That was fun…
The Japanese are sweet lovers. Now, all sorts of Western and Asian sweets can be found in big cities, and there are many talented bakers.
Wagashi means “Japanese sweets”, and it refers to the snack, usually sweet, served with tea. Eating desserts is not the custom. You eat lunch at 11~12 , then at 3 pm, you have a sweet with tea.
The bulk of wagashi are made on a base of 2 ingredients : rice and azuki beans. And the artisans carve hundreds of refined designs -inspired by nature and seasonal events. So you may have the impression that they all taste the same and are only decorative. Actually, even in traditional shops, there exist many other flavors, sesame, roast soy beans, sweet potato, nuts, yuzu, chestnut, ume plum, cherry blossom, matcha, dry fruits, cassia cinnamon…
I have no ambition to compete in refinement of making with the famous shops. I have them on occasions, not too often as the quality ones are not cheap. Making my snacks is mostly a hobby and a way to avoid the supermarket range ones.
My home-made wagashi don’t always follow the traditional recipes, but I try to indicate when I adapt. Usually, I want mines to be less sweetened.
BASIC RECIPES FOR HOME-MADE WAGASHI
Sweet pastes
There are several sweet pastes called “an”.
“anko” the most common is made of red azuki beans. Other beans are used too, white for “shiro an”, and also red, yellow, black…
“kimi-an” is yellow and egg flavored. “kuri-an” is made with chestnut. Etc
Making anko (brown filling) from the beans. Tsubuan and koshian. Easy recipe.
Making kimi-an (yellow filling, with egg)
Rice, rice flour, processed rice flours
Making o-hagi, the basic wagashi (from rice)
Making daifuku mochi from mochiko (from mochi flour)
Making kashiwa-mochi (from joshinko rice flour)
Other flours
kuzu, kudzu :
kuzumochi
warabi (bracken) :
warabi mochi
agar agar :
tokoroten
Home-made wagashi
Autumn
Gold and Chestnut : kuri kinton
Kuri, the sweet (2nd style of kuri kinton)
Winter
Spring
Kimi-an dango, Japanese sweets like pearls of gold
Summer
Cubes of refreshment : heart-heaven in black sweetness
ichigo-dama (strawberry pearls)
Others
Setsubun (start of Spring festival)
About wagashi and mochi from the shop… (Summer)
Yatsuhashi for sakura season (from the shop)
Assorted Spring wagashi (from the shop)
Kashiwa-mochi for Children Day, May 5th (from the shop)
Other dessert compilations :
Snow-ball ? Hedgehog ? Lawn ?
Well this is my version of a wagashi (Japanese sweet) popular in this season in Kansai. I don’t know the name – so many varieties exist, not all are named. It’s often yuzu-mochi. Usually it’s flavored with yuzu citrus.
Mine is made with Meyer lemon. So “lemon snow-flake mochi” ?
Mine look really gross compared to what the artisans make. BUT, it tastes much better than the supermarket version. And I know how to improve it in the future.
See the shop version here :
To obtain those refreshing “Summer mochi” texture, 3 types of flour are used :
1. sticky rice starch
2. warabi (bracken)
3. kuzu (arrow root)
Or a combination.
There are slight differences of texture.
The first gives something more like a paste, solid, easy to shape by hand, not transparent. It’s not melty unless you add lots of syrup.
The kuzu more like a melty jelly, very transparent. It’s not possible to shape it, you need a mold.
The warabi… in between. I’d say it’s the easier to use for a beginner, well for me.
Ingredients for 8 pieces :
An organic lemon
50 g of warabi mochi flour (it’s bracken flour, in case your grocer doesn’t speak Japanese)
A small piece of mochi
Sugar to taste (I used lakanto sugar)
Grate the mochi.
Grate the zest of the lemon, press it to get the juice. Complete with water to make 200 ml of liquid.
In a sauce pan, combine the juice and the flour. Heat moderately and stir continuously with a wooden spatula, until you get a semi-transparent paste. Add sugar in the quantity you like.
Pour in 2 soft molds. Cover with half of the grated mochi. Let cool, refrigerate a little.
Funny : when I refrigerated the threads of mochi went up like that :
Then turn down on a plate, get off the mold, cut each in 4 pieces, cover top with the reste of grated mochi. Refrigerate a little.
Note :
In shops, they use “short flakes” of mochi, it’s nicer, less “hairy” more flaky. After grating the mochi, you should let it dry, maybe a whole day. Then you can easily crush the threads. I had not the patience.
Commercial shape is often square. But that doesn’t matter. Taste was perfect for me.
Wagashi are served with tea : sencha, matcha, genmai cha, iced mugi cha (roast wheat decoction), iced sencha, etc… I had iced durian green tea (yeah, I’m weird).
Wagashi can usually be cut and eaten with a wooden stick… well it is sometimes made of plastic.
This warabi mochi doesn’t become hard, it’s… well, try it. The warabi mochi texture is refreshing and appreciated in Summer.
1 small piece :
Cal 40 F0g C8g P0.2g
Mochinnamon bun
You have mochi left ?
Toppings are kurozato brown sugar, sesame, cocoa mass.
Bake 5 minutes in oven-toaster (under grill, broiler). Ideally, you add the cocoa after 4 minutes, it looks better. Again I was lazy.
Then sprinkle tons of Ceylon cinnamon. Eat hot with your coffee.
OK, it looks weird, but it’s delicious. Parts are crispy, others are like chewing-gum…
GOURMANDE in OSAKA 