Japanese pastries combine the best of Asian, European and American pastry tradition. Here are some amazing textures – light and fluffy, creamy and chewy – and sophisticated flavourings of matcha and cherry blossom to vanilla and chocolate, and not least an arsenal of techniques and tricks which open up a whole new world for the curious home baker. The book is divided into three separate sections. Wagashi refers to traditional Japanese pastries, for example, the colourful mochi rice cakes, yogashi are pastries inspired by the Western tradition, such as matcha rolly polly, strawberry shortcake and cheese soufflé, and kashipan are delicate Japanese buns, with or without filling. The experienced Japanese pastry chef Ai Ventura, who has lived for several years in Stockholm, offers the reader a new concept of thinking about basic processes such as whipping cream or making the cake base. Along with around 40 recipes and a number of techniques to learn, we become acquainted with some of the most basic ingredients in Japanese baking, such as bean pastas of various types, rice flour, pumpkin and sweet potato, and are given an insight into the Japanese tea ceremony chado.

Ai Ventura trained as a baker in Japan and has run his own bakery in Tokyo. Since 2013 Ai has lived in Sweden and has made a great success with the pop-up café Bon Aibon. Japanska bakverk is her first book.

Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Ingredients
Equipment
Yogashi
Kashi-pan
Wagashi
Techniques
The tea ceremony
Index