7

Many Wagashi are made from a mix of rice flour, Shiroan (white bean paste), sugar, and other ingredients. Of those Namagashi are among the most beautiful, shaped as little art pieces and then served in tea ceremony. The right mix can be kind of an art of itself, but I want to try molding and shaping these tiny sweats with material that is more readily available before I start to experiment with making a recipe that I have nothing to compare against due to no shop within 2 hours making them. In a similar circle, I know of no restaurant that actively advertised with them.

What makes a decent substitution that is purely based on moldability and handleability to train to shape Namagashi?

First 2 lines of Namagashi google-picture search

Trish
  • 258
  • 1
  • 8
  • 2
    So you want to practice molding it, or are you trying to get a feel for what the right consistency is for when you make it yourself? Why not buy some pre-made wagashi? – GdD Oct 11 '21 at 08:05
  • Availability prevents me from getting pre-made ones that are not a week old, and it's more the shaping feel I need to get the techniques down - I'm not looking for mochi or similar but for... the style one serves with tea ceremony. Those shaped with sticks and scissors to get flowers or fruit imitates. Namagashi. – Trish Oct 11 '21 at 16:34
  • 1
    Many Namagashi are not able to be stored for more than a few days - and no shop within 2 hours does have them... and I know of no restaurant that serves them within that area too. – Trish Oct 11 '21 at 16:45
  • Are we talking strictly rice paste namagashi, or other types as well? – FuzzyChef Oct 12 '21 at 22:54
  • @FuzzyChef tea ceremony-style ones. Most of those are apparently riceflour-beanpaste-sugar mix. – Trish Oct 12 '21 at 22:56
  • 2
    Why is making your own dough infeasible? That would give you an inexpensive supply of dough to practice on. – FuzzyChef Oct 12 '21 at 22:59
  • To get white bean paste, I have to order it about a week in advance from my store... the smalltown supply drama. On the other hand, something much more readily available, longer storeable, or possibly reuseable would allow training. A sugar baker I talked to once told me they trained making marzipan items with Fimo-soft – Trish Oct 12 '21 at 23:05
  • 2
    maybe play-dough would be useful to start out with practicing. – Mr Shane Dec 20 '21 at 19:55

1 Answers1

1

You only need rice flour, sugar and water to make a sweetened rice-paste with glutinous rice flour. This and other rice flours are widely available in specialty grocery stores, and surely available for delivery (I live in the middle of nowhere on the Counterweight Continent, so I know what it's like).

At a pinch, you could just pound some cooked rice into a paste yourself - this works fine, but takes a while.

I've not made White Bean Paste, but Red Bean Paste (also used commonly in Wagashi) is just Adzuki Beans boiled in sugar-water until soft, then mixed up to a paste (chunky or smooth are both traditional). It's tremendously easy to make. Any left overs can be frozen - so you could even make this days/weeks before the final Wagashi. If you can't get Adzuki, probably a lot of other bean types would work well enough to practice with.

Why not start out with something simple like Sakura Mochi:

Sakura Mochi

You can pound rice a little, a lot, or use rice-flour. You don't need the pickled Sakura leaves, although I pickled some cherry leaves (simmered in salt water for a bit), since it was the only thing available.

Kingsley
  • 605
  • 4
  • 13