oshima milk bakery

On Sunday, we went to see Satoshi's friend's rakugo performance.

It had been awhile since I went to one of his performances.

My blog archives says the last time was during the pandemic... 

Since we arrived a little early in the area, we walked around.

Love the tiny shops that line the street

We stumbled upon Oshima Milk Bakery...which uses milk from Izu Oshima, an island that is part of Tokyo prefecture.  

They have a tsubaki (camellia) festival that I want to check out, hopefully next year.

Order at the counter and pay...

Satoshi had their shio pan (salt bread) and milk...630 yen (tax included)

He said he enjoyed these...

Kat had their pistachio scone...500 yen (tax included)

I enjoyed this.

It had lots of pistachios in it and had a nice texture, I think they use yeast in it so it was more like bread, than flaky (buttery)

They had about 10 different types of scones to choose from.

My tummy doesn't agree with milk these days, so I didn't want  to chance it...this shop sells different flavored milks.

Up on the 2nd floor you can take your items to eat

We enjoyed their air conditioning while we ate and also looked at their photos of Izu Oshima

I'm glad we tried this place and would definitely like to try other scones here...I'll be back.

Oshima Milk Bakery

1-8-3 Hirano

Koto, Tokyo

Hours: 11:00-15:00

diamond head market & grill's blueberry cream cheese scones

Finally tried making Diamond Head Market & Grill's Blueberry Cream Cheese Scones.

The recipe is in the "By Request Cookbook by Betty Shimabukuro".

I kind of adlibbed because I didn't have the amount of cream cheese the recipe called for.

I also cheated and pulsed the dough together in my food processor.

This scones really "poofs up" and after baking is "huge".

Blueberry Cream Cheese Scones by Diamond Head Market & Grill, published in "By Request by Betty Shimabukuro"
1/3 cup butter, cut in pieces
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup frozen blueberries, thawed, rinsed and drained, sprinkled with sugar
2 ounces cream cheese, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine butter, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl and cut with a pastry blender or two butter knives until crumbly.

Stir milk into softened cream cheese, then stir in egg until well-combined. Stir cream cheese mixture into flour mixture until dough forms a ball.

Gently push blueberries and cream cheese pieces into the dough to incorporate evenly. Be careful not to crush the berries or mash the cream cheese pieces.

Spoon mounds of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet to make 8 scones. Tuck berries and cream cheese pieces into the dough as much as possible. (Or, for traditional scones, gently pat the dough into a 9-inch circle on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut into 8 wedges, but do not separate.)

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until golden. Makes 8 scones.

NOTES: This was delicious...with all that butter, it should be, right?!

This recipe goes against my rule about only using 50 grams of butter, but I'm glad I tried it.

Instead of folding the berries and cream cheese into the dough, I sandwiched it between the dough.

Next time, I will put all the all the blueberries and cream cheese in between the dough because they didn't "sink" into the scone like I thought it would, they just stayed up top.

the alley

Before I forget, on the day that Satoshi went back to Osaka, he wanted to eat breakfast at The Alley.

He ordered their loco moco.

It must of been good because as soon as he put some into his mouth he said, "umai" (ooh-my)...which means "delicious" in Japanese.

I was still kinda full from dinner the night before and just wanted something small, so I ordered their blueberry cream cheese scone...um, look how massive the thing is?!

I swear you could've made two or three little scones from it...

But it was so good, especially since they heated it up before serving it.

Satoshi really enjoys eating here and the food is good...we'll be back.

okara scones

I want to share with you an okara recipe and will continue with more of our travels next week...

Back in 2008, I had a baking session with my Mom and she made her okara scones.

She didn't want me to post her recipe, so I'm not.

I've adapted it and that is what I am posting.

Please note that these do not come out flaky like scones, but more dense like oatcakes.

