Sakura Jelly, mousse & Cheesecake

It's the sakura season again, probably towards the end of it now. How I wished I can be in Japan now. Since I can't go on holiday during this time of the year, I made some sakura desserts instead.


First up is sakura jelly, this is actually quite easy to make, check out my recipe at the end of the post.


You will need sakura honey syrup and kanten powder for this. They can both be substituted with honey syrup and agar agar powder respectively, but the taste and texture will be slightly different.


Sakura are still so pretty even when dried, the flowers taste like sour plum, since they are pickled.


The second dessert I made was Sakura cheese cake. I'm actually missing an ingredient, which I wanted to use to decorate, I thought I had it at home but I could not find it, hiaz. I think I might remake this again next year, if I can remember.


The bottom layer is crushed digestive biscuit. The cheese layer is mixed with sakura paste and the top layer is the same as the jelly recipe I'm sharing in this post.


I also made some sakura desserts and shared the recipes previously, you can get the sakura konnyaku jelly recipe here, and sakura macarons recipe here.


I found this sakura tricolour mousse in my archive, I think I made it around two years back, shared it on my Instagram, but did not shared on my blog. The pink layer is sakura flavoured, white is vanilla and green was green tea.

SAKURA JELLY RECIPE

Ingredients:
Bottom layer:
250ml water
3 tbsp caster sugar
2g kanten powder
100ml fresh milk
4 tsp sakura honey syrup
pink food colouring

Top layer:    
300ml water
2g agar agar power
3 tbsp sugar
4 tsp sakura honey syrup
8 pickled sakura blossoms

Method:

1. You will need this mould, but you can also use a cake mould.

2. Rinse the pickled sakura to remove excess salt and soak for 30 minutes. Gently pat dry the flowers on paper towels. 

3. For the bottom layer, boil all the ingredients except fresh milk, food colouring and sakura honey syrup in a pot at medium heat. Keep stirring the mixture as it heats up. Remove from heat and add fresh milk, food colouring and sakura honey syrup into it, and stir to mix well. Pour mixture into the mould. Leave to cool and place in the fridge to chill for half an hour. 

4. For the top layer, boil all the ingredients except honey syrup in a pot and stir to boil at medium heat. Remove from heat and add sakura honey syrup into it and stir to mix well. Pour mixture into the mould. Gently place the sakura blossoms into the mould , gently shake the flowers in the jelly liquids they will open up. You can use a toothpick to adjust the petals.

5. Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.