Adzuki beans, used to make many Japanese desserts.
Japanese desserts can be traditional, with local fruits, plants, and nuts, foreign imports, or a unique combination of the two. There are many regional variations of Japanese desserts known as meibutsu and also souvenir versions (omiyage) for tourists. Traditional Japanese desserts use ingredients such as sweet adzuki beans, fruit, nuts, and mochi.
A Japanese version of tiramisu may use green tea.
Mochi is a sticky, glutinous rice cake that forms a central element of Japanese sweets. It is usually served rolled up in sweets such as azuki paste (daifuku), anko, and strawberry paste. Some desserts flavor the mochi with flavors such as cherry blossom (sakura), peach, and green tea. Mochis are most popular on New Year’s Day.
Wagashi is a type of mochi-based dessert. There is no one type of wagashi, but dozens of variations. They are made with fruits, nuts, azuki and mochi. Green tea is often served as a topping for sweet desserts.
Mochi is also used to make Japanese desserts called dango. Dango are balls of mochi that are placed on a skewer and dipped in a seasoning. Traditional festive dango is dipped in a soy sauce syrup called shouyu and is called mitarashi dango. Another type of dango is bocchan dango which has a regular dango ball, a green tea flavored ball, and an azuki flavored ball.
Mochi can be prepared in a different way to produce a variety of jellies. There are other jellies also called agar jellies that are used in desserts such as anmitsu and mitsumame. These jello cubes are combined with ingredients such as azuki or anko, fruit slices, and mitsu syrup.
Many Japanese desserts are a variation on foreign imports. For example, castella is a cake that takes its name from the Castilla region of Spain, but is actually the Japanese version of the Portuguese cake known as Pão-de-lo. Castella is a sponge cake usually eaten plain or topped with brown sugar, powdered green tea, or flavored icing/icing sugar.
Ice cream is also a popular dessert in Japan. A serving of vanilla and a serving of green tea ice cream are often served with adzuki beans and mochi. There is also a variety of mochi wrapped ice creams available with a plain mochi packet wrapped around vanilla, chocolate or green tea ice cream, or a flavored mochi in regular ice cream.
Many foreign Japanese desserts have gone through the green tea process. This means replacing an ingredient with green tea. For example, there are many varieties of green tea flavored chocolate bars. There are also green tea castile cakes and other cakes, green tea ice cream, cheesecakes and tiramisu. Similar cherry blossom flavored versions were also made.
Japan also has various sweet breads that can be served as dessert. Melonpan looks like cantaloupe but is made with regular bread dough wrapped in cookie dough before baking. They can be served plain, with chocolate chips inside, filled with cream, or flavored with ingredients like powdered green tea and caramel. Anpan is a sweet bread stuffed with adzuki beans.