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This is a general recipe for pressed sugar sweets, so what shape you put it in is what makes it seasonal. I have some 松笠 (for example, to link it to the 吹き寄せ) moulds, and they look quite pretty. This is the 淡交テキスト recipe, which adds あん — something that most recipes leave away.
👆 The sweets dry out pretty quickly, so best to seal them airtight!
- 100 gr powdered sugar (ideally with some flavour, like 和三盆 or blitzed brown sugar, if the colour is admissible). The original recipe recommends 4:1 mix of 和三盆 to normal powdered sugar.
- 40 gr あん. The colour doesn't matter too much, for the 松笠 I used ねりあん and the colour was acceptable.
- 30 gr 寒梅粉
➡️ Mix everything, crumble with fingers, then push through a sieve.
For these grape-shaped pseudo-strawberries, I've added a bit of hibiscus powder to colour the sugar. It was alright, but it gave it a Traubenzucker taste through its acidity that gives the wrong association for Western palates. But the 抹茶 coloured leaves are nice.
Sans 餡
- 100 gr sugar
- 50 gr water
- 50 gr 寒梅粉
➡️ This is also from 淡交テキスト, but I haven't tried it yet. They use it for 梅, so maybe for my いちご mould it might be good?
With 上南粉
- 90 gr sugar
- 90 gr 白あん
- 60 gr 上南粉 (or 55 gr 上新粉 and 5 gr potato starch)
- 30 gr 寒梅粉
The
The preparation is as above: Mix, colour, sieve; but here it's put into the 流し器, pressed down, another layer added, pressed down etc. and then pressed for some 5-6 hours with some weight. My 白あん was pretty dry, so I think it's important to control the moisture and add some more water or glucose syrup.
The example above was for March, but colours and shapes can be freely chosen. It tastes rather dry and powdery, so to add some flavour certainly isn't a bad idea. For March, obviously, powdered 桜 and 桜 leaves makes sense. Historically, mandarin peel powder (
Here's some ideas of what you could do with this template for each month.
通い路
- Read かよいち, looking like an empty field in autumn
- 100 和三盆 (if using powdered sugar, it needs to be slightly moistened at the end)
- 90 白あん
- 70 上南粉 (I think 60 is fine)
- 20 寒梅粉
- 10 大徳寺納豆
Instead of the 納豆 I used PRB fermented beans (usually used for
Sift sugar, add 白あん and crumble together, then add flowers and sift again (in my Tamiz, I used the middle sieve). Add 納豆 cut in little bits, then press for 6 hours with 2 kilos in a baking sheet lined 流し器. Mine became quite full with this, so maybe 80 % or using my big 流し器 is better. Cut into triangles, that's nicer.
Experiments
- I had tried using some red bean flour, which worked, but it didn't add too much flavour. It's probably easier to just add it as あん directly.