Kofukudo has been selling delicious and elegant Japanese sweets for over 140 years. From June 14, they will release a new season-limited flavour of their popular *daifuku. The season-limited sweet will be called Sakuranbo Daifuku. (Cherry Daifuku).   *Daifuku is a type of round, sweet mochi dough that is traditionally filled with a sweet filling such as red bean paste.

Cherry Daifuku: ￥270 each (after tax)

These daifuku are made using the seasonal Sato Nishiki cherries which are at their peak harvest time in June. This means that this is the only season where you can truly enjoy the beautiful flavour of this cherry. After extensive trial and error, a wonderfully balanced daifuku was created. The white bean jam has a mild sweet scent of cherry. Paying the slightest attention to detail, the sweet was carefully crafted in order to fully extract the fresh and juicy flavour of the cherries whilst preserving their high quality sweetness. A cherry casually sits on top of the white mochi of the daifuku. You just won't be able to resist taking pictures of this cute treat.    This is perfect to set out on the dining table at a party. These seasonal sweet treats would also make the perfect gift when visiting a friend.   Take a light bite of luxurious daifuku to experience the best of traditional Japanese sweets.

With just a small bit of ingenuity, turn everyday food into something cute using Kaori’s recipe series! With a few simple ideas, an ordinary recipe magically transforms into a cute dish.

 

For this recipe, you'll learn how make mini Pompompurin pumpkin tarts! This is a simple recipe you can make with just a blender.

 

1: Ingredients

12 Tart shells

150g Pumpkin (deseeded, skin taken off and made soft)

50ml Fresh cream (In this recipe I used soy milk)

20-30g Sugar (Depending on the sweetness of the pumpkin)

1 Egg yolk (small egg)

Sliced Chocolate

Tinned yellow peach

 

 

2: Steam and make the pumpkin soft in the microwave. Place the softened pumpkin, sugar, fresh cream (or soy milk) and egg yolk into a blender.

 

3: Blitz until it's mixed like in the photo above.

 

 

4: Pour the mixture from Step 3 into the tart shells and place into a 180℃ preheated oven. Lower the temperature to 140-150℃ and cook for 10-15 minutes. (You don't want to brown anything, so we cook it on a low heat.)

 

If it looks like it's about to start browning, cover with aluminium foil as this will prevent it from burning.

 

 

5: Once your cooked tarts have fully cooled down, use a round cutter to make a hat out of chocolate and a tear-drop cutter to make ears out of the yellow peach. The round ball on top of the hat can be made by breaking off some sliced chocolate and rolling it with your fingers.

 

Finally, drawn on the eyes, nose and mouth with a warmed chocolate pen!

 

The crunchy tart shells and moist pumpkin paste go pair together wonderfully! And the sourness from the yellow peach is perfect, making is really tasty♡

 

Kaori invites you into her world of character-themed food dishes in her recipe series!

 

Please check out her Instagram where she has uploaded many pictures of her character dishes!

“Kuromame (black bean) no Pound Cake” sold at a shop in Haneda Airport produced by FRANK MULLER called “FRANCK MULLER 365 Port of VANGUARD” is now on sale at GINZA SIX “FRANK MULLER GENEVE”(limited time offer).

 

 

 

“Kuromame no Pound Cake” is a sweets item using fermented butter, fresh Benibanaran (a variety of egg) and black beans made of famous Tanba seeds. The item has a gentle flavor of strictly selected salt and slightly sweet black beans.

It can be said that it is a high-quality pound cake which has the rich aroma and delicate sweetness of black beans.

 

The elegant-looking, matte-black box’s package design will be changed into a spring-like fabulous design.

 

Why not try FRANK MULLER’s special pound cake!

 

 

Happy Turn is getting a new limited edition flavour. “Happy Turn Otona no Yuzukoshō Aji” will be available from January 22^nd to the end of March at convenience stores around Japan.

 

“Happy Turn” is a hugely popular, light rice cracker snack in Japan that has been loved for over 40 years since its first release back in 1976. Yuzukoshō is another popular condiment in Japan like wasabi. It’s made from chili peppers, yuzu and salt.