Okara Scones : adapted from Mom's recipe : makes 10 (more or less depending on how you scoop your dough out)

1 cup okara (soy lees)
1.5 cups flour
1 cup oats
1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
2 large dried figs, cut into fourths
1 handful of walnuts
1 handful of sunflower seeds
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 handful of dried blueberries

Put the first 9 ingredients into a food processor and pulse
Add the wet ingredients and pulse until the dough comes together in a ball
In a bowl fold the blueberries into the dough
Scoop out with a spoon (or ice cream scoop for more accuracy), and flatten a little with your hands
Bake at 400F (200 C) for about 16 minutes

NOTES: I usually bake on parchment (because I am lazy and it is so easy to clean up afterwards), but think that it might be okay to bake these on a greased cookie sheet.

I used the dry okara, but my mom used the wet type. Even though she used the wet type her scones did come out more like oatcakes too.

You can use your favorite dried fruits, nuts and seeds.

Enjoy!

apple butter

It's Autumn, apples are in season.

So, naturally there are more apple products out there as well. The other day, my Twitter friend, H, sent me a care package! (Thank you!)

It was filled with all sorts of goodies and one that particularly stood out was this...apple butter.

Now, in the States, apple butter has no "butter" in it.

Sadly, I don't recall ever tasting apple butter in the States, though I had heard of it...

Well, in Japan, apple butter actually has butter in it! In fact it is made with sugar, apple, butter and a little salt.

We had this on some scones the other day for breakfast, the butter flavor isn't overpowering instead there is lots of apple flavor.

Thank you H!

matcha scones

Awhile back, Kirk asked if I had made matcha (green tea) scones, which I had not.

Well, I finally did.

This recipe is relatively easy. The scones are not sweet, you may need jam or something sweet (maybe a sweet beverage) with them. We liked them as is.

Kat's matcha scones: makes 10-12

180 grams flour
8 grams baking powder
1 tablespoon matcha (green tea)
50 grams butter
20 grams sugar
1/2 egg
50-75 mililiters of skim milk*

Cut butter into the flour and baking powder
Add the matcha and sugar, mix
Add the egg and milk
Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in refrig for 30 minutes
Roll out to about 2 centimeters thick and use your favorite cookie cutter
Bake at 180C (350F) for 15 minutes

NOTES: To get half an egg, I scrambled a large egg then weighed it then divided the amount in half. The amount I used in this is 26 grams.

*As for the milk, first use 50 mililiters and if the dough is too dry, then add a little milk at a time while mixing.
The dough should be moist but not runny.
The cutter I used was a 5 centimeter (about 2 inch) round.

If you want to make these scones richer, use cream instead of the skim milk.

You could easily double this recipe so that you won't have to "half an egg"...

I hope Kirk makes these for his wife and I hope she enjoys them!

maple scones

If you look on this blog, there are 31 posts tagged with the word "scone" and even more posts where the word appears within the post.

That is a LOT of scones!

I recently tried a simple recipe from the Rose Bakery cookbook, "Breakfast Lunch Tea".

These scones are not sweet.

Perfect with some coffee or tea.

Adapted from "Breakfast Lunch Tea" makes 9-10 small scones

81.25 grams flour
25 grams ground flax seed
10.9 grams rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
50 grams unsalted butter
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1/2 cup low fat milk
part of a beaten egg to glaze

Put the first 5 ingredients into a bowl then cut the butter in until you have small crumbs.
In a cup, mix the syrup and milk.
Mix together until it is combined.
Roll out to about 3 centimeters thick and use a small cutter (2 inch round) to cut out 9 or 10 scones.
Glaze with the beaten egg and bake for 20-25 minutes in a 200C (400F) oven.
Enjoy with your favorite beverage.

NOTES: With the addition of oatmeal, the texture of these were more like oatcakes. Still, I liked them and would make these again.

scones

If you look through my archives you'll see several many recipes for scones.

I've talked about these scones before here, but somehow never shared the recipe.

