mikaikou

I love this sweet: it hints at the red (of the plums) that are yet to open, so it's very suitable for the beginning of February. At the same time, it's not a literal depiction of the plum like some flower 練り切り, but quite conceptional. In that vein, I wouldn't use 梅酒 or something like that to flavour it, but rather hint at the 梅 by using bitter almond, cinnamon and generic floral (jasmine).
There is also a reminiscence of the 御所籠, with the excitement and anticipation what might be inside that package.
Because they are square, however, they are not very good in a 縁高…
My recipe is based on the 淡交テキスト one, but I find theirs too big, making the whole affair a bit unsightly.

こなし:
- 200 gr 白あん
- 22.5 gr white flour
- 5 gr もち粉 or 白玉粉 (you could leave that away, but it makes it bouncier)
- Mix it all together, then steam on a wet cloth for 20' on high. Knead, add a bit 2:1 sugar syrup. This would also be where I could incorporate some jasmine and bitter almond aroma.
Colours:
- Take 4 gr of that and colour yellow
- Take half of the dough and colour pink, leave the other half white.
中餡:
- 15 gr per ball. I like to use 粒あん here, maybe with a hint of cinnamon.
Preparation:
- Roll out both doughs to 26 cm ╳ 13 cm in plastic wrap, covering the rolling pin in flour to prevent sticking. You can use the plastic wrap to get good 90° corners and not loose too much. It can't be thin enough, actually, so don't worry about that.
- Place outer colour (white) on inner one, roll out a little bit. Normally here you'd roll a moist 茶巾 or towel over it to give it some texture, but I'm not sure if that's necessary. Dust with 上新粉 (or normal flour?), then brush off excess.
- Flip, and carefully tear off plastic wrap; then cut into 6.5 ╳ 6.5 cm squares. Not bad if you keep them in the fridge, they might be a little bit less bendy then.
- When shaping, I find it nice to press down the 中餡 just a little bit.

Marzipan as a flavour actually would work quite nice here, so maybe the yellow dot could be made from marzipan?
Used some Löhrpflaumen-Brand to aromatise the 中餡, and it was really nice. Booze works well here, somehow, especially if it's drier.