Three Desserts: Pumpkin Pudding, Pumpkin Cake, Mocha Coffee Jelly – 三つのデザート：パンプキンプリン・パンプキンケーキ・カフェゼリーモカ

Just a quick roundup of some recent treats this time, beginning with the Yukijirushi Megumilk Pumpkin Pudding, pictured above.

This sees the light, fluffy steamed egg puddings get a Halloween makeover with the introduction of a pumpkin flavour and cute festive packaging.

These little 70g pots are almost like tiny souffles, the pudding is like a very wet, fluffy mousse and you can almost hear the faint popping sound of the air being released as it dissolves in your mouth.

I don’t like to use the word ‘eggy’ because it never sounds appetising, but it is certainly different from standard milk-based puddings. I’m not a big fan of mousse and it was a little too spongey for me. I also would have liked a bolder flavour.

According to the packaging these contain Hokkaido pumpkin so it’s possible that they’re not available outside of this my cold northern island home, but perhaps there are several versions that use vegetables grown in other regions. The tiny pots make perfect snacks or light desserts, don’t taste very sugary at all and only contain 96kcals each, so are a fairly guilt-free autumn treat~

6/10

Continuing with the pumpkin theme we have 7-eleven’s Pumpkin Cake:

As you can see, 7-eleven has also produced an attractively packaged seasonal sweet, adding charming spooky designs to the standard gold and clear plastic cake container.

The rich yellow is wonderfully vivid, although perhaps a shade or two paler than actual pumpkin flesh. The label proclaims ‘the natural sweetness of pumpkin’, but this has an undeniable sugariness to it – the delicate sugariness of icing sugar rather than the stronger sweetness of say granulated sugar.

The appearance being similar to Mont Blanc, I was expecting a similarly dense and rich texture to the yellow topping, but it seems to be a flavoured whipped cream rather than a heavy vegetable puree, so it has a very smooth and light consistency.

The internal structure mimics Mont Blanc quite closely: beneath the golden-yellow confection is a layer of fresh cream which surrounds a pureed pumpkin center, and these three creamy layers sit atop a small square of fluffy sponge cake. This was really delicious and just gorgeous to look at, without being as filling as its chestnut equivalent.

8/10

7-elven Pumpkin cake ￥232  223kcals

Straying now from the seasonal thread for the final product, which is Emial Mocha Coffee Jelly:

I’ve tried every Emial Cafe Jelly I’ve come across so far – Caramel, Milk Tea, Coffee – but as soon as I peeled back the lid of the new Mocha version I new it would be my favourite. A lovely rich coffee aroma infused with dark chocolate notes hit me at once and it had a lovely milky cocoa hue (which has been a little washed out in the photograph).

The chocolatey sauce is as silky and thick as double cream, yet without as much fat. There is a pleasantly bitter hint of espresso and unsweetened cocoa that counters the rich dairy elements perfectly. The jelly cubes are solid enough that you can slice through them with a spoon without them disintegrating into a mass of shapeless blobs. There is a mild coffee taste but the jelly acts primarily to provide a substantial texture to act as a base for the creamy sauce.

I really loved the tastes, scents and textures of this and felt that it had the best coffee flavour of all the cafe jelly range. Eating it with a fresh cup of hot coffee was a like a little luxury, so I’m going to go ahead and give it:

9/10

(!)

Emial Cafe Jelly Mocha  247kcal

Look Chestnut Desserts: Mont Blanc/Kurikinton – Look 栗のデザート：モンブラン・栗きんとん

Similar to the Dars I reviewed recently, Look (made by Fujiya) consists of a slim wallet-sized box of 12 individual chocolate pieces, but unlike the uniform flavour of Dars, there is an assortment of two to four flavours. The seasonal chestnut-based desserts mont blanc and kurikinton are the inspiration for this addition to the Look range, which features six of each variety, in four different designs.

The inner plastic wrapping is helpfully illustrated with cute pictures that indicate which flavour is which and it opens along the top, making it easy to slide out the cardboard tray inside one row at a time and slip it back in again to close the box and save some for later if you like.

Inside the shiny gold and silver wrapping, the appearance of the chocolate is equally attractive: the compact chunks embellished with simple line motifs have a nice lustre to them and the Look logo is perfectly imprinted on each one. On the left are the pieces based on my all-time favourite cake, mont blanc (or monburan, as it becomes in Japanese), a mountain of delicately piped marron cream concealing a centre of fresh cream and whole chestnut, all perched on a spongecake base.