Here goes: Scones adapted from "O-uchi de cafe"
180 grams flour
8 grams baking powder
20 grams sugar
55 grams unsalted butter
30 cc milk
30 grams yogurt
1/2 egg

Cut butter into flour and baking powder
Add sugar, milk, yogurt and egg
Mix until dough comes together, knead it a little
Let sit in refrig for 30 minutes
Bake in 180C (350C) oven for 15 minutes

NOTES: the recipe says you can make about 20 but I came out with 14 using a 4 centimeter round cutter. They were kinda light when they came out of the oven, so I put them in the toaster for 3 minutes. With some fig jam and a cup of tea they were the perfect afternoon treat.

hawaii remembers

I was trying to remember when was the first time I had a scone...

I am kind of leaning towards the time we stayed at the Lodge at Koele on the island of Lanai, when we got married in 2000.

Usually whenever you have a wedding reception at a hotel in Hawaii, the hotel includes a room for you to stay in.

Since we had our reception at a golf clubhouse, the clubhouse catering gave us a room at any hotel of our choice.

We chose the Lodge at Koele, so all we had to pay for was our airfare.

The hotel had a daily afternoon tea held in their lobby area and guests could have various teas and sweets...one of them being scones.

Recently my friend, Val, gave me a package of those scones from the Lodge...these are dense but are delicious after they are toasted a little.

No need for butter or jam, the cranberries give them a lot of flavor.

I'm glad I got to re-connect with these scones, thanks Val!

hawaii helps

Baking in Hawaii is so so so different from baking in Japan, well, in my kitchen in Japan anyway.

In Japan, I don't have a "real" oven, my "oven" is the size of a dormitory microwave oven.

Sure, it can toast, bake, broil and microwave, but because of its size and because the element only heats the perimeter of the oven, I can only bake on my turntable (if I want things cooked/baked properly).

Which means I can bake 6 muffins at a time or a round cake.

No 9-inch x 13-inch pans and anything bigger than an 8-inch square pan is kind of sketchy.

My motto: Anything that can fit on the turntable is a go, anything that can't is a no.

So, yesterday even though it was miserably humid, I helped my mom bake scones and muffins. She made 1 batch of muffins (24 muffins) and 6 times the recipe for scones...6! (in the end, I think we ended up with 48 scones)

It was a family project as dad was in charge of greasing the scone pans.

I was in charge of pulsing the dough in the food processor which I did in several batches.

What amazed me was that she had 4 scone pans!

We were done in no time and I was in awe of the volume that we baked.

I know mom bakes a lot throughout the year but I guess you never truly appreciate stuff like "an oven" until you don't have one, one that size anyway.

It is Friday here, hope you have a great weekend!

the blob

I had copied a recipe for these dried cherry scones by A.B. from a cookbook that my mom had.

I cut the recipe in half because I only wanted to use 1 egg, but some how the dough was really, REALLY watery.

I used vanilla sugar and subbed milk for cream but didn't figure that the milk would make the dough THAT watery...

I guess I could have added more flour or something to get it thick enough to roll out, but had a feeling that the amount of flour I would've needed to add would've have been the original recipe amount.

Anyway, since I didn't add any extra flour, I baked it as a blob...I cut it into 8 pieces after it was baked...it tasted good, the vanilla sugar added a LOT of flavor, though it was more like a buttery biscuit (moist) than a scone (dry), meh, I don't think I would make this again!

odds & ends

It is the end of the month, so let's clean out the photos that weren't posted about.

Baked some scones using a new recipe. These definitely have to be eaten with jam--not sweet at all, still delicious though.

New version of stuffed bell peppers, added some renkon (lotus root) to the beef and onions and left out the egg.

Made some 3-bean salad (only with 2 beans--canned garbanzo & cooked daizu(soy bean)). Added corn, bell pepper and onion.

Curry fried chicken. Added some curry powder, salt and pepper to panko (bread crumbs). Dipped the chicken pieces in egg then dredged it in the panko mixture. Ate it with some tonkatsu (pork cutlet) sauce--delicious.

New version of Meiji's almond--this one has salted caramel wrapped around the nut. Japan's latest fad is salty sweets. Delicious, but gets quite salty after awhile.

Used one pod of the Lifou vanilla to make strawberry jam.

