Sweets

I had a few lemons and an opened coconut cream jar that needed to be used up quick.

So making a lemon pie was a no-brainer.

The thing was that I didn’t quite have enough ingredients or motivation to make a whole pie.

So I thought making it in jars would be a perfect solution.

This no-bake pie was so easy and quick to put together, and I loved how they looked!

This was so delicious!

Coffee jelly is a popular sweet snack in Japan.

I remember eating it as a child way before I was ready to drink coffee.

It’s usually sweetened and then served with whipped cream, ice cream, etc.

I made my coffee jelly unsweetened, but served it with “sweetened” whipped coconut cream.

I also served my coffee jelly with something else.

Homemade vegan condensed milk!

Looks good, doesn’t it?!

I didn’t want my jelly to be too firm, but this time it turned out a bit looser than I had expected.

So, the texture was more like “gelée” than “jelly”.

Very refreshing, nonetheless.

I try not to eat too many sweets.

But I also try not to be too strict either, so if I really want to eat something sweet between meals, I do eat.

The only important rule I have about snacking is to eat something “good” (not junk) and I truly enjoy.

Because of that reason I usually end up making the sweets I eat.

(And I’m not complaining. I do enjoy baking.)

These vegan and gluten-free cake is super easy to make.

They are “cooked” in a microwave oven!

So from start to finish, it takes less than 10 minutes.

It’s soft, silky, chocolaty, but not overly sweet.

I decorated with sweetened coconut cream, cocoa powder, and a raspberry.

It’s a small cake, but very satisfying, which I exactly wanted.

Perfect with my hot black coffee, too.

I used the recipe, https://www.instagram.com/p/CTCPXg2hqAd/ (in Japanese) for the cake.

I wanted to make a little more elaborated version, but several things went wrong…

I had beautiful homemade vegan flan and went to get vegan vanilla ice cream, and I thought I was ready.

But then I was not able to find the type of dish I wanted.

I looked everywhere (online) for a hooted dessert boat, where I could put flan, ice cream, whipped cream, and fruits.

I only found a few, and they were not available at any actual stores I could walk in and purchase.

Another thing that went wrong was that this particular can of coconut cream didn’t have much firm part, and it was not suitable for “whipped” cream.

So this was not exactly what I had in mind.

But it still turned out pretty.

I even made the pretty orange garnish!

Flan was one of my favorite sweets when I was little.

I would eat store-bought ones, but I loved it when my mother made it at home.

Since we became plant-eaters, I pretty much gave up hope to ever eat flan.

Well, that changed!

I recently found out one of my favorite cookbook authors, Ms. Yuko Shirasaki, contributed a vegan flan recipe to a monthly magazine.

The recipe doe not require eggs or dairy milk.

So it’s naturally vegan.

I was a bit skeptical, but it turned out AMAZING!

I’m just so excited that I can now eat delicious vegan flan!

But I also loved how it looked.

There is something so beautiful about flan.

The smooth shiny look and the dark caramel on top.

So glad that I bought this white-blue dish yesterday.

I thought a flan would look good on this, but it turned out it looked great!

I made these cookies for the last weekend’s brunch trays.

I had made these before.

Actually the first time I made was when I was in Japan, and with my sister.

Since we live miles apart, we don’t get to cook or bake together often, so it was the memory I cherish.

(And we loved the cookies!)

It was my first time making these Kinako cookies, but they turned out great!

The roasted soy bean flour give such a wonderful flavor and depth.

The same night I made the double chocolate version (previous post), I baked these too.

I just used my usual go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe and used a-p flour and rye flour 50/50.

These turned out amazing!!

“The Land” Rye Cookies.

Yes, I still have a lot of Rye from my brother-in-law’s farm, which we call “The Land.”

After being satisfied with some rye bread I made with the rye, I started thinking about making cookies with the rye flour.

Interestingly, our neighbor, Mr. K, subscribes the Food & Wine magazine brought one of their edition that featured many vegan and vegetarian dishes because he knows that we are on the plant-based diet.

Then, I found a rye cookie recipe in it!

How perfect was it?

So I used their rye double chocolate cookie recipe and made these.

The only thing I changed was that I used vintage Merlot fusion salt to sprinkle on top.

These were very good.

Definitely very chocolaty.

The texture was a bit cakey rather than chewy.

This is my second time to make this chocolate pudding.

It’s super easy to make yet so tasty.

This time I served it with coconut cream and fresh strawberries and currants.