 

Together with added sweet and salty powder, yuzu and a spicy tang, this makes for a flavour aimed more at adults.

 

They were very particular about the flavour of the yuzu, using yuzu peel from the village of Umaji in Kochi Prefecture. You can enjoy the sharp taste of the yuzu and its bittersweet aftertaste.

 

The new flavour is sprinkled with is 1.5x more specially made yuzukoshō powder than the regular powder to give the snack a deeper flavour. It’s a perfect snack for unwinding.

 

Take this opportunity to enjoy yourself a new ‘n’ tasty flavour aimed at adults.

 

 

 

Daimaru is one of Japan’s most well-known department chain stores that sells everything from clothing, accessories, food and more. The Tokyo branch can be found at Tokyo Station. Every year you see lots of people scrambling to seek out a Tokyo gift on the ground floor and first floor of the shop where they sell both traditional Japanese and western confectioneries.

 

2018 is the Year of the Dog on the Chinese zodiac, which is good news because a whopping 50 dog-themed gifts have been announced at Daimaru to welcome the New Year. Whether you’re looking for a New Year’s gift or something for your loved one, we’re going to show you the best 6 items on the list and the stores selling them, so you know where you need to go in Tokyo Daimaru.

 

Mozoroff: New Year’s Welcome Denmark Cream Cheese Cake (Dog) – ￥1,080

Mozoroff’s popular cheesecake has had a little makeover to make it appropriate for 2018: a dog version!

 

 

Minamoto Kitchoan: Ema Fukushourai – ￥1,296

This set comes with doggy design black soy beans stuffed in sweet bean jelly and melt-in-the-mouth New Year’s dog sweets (for you, not your dog!) Fukushourai means they will bring you good fortune, and they come with an ema which is a Japanese wooden plaque.

 

 

Kanou Shojuan: Kanou Shojuan Shichifukujin – ￥2,700

The shichifukujin are the seven gods of luck and good fortune. This little set contains seven different New Year’s good-luck confectioneries such as porgies, lotus root, and chestnut natto. Best of all, they come boxed in the takarabune, the treasure ship that bears the seven lucky gods.

 

 

Ryoguchiya Korekiyo: New Year’s Sweet Bean Jelly Gyodaika (2 incl.) – ￥1,836

Contains a set of 2 ‘saogashi,’ a rectangular shaped Japanese sweet, to welcome the New Year.

 

 

Funabashiya: New Year’s Saichuu (Dog) – ￥1,850

Comes with a set of 4 dog-shaped and 2 round snacks, all filled with large-grained adzuki bean paste from Hokkaido.

 

 

Toraya: New Year’s Sweet Bean Jelly – ￥3,240

Packaged in small limited edition packaging, the heart and skill of Toraya breathes through these sweet bean jelly treats.

 

We hope you get your hands on some year of the dog goodies for the New Year!

 

 

“Tabemasu” is a wagashi (Japanese dessert series) using the motifs of many characters. From the 30^th of December 2017, “Tabemasu Disney New Year ver.” which uses the motifs of the world-famous Disney characters “Micky Mouse,” “Pluto,” “Donald Duck” and “Daisy Duck” will be sold at 7-Eleven throughout Japan. This time, they will sell two versions which are “Tabemasu Disney New Year ver. Mickey & Pluto” and “Tabemasu Disney New Year ver. Donald and & Daisy.” As the concept of the series is “eatable mascots,” all the products are made of wagashi. Characters other than Mickey Mouse are making their first appearance in the Tabemasu series and all the items are made in a precise manner. The flavors of the bean jam stuffed inside the items is black syrup (Mickey Mouse), custard (Donald Duck) and strawberry (Daisy Duck) which are suitable to be eaten during the New Year’s holidays and they are recommended for small children. The smooth texture and delicate flavor of the series is superb. The sweets item using the motif of Pluto which matches with the zodiac sign animal of 2018, the dog, is recommended to be eaten during the New Year’s holidays. Let’s buy “Tabemasu Disney New Year ver. Mickey & Pluto” which will be a great decoration on your dinner table.