Jam Buttons

For a recent playdate I made some Jam Buttons, another recipe from Yamazaki Shizuka. These cookies are a really delicate shortbread, filled with jam – I used raspberry.

Jam Buttons

100 g unsalted butter (room temperature)

35 g icing (confectioner’s) sugar

¼ tsp salt

150 g baking flour

30 g ground almonds

150 g (approx) jam of your choice

Cream the butter, sugar and salt.

Sift the flour and ground almonds together and mix together with the creamed mixture to form a dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refridgerate for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough between two sheets of clingfilm to a thickness of 2 – 3 mm. Cut circles using a 3 cm circle, then transfer to baking sheets lined with oven paper.

Make four holes in each cookie using a bamboo skewer or toothpick, then bake at 160C for 15 minutes.

Cool the cookies on a wire rack, then sandwich together with jam.

Makes 30 3-cm cookies.

Note, these cookies quickly soften due to the jam, so eat them up quickly!

Baking Bread

I’ve loved making bread since I had the good fortune to have Mrs Hamilton as my intermediate school home economics teachers. She taught me the basics of bread making, and now I’m a pretty confident baker. In fact, we rarely buy bread – apart from some speciality breads – because I try and bake my own.

Last time I lived in Japan I bought a bread machine, but I wasn’t a fan of the bread it made. Also, it felt like cheating. One of the best things about bread making is seeing the magic happen in front of your eyes. Another is of course the kneading, which is a great way to work out frustrations!

A couple of years ago Healthy Food Guide featured a basic bread recipe that could be easily tweaked to make white – wholemeal – multi-grain or fruit bread. I’ve made some adaptions of my own to the basic recipe, playing around with the sugars and volume of flours, and now use this recipe 99% of the time I make bread.

Of course, making multigrain bread in Japan is not as simple as in New Zealand. There just isn’t the same baking culture here, and certainly a limited but growing awareness of the variety of grains available. Let’s just say this – you can’t buy wholemeal flour at the supermarket!

Luckily there are several baking supply companies that deliver. I’ve found both Cotta and Kikuya great – they have a massive range of baking suppliers, from ingredients to tools to packaging.

Anyway, here’s the recipe for multigrain bread. The basic rule is to keep the flour at 7 cups (unless adding lots of extra grains as below. Then 6 cups is fine).

Mixed Seed Bread

2 level tsps active dried yeast
1 ¼ cups hot water (boiling)
1 ¼ cups cold milk
1 ½ Tbsps raw sugar
2 cups white flour
3 cups wholemeal flour
½ cup rye flour
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup cornmeal
1/3 cup amaranth
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
4 tsps salt
¼ cup olive oil

Combine water, milk and sugar, sprinkle yeast on top and leave aside till frothy.

Combine dry ingredients in a big bowl.

Add frothy yeast mixture and oil to dry ingredients, mixing to form soft dough.
Turn dough onto a floured board and knead well, stretching and turning dough for 5 - 10 minutes until it becomes smooth, elastic and satiny. Add flour as required during kneading to prevent the dough sticking. Less and less will be needed as the dough is worked.

Place the dough into a clean greased bowl, flip it over once to grease the top surface to the dough, cover and leave it to rise. (Placing in a large plastic bag can improve rising times). Leave in a warm place until doubled in size.

When dough has risen to double its bulk, knead it lightly and shape as required.
For loaves, divide the dough into two, roll or press the dough into rectangles slightly longer than the tin. Roll up tightly from the long edge, tuck the ends under and place, seam side down, into a well greased loaf pan. Cover loosely with a clean cloth or return to plastic bag.

When loaves have risen for about 10 or 15 minutes, cut diagonal slashes in the top with a serrated knife.

Leave until doubled in size then bake at 200°C for around 40 minutes, until golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Makes 2 loaves. Slice and freeze if you don’t plan to eat within a few days.

Steiner and snacks

I’ve been using my time as a stay at home mum to do some research about different early childhood education philosophies. I started by picking up a book about Steiner principles and how to bring to life at home. At the same time I picked up a book on Steiner Snacks, by Jinda Yasuko.

Apparently in Steiner kindergartens/preschools, the kids have a different grain snack each day of the week, giving them carbohydrates for energy and lots of minerals and fibre. I was interested in these recipes because they use unrefined grains and no eggs, milk products or refined sugars.


Ignoring the days of the week rule, I made a couple of recipes from the book – Rye Crackers and Ginger Cookies. Both are very simple to put together and interesting to work with. The dough had a texture almost like modelling clay – slightly tacky, but easy to handle. I rolled both doughs between cling-film before shaping and baking.

Steiner Rye Crackers
From Steiner Snacks by Jinda Yasuko
75 g rye flour
75 g rice flour
½ tsp salt
2 Tbsps canola oil
80 ml pure apple juice (organic is possible, not from concentrate)

Measure the flours and salt into a medium bowl and mix well, then cut in the oil.

Add the apple juice and mix to combine. The dough will look wet, but is surprisingly easy to handle.

Roll the dough thinly between two sheets of cling-film and cut into 2 cm squares (remember they’re crackers for kids!).

Bake for 12 minutes in an 180C oven.

Makes enough for approximately 6 – 7 kids. These crackers are very plain and slightly chewy.

Steiner Ginger Cookies
From Steiner Snacks by Jinda Yasuko

60 g rye flour
140 g unbleached white flour
(I added a dash of ground cloves and ground nutmeg too)
1/3 tsp salt
3 Tbsps canola oil
1 ½ tsps ginger juice (squeezed from freshly grated ginger)
2 Tbsps pure maple syrup
2 Tbsps soy milk or pure apple juice

Measure the flours and salt into a medium bowl and mix well. Cut in the canola oil.

Mix the ginger juice, maple syrup and soy milk/apple juice in a small bowl then add to the flour, stirring to combine. (If the mixture is too dry, add a little more soy milk or apple juice. Note, the dough will look wetter than a ‘regular’ dough).

Roll the dough out to approximately 3 mm thick between two sheets of cling-film and cut out cookies. I used cookie cutter approximately 6 cm in diameter.

Bake for 10 minutes in a 160C oven, then increase the temperature to 180C and bake for a further 8 to 10 minutes.

Makes 20 – 35 cookies, depending on cutter size!

The cookies are only mildly sweet and pleasantly spiced. Perfect for the whole family.