25 Easy Japanese Dessert Recipes You Can Make At Home (2024)

No coffee break is complete without a slice of this matcha roll cake, which is light and delicate, and melts in your mouth. Don't be alarmed if you finish the entire roll in a day.

Recipe:Matcha Roll Cake

You might be aware of this dessert from its popular pairing with ice cream. Turns out, the fish-shaped pastry was served without ice cream for a very long time before the ice cream hybrid went viral. To make this recipe (which, to be clear, tastes nothing like fish), you'll need to get a taiyaki pan. Just consider it an investment into the funnest snack/party favor you'll want to show off for years to come.

Recipe:Taiyaki

If you're looking for the jiggliest, fluffiest pancakes in the world, you've come to the right place. You'll want a hand mixer to beat the egg whites into stiff peaks, but other than that, this recipe — and the best Sunday brunch ever — is yours for the taking.

Recipe:Fluffy Japanese Pancakes

Chocolate terrine is by origin a French flourless chocolate dessert that's become popular in the Japanese food world. This recipe uses mascarpone cheese in lieu of the usual cream. Since chocolate is the overpowering flavor, try to find an especially high-quality kind.

Recipe:Dark Chocolate Terrine

Don't worry: You won't need to make a thousand layers for this mille crepe cake. But you willneed a lot of patience and an entire afternoon to carefully create and stack the layers of this gorgeous matcha dessert.

Recipe:Matcha Mille Crepe Cake

This pancake "sandwich" is traditionally made with sweet azuki bean paste, which is widely used across East Asian desserts. It's the perfect snack or sweet breakfast.

Recipe:Dorayaki

Recipe:Kabocha Shiruko

This recipe may call for just a few simple ingredients (eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla), but it does involve careful observation and timing so you don't overcook the egg mixture. You'll be rewarded with an elegant, tasty dessert that'll impress all your dinner guests.

Recipe:Purin

Also known as Castella, this moist sponge cake is an essential pastry found in most East Asian bakeries, but especially Japanese ones. It's lightly sweetened with honey and sugar, and has a soft, pillowy texture you could really sink into.

Recipe:Kasutera Sponge Cake

Highly chewy and sticky, these mochi rice balls are fun to eat and even easier to make. Just mix together glutinous rice flour with sugar, green tea powder, and water to get the dough started. Then, flatten it out into equal circular shapes. Fill it with red bean paste, and pinch the ball closed to finish. Ta-da!

Recipe:Green Tea Mochi

You'll need Japanese sweet potatoes for this dessert, but the result is a delicious, crumbly, dense dessert that you'd never guess uses potatoes as its base.

Recipe:Chakin Shibori Sweet Potato With Cinnamon

Shiratama dango is a mochi dessert usually served in a bowl and drizzled with condensed milk or served with ice cream for flavor. Like most mochi recipes, it's straightforward to make, so don't be shy.

Recipe:Strawberry Shiratama Dango

As you might've realized, you can personalize Swiss cake rolls however you want, whether it's with matcha flavor, or, as in this version, double chocolate flavor.

Recipe:Chocolate Cake Roll

Fun fact: Pound cake named as such because the original recipe called for one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. This recipe is vegan and replaces the butter and eggs for sesame oil and baking powder, but you'll still get the same soft, sweet bread you can enjoy all day long. And by the way, you can browse through all of Chef Ja Cooks' recipes for vegan takes to tons of classic Japanese recipes.

Recipe:Matcha Pound Cake (Vegan)

These panfried sweet potato mochi totally redefine how to incorporate sweet potato into desserts, proving once again what a versatile vegetable it is. Oh potato, what can'tyou do?

Recipe:Sweet Potato Yaki Mochi

This might not be a soup in the traditional sense, but it does have all the makings of a nutty, sweet, and filling dessert. For an extra lil' something, feel free to top it with a few chewy mochi.

Recipe:Sweet Black Sesame Soup

Recipe:Shokupan (Milk Bread)

Recipe:Matcha Tiramisu

Recipe:Candied Sweet Potatoes

For the best cream pan, make sure the ratio of cream to bread is at minimum, half and half. You won't regret it.

Recipe:Cream Pan

Recipe:Melon Pan

Recipe:Coffee Jelly

Unlike a dense American cheesecake, a Japanese cheesecake is known for its jiggly and airy texture, achieved by whipping eggsand baking it in the oven using a water bath. Serve with powdered sugar or some fresh berries on the side.

Recipe:Fluffy Cheesecake

"Dango" come in several varieties, but always involve sweet rice dumplings. In this variation, they're served in a skewer and coated with a sweet soy glaze.

Recipe:Mitarashi Dango