0.6 g fat; 24.0 g carbohydrate; 22.4 g net carbs; 0 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1.5 g fiber

Koshian / silky azuki bean paste

An or anko sweetened azuki bean paste comes either as tsubuan with visible beans, or this silky version called koshian. Koshian highlights the natural sweetness of azuki beans and offers a smooth texture that matches the consistency of small, soft mochi-type sweets. Koshian is made in a similar way as shiroan white bean paste but involves fewer steps toward the end.

Whole recipe (approx. 530 g):
1,297 calories; 40.6 g protein; 4.4 g fat; 277.4 g carbohydrate; 241.8 g net carbs; 2 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 35.6 g fiber

Kurimanju / chestnut cakes

A humble autumn confectionery with candied chestnut and white bean paste. Tastes great with bitter or strong unsweetened tea.

Shiroan / sweetened white bean paste

This silky bean paste goes into a number of Japanese sweets. Making it involves a series of time-consuming yet simple tasks, but the results are very satisfying.

Kuri no kanroni / candied chestnuts

Japanese-style marron glacé. The autumn harvest is first colored by kuchinashi gardenia fruit, then sweetened with sugar and mirin for glossy finish. As I mainly make this in order to prepare kuri kinton--mashed satsumaimo sweet potato with candied kuri chestnuts, for financial luck (yellow for gold) in the osechi New Year's meal--it is a reminder that the end of the year is slowly drawing near. It is, in other words, the first of many preparations for the New Year's Day meal. To make perfect kuri no kanroni, you need to take off lots of the edible portion, as even a small piece of inner skin on the surface will cause discoloration. I make only a few "perfect" kuri no kanroni, leaving the majority of chestnuts in a relatively natural state with lots of blemishes. But they are all equally and unbeatably tasty.

Nama yatsuhashi / cinnamon-flavored steamed rice cakes with sweet azuki beans

I first encountered nama yatsuhashi during a school trip to Kyoto, where this special treat was waiting for us at every ryokan inn and souvenir shop. Back then the cinnamon aroma was very exotic for junior high school students from a small town, and at first we were a bit surprised by this Kyoto confectionery. But as our trip continued, soon everyone was keen for more (free) nama yatsuhashi. Cinnamon-flavored soft rice cake wrappers taste so good in combination with the sweet azuki beans inside. This is one of a very few Japanese sweets Tom likes.

Taiyaki / fish-shaped cakes with sweet azuki bean paste

One of my favorite Japanese sweets. There are many specialized taiyaki shops all over Japan, and their fish often have a different look. Sweet azuki bean paste is the traditional filling, although in the last few decades filling options have expanded to custard cream, matcha cream, chocolate cream, caramel cream, etc. I like the traditional style taiyaki, whose cake batter is made of flour, water, egg and baking soda (no milk or baking powder) and is filled with azuki bean paste cooked right there at the shop. The recipe below tastes very similar to the mini imagawayaki (a round cake with sweet azuki bean paste inside, which is the original form of taiyaki) I used to buy in my childhood at a little shop run by an old lady in a neighboring town.

Sakuramochi (Chomeiji) / sweet azuki paste cake in cherry leaves (Tokyo style)

Wrapped in aromatic cherry leaves, this is a salty-sweet and tasty confectionery. The crepes made of flour and sweet rice powder are normally pan-fried, but microwaving makes it so easy and quick – and oil-free!