ホモテナシ

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Table of Contents

お菓子

  1. Before we speak about anything else, we need to make 餡.
  2. Then, about colours and flavours.
  3. Finally, a brief overview over ingredients used in 和菓子.

📝 My private notes from the 京都 course.

  • Taste:
    • Most say that sweets for tea should only be slightly sweet and devoid of flavour as not to interfere with the taste of tea. However, in a 茶事 this doesn't really hold, since you have the 中立 and the つくばい between the sweets and the tea.
    • Still, tea sweets will have less flamboyant tastes to suit the mood of the setting better, while “regular” sweets can up that a little bit.
  • 余情(よじょう):
    • It's a good principle for tea: It means being not too obvious. So don't just depict a flower directly, but rather lean towards the abstract so that the 御銘 can then complete the image in the mind of the beholder.
  • 和菓子 touch all 5 senses: The ear by the 御銘 that is spoken when the guests ask for it.

My principles

  1. Start with the absolute vanilla flavour
  2. Before starting, research and note recipes, ideally from reference books
  3. Before actually starting, write down recipe and steps on paper
  4. Keep all variables fixed and always do the recipes twice (with one variable different)
  5. While working, clean as you go. If you put down something and what you're doing can wait a bit, clean.
  6. Don't nibble. Taste often, but if things need to be thrown away, throw them away. If you behave like a trash bin, you'll look like one, and it's going to do wonders for your 正座.

Families

My seven families don't align perfectly with how to chose 7 sweets for 真之行 (see presentation) nor with 仲實, but I found them most useful classification so far.

1. 蒸し物 (steamed)

This maillard-free way of cooking is quite suited to the subtle tea mood.

2. 焼き物 (baked)

Like 桃山, something wrapped in 焼き皮 or, of course, どら焼き (lime the 若鮎).

3. 伸し物 (stretched)

Like 求肥-based (花弁餅, for example) or regular もち.

4. 練り物 (kneaded)

Using こなし or 練り切り dough, including:

5. 打ち物 (pressed)

Like 落雁(らくがん) or just normal pressed sugar.

6. 流し物 (jellied)

Very popular in summer. If we're considering the gelling agent, we have:

7. 飴

Which technically is hard sugar, but I'm using this category also for non-pressed sugar-based sweets like 琥珀糖, 雲平 and 洲浜.

Seasons

Probably every sweet could be changed to match every season if shape and name are adapted, but if we're staying the the classic use of sweets, we could end up with this:

0. Evergreens

These are recipes that really don't seem to have a prefered season and can be adapted to match any.

sakurakawa.jpeg かるかん, a 蒸し物 using yams.

ukijima.jpeg 浮島, a 蒸し物. Sometimes it includes some candied black beans.

momoyama.jpeg 桃山, a baked 黄身餡 sweet that can be shaped into beans, bells and chrysanthemums.

oshimono.jpeg 打ち物 are just pressed sugar sweets used in all shapes and flavours.

Simple to make, こなし-based alrounder. The colours change according to the season.

Steamed buns with yams (薯蕷饅頭(じょうよまんじゅう) which can be adapted in many ways.

So rustic I don't think the 「お萩」(or ぼたもち) is great for tea, but an important 和菓子 still.

…and, of course, the all-important 練り切り!

飴

餅's less cumbersome brother: The 団子!

The dried 錦玉 that is 琥珀糖

1. Winter

求肥-wrapped, baby boar-shaped, cinnamon-flavoured, fire-warding sweet for 炉開き

A plain 薯蕷饅頭 that's coloured and brandied, making it a 織部饅頭.

∃ two kinds of 柚べし: 味噌 in a cured citron, or a 求肥 with walnuts and 醤油.

zenzaice.jpeg ぜんざい, a sweet soup with red beans and 餅. It's often served for 炉開き.

kogarash.jpg 木枯らし, a cinnamon-flavoured 金団.

花弁餅, the traditional 裏千家 New Year's sweet wrapping in 求肥 candied burdock and 味噌餡.

fukujusou.jpeg 福寿草 , a 茶巾絞り

akebono.jpeg 曙 , a しぐれ.

No photos yet, but also:

  • 蕎麦板, a buckwheat biscuit that I really like!
  • 粉雪, normally a 道明寺粉-based sweet that you can also make with baby food!

2. Spring

hatsuharu.jpeg My 発音, which is a 軽感(かるかん)

「雪間の声」, my creation using うぐいす餡 (hence the name) in a 金団-style sweet.

「未開紅」, a こなし-based plum-shape

うぐいす餅, a plain good ol' もち tossed in green soybean flour.

千代結び, an 雲平 dough shaped into a knot to last for a thousand generations! 🙀

The 茶巾絞り 「水鳥」, for which I like to use 黄身餡 as 中餡.

The messy, but tasty affair that is the poppy seed 餅

The iconic 花見団子, where the use of 蓬 actually makes sense.

The literal いちご大福餅.

Not originally my idea, but because I only had the 千鳥 cookie cutter, we ended up with the 「雀の分」.

My creation「吉野窓」, which represents the excitement of viewing the cherry blossoms!

The starch-based canvas for black syrup that is the わらび餅

桜もち, which lives from the salty-sweet contrast.

fujinami.jpeg 藤浪, which is 黄身餡 wrapped in slightly coloured 外郎.