The heavenly roasted chestnut scent of the mont blanc chocolates is very much like the real thing, as is the lovely pale cappuccino colour of the filling. The tiny crunchy toasted sugar fragments in the center create a very different consistency from the moist smoothness of the puree and cream in the actual confectionary but the brittle sugar works well with the rich, creamy chestnut-flavoured filling. As for the kurikinton, these candies represent a traditional Japanese sweet made from mashed chestnuts and sugar, which has a slightly stodgy, concentrated sweetness like that of marzipan. Beneath the milk chocolate coating is a buttery golden center that gives off a nutty maple aroma. It is a little sweeter than the montblanc and has a liquid filling that blends with the smooth chocolatey components, when sucked, to create a creamy syrupy consistency as it melts. The syrup is harder to detect if you simply bite into the chunk, as there is only a drop in each one, and will probably be completely drowned out if you eat it in one go.

Look’s ‘chestnut desserts’ reproduces the colours, flavours and scents of the originals in a new form with a new variety of textures. Both pieces were delicious but the creamy mont blanc was particularly good and I would happily buy it as an individual product. Although the box doesn’t state that these are a limited edition, I’d get hold of them sooner rather than later, while autumn is still in the air.

8/10

Fujiya Look Kuri no Dezato  279kcals

Family Mart Sweets+ Cafe Sweets Pumpkin – ファミリーマート Ｃａｆｅスイーツ・パンプキン

The leaves are turning red, the nights are growing colder and my thoughts are all about Halloween, pumpkins and chestnuts, so I’m starting the seasonal sweet reviews with this autumnal dessert. I was surprised upon picking it up by how heavy it was, there is a considerable volume and weight to this product, despite it only costing around 300, so it looked set to be good value for money. Presentation-wise it’s a little half-hearted but at the use of real pumpkin chunks was promising.

Opening the lid I noticed that there was virtually no scent, only a strangely clean, almost soapy smell from the whipped cream topping. The cream is very light and airy – like the spongy marshmallow center of a Tunnock’s Tea Cake, but not as sweet – and melts instantly on the tongue. The smattering of cooked pumpkin cubes on top have quite a solid texture and I liked that the skin had been left on, as this provided a denseness and savouriness to compliment the fluffy cream. The little dollop of brown sugar jelly had a slightly burnt creme-caramel aftertaste, which, like the pumpkin, helped to balance out the sweet and airy whipped layer.

The consistency of the vanilla pudding beneath is like a cross between mousse and pudding: not quite aerated but fairly light. The mixture is appetisingly speckled with vanilla beans which give it a good flavour and aroma which comes through once the cream is gone. Separating this from the pumpkin-flavoured base is a thin, gloopy layer of brown sugar jelly. While I’m sure this must be the same concoction as the shiny dark goop atop the cream, I was disappointed to find that it seemed to have none of the same bitter burnt-sugar notes and was actually rather bland, any taste completely smothered by the sweetness of the pudding layers.

Finally, the all important pumpkin pudding. This is firmer and less sugary than the vanilla, and there is almost a mild graininess to it, like a thick fruit puree. The flavour is difficult to pinpoint – it’s pleasant and a sweet taste of artificial pumpkin is detectable but there’s no hint of a natural vegetable taste, which I would have welcomed after all the whip and vanilla.

I think Pumkpin Pudding was certainly worth its price, especially as it lasted me nearly an hour, but the proportions were completely out. The topping, with its combination of flavours and textures, was satisfying, but as I worked my way to the bottom I began to find the innocuous sugariness of the deep pudding layers a little sickly. More real pumpkin flesh, more flavourful sugar jelly and perhaps the introduction of a crunchy element could really improve this. Nice, but once was enough for me.

6/10

Family Mart Cafe Sweets Pumpkin – ￥298     345kcals

Dars Ujimatcha – ダース宇治抹茶

Although candy aisles are already awash with autumnal chestnut and pumpkin goods that I’m dying to try, I wanted to sample these green tea chocolates first. Like most popular Japanese chocolates, Dars regularly introduces new flavours, but the small boxes of 12 bite-size pieces are usually available in white, milk and dark. This version is made using matcha from Uji in Kyoto.

The outer chocolate has a lovely glossy, smooth surface and the center is the lush damp-moss colour of good-quality matcha, as opposed to the pale pastel green of matcha latte powder.

The sweets have a prevalent matcha aroma and the flavour is subtle yet earthy and, thanks to the generous proportioning of the green tea filling compared to the milk chocolate coating, the mild sweetness of the chocolate acts as a secondary note rather than a prominent flavour. While the texture may appear a little grainy it is perfectly smooth and has a good slow melt if sucked, allowing you to draw out the pleasure of eating each chunk.

I found that 12 pieces, eaten over the course of a day, to be a very satisfying serving size. If these come out again next year I’ll be sure to get some, but for now I’ve got a lot of Halloween candy to get to work on~!

8/10

Morinaga Dars Ujimatcha ￥148