Cherry Blossom Sweet Bean Paste

Name: Cherry Blossom Sweet Bean Paste
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 25 grams 〇 Dried white sweet bean paste; 40 grams 〇 Sugar; 100 ml 〇 Water; 1 to obtain your desired color Red food coloring or red yeast rice powder; 3 leaves Cherry blossom leaves preserved in salt; 5 Cherry blossoms preserved in salt (optional); 1/4 tsp Cherry blossom liqueur (optional)

cookpad.japan @cookpad_jp

All of a sudden, I thought "Couldn't I make this with things I already have in my pantry?"

If you add too much food coloring, the color will just look tacky, so watch over it.
*The first picture looks slightly muted, but it's a much softer pastel color. Two leaves seem to be about right. You can also try using store-bought chunky red bean paste or smooth bean paste. For about 110 g. Recipe by Makunouchi

All of a sudden, I thought "Couldn't I make this with things I already have in my pantry?"

cookpad.japan @cookpad_jp

All of a sudden, I thought "Couldn't I make this with things I already have in my pantry?"

Saved

Ingredients

25 grams〇 Dried white sweet bean paste
40 grams〇 Sugar
100 ml〇 Water
1to obtain your desired color Red food coloring or red yeast rice powder
3leaves Cherry blossom leaves preserved in salt
5Cherry blossoms preserved in salt (optional)
1/4 tspCherry blossom liqueur (optional)

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Steps

1

Rinse the cherry blossoms and leaves, then soak in clean water for 1-2 hours. Dry thoroughly and mince.
2

Add ingredients marked with a 〇 to a small saucepan (preferably Teflon) and let stand for about 20 minutes. Mix in a small amount of food coloring until you've reached the desired color, then warm over low heat.
3

Stir the mixture constantly until you achieve the desired consistency. Take the mixture off the heat and mix in the cherry blossoms and leaves that you prepared in Step 1 and/or the liqueur. Now it's done.
4

For this batch, I used red yeast rice powder (nature's own food coloring). It transforms into a different color...
5

I bough the dried white sweet bean paste at Tomizawa shop. It's sooooo convenient.
6

"Wataboushi" (the headdress worn by the bride in a traditional Japanese wedding).
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Cherry Blossom Bean Paste Rolls
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Cherry Blossom Dorayaki
9

For this, I just minced a cherry leaf and added it to a chunky red sweet bean paste. It takes about one leaf for every 50 g of bean paste.
10

I tried making this with twice the amount of cherry blossoms and no food coloring, and this is the color it came out as.
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Cherry blossom cookies.
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I used this to make my favorite sakura-mochi (cherry blossom rice cakes).
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This spring, I made anko-dama (bean paste balls).