sweet potato cakes
A while ago, Matsuzo Potato had a pop up shop in Causesway Bay's Sogo and boyfriend was super excited as he loves potatoes. Matsuzo Potato is a shop from Tokyo that specializes in making sweet potato based confections. Actually, all their sweets were made completely of sweet potato. Boyfriend loved it.
So, this Valentine's Day, I tried to recreate it as we don't live in Japan and there is no Matsuzo Potato in Hong Kong. I looked up several recipes (including a really good hack version that uses vanilla ice cream) until I decided on this one. The site is in Japanese but this is a great site with videos of a lot of great recipes. And yes, Google translate helped a lot.
So, here I packaged them in a pretty box for Valentine's Day. They tasted pretty good and probably healthy, too. Like soft fluffy sweet cakes that were basically made of sweet potato. They are great cold but you can also reheat them in the microwave for a few seconds as well if you want for a different experience.
I translated the recipe that was originally in Japanese for you. Though some of you may not have access to Asian ingredients, you can substitute with American sweet potatoes but these are generally less sweet. The Japanese sweet potato is far sweeter so you may actually need to add more sugar. I did see some recipes add a touch of vanilla or rum. You can probably try that, too if you want some added flavor.
Ingredients:
1 Japanese sweet potato
50 mL of cream
35 g of sugar
1/2 egg yolk
15 g of butter
Black sesame seeds to decorate
1/2 egg yolk for gloss
Method:
1. Peel and dice the sweet potato.
2. Place in water for about 5 minutes to remove excess starch. Drain.
3. In a sauce pan, boil the sweet potato until soft.
4. Drain the water and put the sweet potato back into the sauce pan. Mash the sweet potato. Heat under a medium heat for about 2-3 minutes to remove excess moisture.
5. Under low heat, add butter, cream and sugar. Mix to combine.
The end product should have the texture of dough. If it doesn't feel pliable like dough, then continue to heat on low until it becomes so. This is due to not removing all the moisture.
6. Turn off the heat and add the egg yolk. Mix to combine. The texture should still feel like dough.
7. Shape into whatever shape you want and place on a cookie sheet. I made them into hearts as it was Valentine's Day. Basically, I used a heart shaped cookie cutter. I took a bit of the dough and rolled it into a ball and stuff it into the mold.
I molded it into the heart shape cookie cutter and flattened the top with a butter knife.
And slid it carefully out of the mold. I use my fingers to push it out gently or with the butter knife.
8. Gloss the top with the rest of the egg yolk.
9. Add black sesame seeds to decorate. Completely optional.
10. Bake in an oven at 200°C for 20 minutes.
11. Beware of it burning so do watch it at the 15 minute mark. They should be slightly brown on top and they are soft and fluffy. Like soft roasted potatoes.
