kinako latte "tiramisu"
an ode to the best drink from Konbi (imy)
hey hi hello!!
Welcome back to recipe riffin’- the series where I remind you that you have free will and you can use it when you bake.
Today we’re making a “tiramisu” inspired by one of my all time favorite coffee drinks in LA, the kinako oat latte from Konbi (I miss u so so much). Konbi closed it’s doors back in 2023 and I’ve thought about this latte at least once a week since. It was creamy, lightly nutty and perfectly balanced. To honor my love for this latte I decide the best way to translate that flavor was into a “tiramisu”. Right, because tiramisu already has that note of coffee and is this lush and creamy dessert. Perfectly balanced- just like the kinako oat latte.
Now, I am hesitant to call this tiramisu. It has lady fingers, it has coffee, it has mascarpone some of the true marks of a dessert being a tiramisu. But, at the end of the day it’s a far cry from being tiramisu- maybe not a far one but it’s at least a cry from being tiramisu. Because essentially, instead of filling the trifle (okay yeah, this is better aligned with being called a lady finger trifle) with this mascarpone cream that’s lightened with egg whites, I make a bavarian cream as the filling instead. The base of which is this kinako brown sugar pastry cream, that is then lightened with a mascarpone whipped cream. There’s a subtle nuttiness that pairs so well with the coffee.
I think this would make a great addition to your friendsgiving dessert line-ups this year, a little some thing non-tradish. Which honestly, is what I think friendsgiving is made for!!
let’s get to it xx
We’re gonna start out with KINAKO, like, first of all, what is it? Well kinako is a Japanese roasted soybean powder (or “flour”) commonly used for topping dessert like mochi or rice cakes (kuzumochi, dango, kurumimochi etc) It’s flavor is deeply nutty and can lean a little savory. I picked mine up at 99 Ranch but you can most likely find it at your local Asian supermarket :)
How is this a recipe riff? Well, because the base of this recipe, the bavarian cream, has been pulled and adapted from the brown banana pudding recipe. The pastry cream/custard portion is flavored with kinako powder and uses plain old butter instead of browned. Then, instead of folding nilla wafers and sliced bananas into the bavarian we layer it between coffee soaked lady fingers. Now, could you just take the banana pudding recipe and leave the brown butter custard as is and still swap the wafers out for coffee soaked lady fingers? Yes, of course. That’s stilla riff! Could you swap in any flavor of pastry cream here based on your preferences? YES DUH OF COURSE.
The core of what recipe riffin’ is, is kinda taking a bunch of recipes that already exist and remixing them forever. And remembering that the components of composed dishes are not married to each other. It’s also thinking critically about how to create the things you want to eat with recipes that already exist. If you wanted to make, I dunno, a peanut butter tiramisu- you could take that leap and just add a couple of heaping scoops of peanut butter in with the whip before folding it into the pastry cream. Or you just find yourself a really good peanut butter pastry cream that exists elsewhere, in a book on a blog, or in the recipe archieve of my site lol. and just swap that out for the kinako pastry cream in this recipe. Same goes if you wanted to make a chocolate version, find a killer choc pc recipe and swap it out for the kinako one. You see where I’m going with this right?
On the flip of that though, if I made this without sharing the recipe below like I am today and just said “this is the brown butter banana pudding recipe with coffee soaked lady fingers for a tirmaisu vibe instead of the wafers and banana. oh and I used a kinako pastry cream instead of the brown butter one.” If you wanted to make it, you should be able to, with a little practice, dissect it for what it is and be able to make it with out an explicit need for a new recipe. Because remember recipes are starting points not finish lines. Did I develop the original to be my “perfect ideal” of whatever I wanted it to be? yeth. But, does that mean it’s done there never to be repurposed into something new? no. In a very simple example of this. If I made a turkey & cheese sandwich and said “oh so this is just a ham & cheese sandwich expect I used turkey instead of ham” if you wanted to make the same sandwich you’d know to use turkey instead of ham. Right, because the main focus here is swapping out pre-existing components to make what you want to eat.
That being said, here’s the recipe :)