Have been enjoying the jam on yogurt in the mornings.

Cut some basil tops so that it wouldn't flower, put them in water---hydroponics?? (maybe) Planted them in the soil, hopefully they will grow.

Found these cute bananas, called "monkey bananas" in Japan and are also called Senorita. Thought they would taste like apple bananas, these were really sweet, not tart like the bananas we get in Hawaii.

Tried the Green & Black's Organic Cocoa. Followed the instructions on the can. Not much flavor. Kind of disappointing.

Got this Japanese confection from one of the memorial services. It is called Hakata no hito (lady from Hakata). A tiny baum kuchen with a sweet bean paste filling--delicious.

Our neighborhood 7-eleven closed on Friday. Satoshi and I are particularly sad to see it go because it came into the neighborhood the same year we moved into the neighborhood.

Another store which closed on Friday is the bakery in our shopping arcade a.k.a. my almost everyday lunch pick-up place. Since I have to find somewhere new, looked into buying bento (boxed lunch) from a sozaiya (pre-made foods store)--420 yen (about US$4.20)--rice with crunchy ume (pickled plum), hijiki (edible brown seaweed), tsukemono (pickled veggies), iwashi hamburger (sardine patty), tamagoyaki (omlette), pumpkin & kusamochi (rice cake mixed with yomogi (mugwort)).

hawaii cooks and eats

You may or may not have wondered what is causing these reddish/orangy sunsets and sunrises. It is apparently the pollution in the air. Most air pollution in Hawaii is known as "vog" or volcanic smog. This is the sulfur and smoke from the Kilauea volcano on the Big Island (Island of Hawaii) mixed with the rest of the pollution in the air. Who would have thought something so yucky could create something so beautiful?

Changing the subject, mom and I did some baking yesterday. She made okara scones (hopefully I can pry the recipe from her). And I made scones from "The American Test Kitchen Cookbook". The one on the left is the okara scone, kind of dense like an oat cake. The one on the right is the ATK scone made with lots of butter. The okara one wasn't too sweet and the ATK one was light and really buttery. Both would be a great thing to have for a quick breakfast or snack.

Leaving you with an orchid that bloomed a couple of days ago. I've put up pictures of this orchid in the past. Glad to see it bloomed again this year.

chai scones

Yesterday, I forgot to thank all our friends and family for their cards, letters and gifts. We always look forward to the cards, especially the ones with the photos and enjoy the letters. We also appreciate the thoughtfulness of the gifts. It is especially this time of year when we wish we were closer to family and friends. (Thank you!!)

Now back to the post...I love chai and I love scones. So, I tried putting the two together yesterday. I used this recipe for chai but only used the measurements for the spices and 3/4 teaspoons of finely ground black tea (not brewed) and this recipe for the scones.

It came out delicious. We ate them plain. I don't think they would match with jam, but if you need to put something on them, maybe some clotted cream would be nice.

We hope Santa brought everything you wished for!

fig scones

Last week, I had a little cream leftover, so I made a really small batch of fig scones, using the easy recipe I have and two dried mission figs.

I forgot to add the sugar to the mixture, so I sprinkled some vanilla sugar on top instead.

It was delicious for breakfast!

With all the trauma from the week before, it was nice to see the mountains looking so autumn-y. With all the warm weather we've been having, the leaves took a l-o-n-g time to change color this year.

meyer lemons

Earlier in the year, I had seen many posts about Meyer lemons. I've never tried them, but they sound really wonderful.

The other day while Satoshi and I were shopping, we came across Meyer lemons...from New Zealand! The color of these lemons were a bit orangey not the "lemony" yellow that I'm used to seeing. Even though they were pricey, I wanted to try them.

I zested one of the lemons and kept it aside to make scones. With the juice, I made this refreshing pasta with shrimp, capers, garlic and veggies for our dinner one night.

