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- Traces its origins to the Imperial court (Heian period!), now traditioanlly served at 裏千家's 初釜. LK explained that for some time it was even 裏千家-exclusive, with 表千家 using the 織部饅頭.
- It's
求肥 wrapped around a candied burdock stick (裏千家 traditionally uses 2) and some 味噌餡. Traditionally, there's also a layer of diamond-shaped, red-coloured 求肥 that peeks through the white (which is where the name comes from). However, in my version below, I find it neater to just colour the あん. - Since burdock is not so easy to find, I'm using salsify (🇩🇪 Schwarzwurzel), which works really well (or even better 🙊).
- I heard some comments that in 裏千家 now the folded side is the front 🤯
My recipe
Essential to assemble just before serving. The 求肥 will suck the moisture from the filling and all will end up an utter gooey mess otherwise.
🧂 Also, it probably won't do no harm at all to add a pinch of salt to the 求肥 and the candying syrup for the salsify.
- Each 花弁餅 will use about 10 gr 求肥, 8 gr 中あん and a 15 gr piece of candied salsify. However, for the 求肥 you need about twice because I'm using a cookie cutter to make the shapes. You can also make little dumplings and roll out those, but it looks very tidy with the cookie cutter-method.
- Make 求肥 in white and some small amount in red.
- Roll out 求肥 (it's quite elegant if you manage to make it very thin) and cut 8 cm circles. Brush the inside.
- Place candied salsify slightly below the middle, with the skin side facing north. It'll turn when folding, and like this, the skin side will face towards the open side.
- Place a dollop 味噌餡 (~ 8 gr) on the top side.
- Fold and miau miau!
Candied Salsify
- Wash thoroughly. I like to leave the skin on, it tastes better and gives a nice contrast to the white 求肥.
- Cut into 10 cm sticks, boil in salted / 醤油-ed water for about 15'
- Cut into batons of about 4 mm. Half, third, then cut away the core.
- 1:1 syrup, place salsify in it, boil, stand for at least 6 hours.
- Start to candy by taking the salsify out and reducing the syrup a bit every day.
➡️ I did it just for 2 days, and it was already quite pleasant, but probably 3 is better.
🍧 You can also roll them in sugar afterwards, which is not so bad and adds a nice texture in the finished 花弁餅. But it looses elegance like this, so it depends a bit on the audience.
My 味噌餡
- 150 gr 白あん
- 15 gr white 味噌 (use a very high quality as the taste is very present)
- 15 gr beurre noisette (= heat butter to 145° C, then filter)
- 1 gr 醤油
- One recipe I've seen also uses a small proportion of red 味噌 here, which makes sense I think.
➡️ Just mix and colour pink
Experiments
- Pear (or nashi) would make for a nice pairing. Also, can I work in some Champagne here?
- I tried turning the salsify into あん. This works somewhat, but it's quite some work and you end up with very little あん for a lot of salsify with a very subtle taste.
- Also, to replace the burdock sticks, I made bâtons with white chocolate and 味噌 (60 gr white chocolate melted in bain marie, add 30 gr of white chocolate, add 15 gr 1:1 beurre noisette and 味噌-emulsion. Pipe, cool, cut and cover in couverture). They are absolutely fantastic, but they drag the sweet in a very French direction.