My first dessert recipe! I had this in Okinawa. The combination of roasted soybean flour and brown sugar is wonderful and they go so well with vanilla ice cream. It wouldn’t be an Okinawan ice cream dessert without corn flakes.
- 1 heaped tbsp corn flakes
- 2-3 scoops of vanilla ice cream (note 1)
- ½ tbsp kinako (roasted soybean flour, note 2)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar syrup
- 1 small sprig of mint leaves as garnish (optional)
- 100 g (3.5oz) Yanbaru powder sugar (note 3)
- 60 ml (2oz) water
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Place corn flakes in the bottom of a tumbler glass, small bowl or a cup.
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Add 2-3 small scoops of vanilla ice cream on top.
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Sprinkle kinako over the ice cream, then top with the syrup.
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Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil.
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Reduce the heat to low to simmer and cook for about 5 minutes. When you tilt the pan, and draw a horizontal line on the upper part of the bottom of the pan, the line should stay.
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Turn the heat off and let it cool down.
1. My ice cream scoop was small and each ice cream ball was about 4cm (1½") in diameter. If you are using a large scoop, you will only need one or two scoops.
If you use Nagi’s recipe to make vanilla ice cream, which is explained in note 4 of the recipe Home Made Mango Ice Cream Recipe, it will be even better!
2. You can buy kinako (roasted soybean flour) from Japanese grocery stores. Amazon also sells it on-line. Kinako is made from either normal soybeans or black soybeans. Either beans are OK.
You cannot substitute kinako with normal soybean flour as the latter is not cooked and you should not eat it raw.
3. You can buy Yanbaru sugar from Japanese grocery stores or from Amazon. It comes in powder form as well as in blocks. If you use the sugar in block form instead of powder, it takes a bit longer to dissolve.
You can substitute dark brown sugar or brown sugar for Yanbaru sugar but the flavour and the colour of the syrup will be a bit different.
Additional note reflecting a reader's comment on 3 Aug 2023 (thanks Lynne): If you have access to Mexican or possibly other Hispanic markets, use piloncillo instead of American brown sugar. It comes in a solid chunk, so you have to grate it, but it is probably much closer to the Okinawan sugar than American brown sugar, which is white sugar with molasses added.