With the second lemon, I zested it again and used both the juice and zest to make my favorite lemon oregano vinaigrette. Doesn't the lettuce I bought for salad look beautiful? They call it "bouquet" lettuce. The one head comes in this BIG wasteful plastic container so that the fragile leaves don't get bruised (the sad price to pay to have non-bruised lettuce). It was the first time I've seen this type of lettuce in the market and it was love at first sight. Although the price would end the relationship...it was expensive...

Since I still had some cream leftover from making cheesecake (which I'll post about later), I used it to make earl grey scones and added the Meyer lemon zest I had set aside. The aroma of these guys coming out of the oven was heavenly! Of course, I had to taste one as soon as it came out of the oven. Delicious!

I was wondering though, are the skins of this variety of lemon softer than regular lemons? They were very easy to juice and zest. Still, I'm happy I was able to try them.

snacks & scones

I don't know about you, but while I'm sitting in front of the computer, or in front of the TV, I like to munch. Sometimes it is dried fruits, sometimes it is nuts, but most times it has to be something crunchy, like these snacks....

Karinto--a sweet, deep fried treat made from flour and sugar. Some are also made with kokuto (literally black sugar = raw sugar), matcha (green tea) and aonori (green laver). I read somewhere that this treat goes back to the Edo period (around 1830).

Senbei--a baked wafer. There are many different types but these are called shoga senbei (ginger flavored wafer), a sweet but spicy wafer with some sprinkles of matcha (green tea), kurogoma (black sesame seeds) or shiso (perilla). Both of these snacks go well with either hot or iced Japanese teas.

Changing the subject a bit, Summer brings "cool" and refreshing looking sweets. This effect is created by using kuzu (kudzu/arrowroot). For this kuzumochi (arrowroot rice cake), a ball of an (sweet bean paste) is enveloped in translucent kuzu. I hope to show you more of these "cool" sweets throughout summer, some are really pretty.

My friend Val sent me a box of Stonewall Kitchen's scone mix. After looking at the box, I realized that this called for a LOT of unsalted butter (a stick and a half!) and after calculating it into grams, I realized it would take almost a whole box of Japanese butter.

Butter is quite expensive here and unsalted butter is even more expensive. So, whenever I try baking, I always try to cut down the recipe to the smallest portion possible to use the least amount of butter.

Since I was out of things for breakfast, so I decided to make these. I followed the directions on the box and also added blueberries and lemon zest. These scones rose very nicely,were moist and kind of flaky. (Thanks Val!)

Well, we have officially gone into the rainy season here in Osaka although we were 6 days late. The way the weather was going, I was thinking (more like hoping) that maybe it wouldn't be so humid...I was wrong.

Hope you have a nice weekend.

blueberry-nib scones-updated

As I was flipping through an edition of "Donna Hay" that I had bought in Hawaii, I came upon a recipe for blueberry scones. By now, I think you know that I love scones, so you know that I just had to try this recipe.

As I started making them, I realized that they didn't print how much of the blueberries should be added. Should they be dried? Preserves? Did I read the recipe wrong? Nope, I needed to ad-lib. I came up with...

Blueberry-nib scones adapted from "Donna Hay--Issue 29"
2 cups (250g) flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
50g chopped unsalted butter
1/4 cup dried blueberries
1/4 cup cacao nibs
1/2 cup milk

Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together, cut in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the blueberries and nibs and mix a little more.
Add the milk and mix until just combined.
Let rest for 15 minutes.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface and with your hands press out to about a 1 inch thickness.
Using a 2-inch round cutter cut out 8 scones, re-molding dough to cut as needed. (If you use a smaller cutter, you can make more scones.)
Place on a lined baking sheet and bake at 180C (350F) for 25 minutes or until cooked through.

These were great. The nibs gave it a nutty flavor . You can eat it with marmalade like I did or by itself. I had mine with coffee, but I think a black tea (not the flavored type) would go well with it too, maybe with a splash of milk/cream.

UPDATE:received an e-mail from Donna Hay Magazine, it should be 1 cup of blueberries. (thank you!) received another e-mail from Donna Hay Magazine, it should be 250g of fresh blueberries (thank you!) I guess you can either use fresh or dried :)