A わらび-shaped 州浜

3. Summer

The ちまき that wraps some 求肥-variation in bamboo leaves

柏もち, the oak leaf-wrapped 団子-dough variation.

水無月, an 外郎-based June sweet

Carnations made of 金団 for Mother's day.

Irises as 茶巾絞り

紫陽花-shaped 練り切り.

蓮根羹, a lotus root flavoured 羊羹.

笹巻, a 葛-based jelly in a bamboo leaf.

若鮎, an 求肥-filled どら焼き

水牡丹, in a way a 茶巾絞り, but made with 葛.

The surprisingly refreshing 葛焼き

The creatively named 葛饅頭

豆かん, the quintessential 寒天 jelly.

ずんだ, a green bean-based あん often enjoyed on simple もち.

Summer-leaning, but manifold: 錦玉羹

4. Autumn

yamazuto_19_nov_2023.jpg やまずと, a sort of 茶巾絞り made with こなし dough.

fukiyose.jpeg 吹寄せ, autumn leaves and whatnot from 雲平 dough, with some pressed sugar

A pressed sugar sweet with 大徳寺納豆.

がんづき, a brown sugar bread.

そばぼろう, a fall-flavoured cookie.

奥山, a 金団 that lets the 中あん peek out to make it look like a chestnut.

A simple 茶巾絞り using 3 different あん.

あん with chestnuts steamed in bamboo skin: 栗蒸し羊羹

干し柿

洋菓子

Some non-Japanese sweets that I think might be quite suitable:

patedefruit.jpeg Pâte de fruit, a pectin-gellied fruit candy.

Barfi, an Indian milk-based sweet.

Truffles, which I like flavour with olive oil.

Torrone di Beneveto, which I like for February, but really is a 干菓子 that works always.

mitterand.jpeg Soufflé Mitterand, an absinthe-flavoured ice cream

Calisson d'Aix, a Provence sweet with a candied fruit dough

Baklava, which you can fill with buffalo milk and make look a bit like a ひしもち!

Madeleine, a small butter-cake in the shape of a shell that can be chocolate coated.

The wonderfully fluffy soft shell that is the macaron.

Cedric Grolet's lemon-shaped dessert, a fluffy ganache in a fruit-shaped shell

Schaumkuss, an Italian meringue on a wafer covered in chocolate

Meringue, which I'm flavouring with absinthe for more 🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭

鳳梨酥, a Taiwanese pineapple jam in shortbread

marron.jpeg Marrons glacés, which thanks to the glaze make for excellent 干菓子!

راحة الحلقوم, which is interesting in it's similarities to 葛!

Candied violets (or flowers in general).

Marzipan, the European 練り切り!

The final boss of French pastry, the canelé bordelais.

Calendars

➡️ I have my own sweets calendar; but here we also have a more professional view.

Background

お菓子屋

➡️ I've moved famous sweets and sweets stores to their own page.

Presentation

➡️ Rules governing the arrangement during tea also found their own page.

腰掛け

  • You can serve difficult to eat sweets such as a 竹流し in the 腰掛け, or when you want the guests to enjoy the atmosphere.
  • In that case, add the 黒文字 on the far side of the tray akin to the 利休箸. The guests take them into their 懐紙.
  • You can use lidded containers or a 菓子鉢, but maybe the 縁高 is a bit odd here.
  • The host brings out the sweets to the guests once they are sitting.
  • If there's some refuse (like bamboo leaves), you could instruct the guests to leave it in the container.
  • The guests leave the container to the 下座 of the 煙草盆 stacked upon the 円座.

Dialogue

  • When bringing your own sweets, and they are used in the 点前, the dialogue changes a bit: The host can either prevent the silliness of having to ask about the sweets by saying 'thanks for bringing those sweets' before the conversation moves to asking about the tea; or the guest can say 'thank you for using my sweets' after having inquired about the tea (UH19).
  • For me, it's: 「前席(ぜんせき)では、かずかずのお菓子をどうもありがとうございました」. If it get's more complicated, I stumble over my words.
  • If asked about the ごせい and you've made the sweets, it's okay to say 「手作り」or 「自作(じさく)」.

Resources

  • There are 4 main books that I use:
    • 仲實's 和菓子. Probably the Bocuse of Japanese sweets. More professional-oriented, but excellent recipes. Build around families.
    • 金塚's 私の和菓子帳. Build around seasons. Recipes are sometimes a bit iffy, but a great calendar. Not too tea focussed.
    • 清真's 本格和菓子. She's a 学校園 teacher, so her recipes are very tea-focused. Somewhat childish, probably simplified a bit.
    • The 淡交テキスト series (TT): Great recipes, very seasonal, very tea related.
  • In my drive, I have also an excellent mini-book by UH!

Org

  • To keep this page tidy, I'm using the folded, pageImage and tag plugins.
  • For pageImage, I had to fix a bug so that it finds the first image of a page.
  • Every actual recipe now gets the {{tag>...}}-snippet somewhere on its page, which should at least contain:
    • Family (from mushimono yakimono noshimono nerimono uchimono nagashimono ame)
    • Season (from winter spring summer fall evergreen)
  • Because topic uses the title on the page, each sweet needs to say it's name on the page again.
  • To fold such a list in, use:
++++ Title|
{{topic>tag&table&header&nofirsthl&nouser&image}}
Last modified: 02.10.2026:1756