Yōkan

Bean paste set with agar and boiled hard after it dissolves, which gelatine cannot do.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 4 g agar powder
• 400 ml water
• 250 g caster sugar
• 500 g smooth anko
• 0.25 teaspoon salt

Method

1. AGAR, AND IT MUST BE BOILED. Gelatine is not a substitute and behaves oppositely: agar needs a full rolling boil of two minutes to dissolve and then sets at room temperature, firm enough to cut into clean blocks. Gelatine would be destroyed by that boil and gives a wobble this sweet does not have.
2. Whisk the agar into the COLD water and let it stand 10 minutes. Sprinkled into hot water it clumps and the lumps never dissolve.
3. Bring to a boil and keep it at a proper rolling boil for 2 minutes, stirring. Undissolved agar sets in patches -- some of the block firm, some liquid.
4. SUGAR ONLY AFTER THE AGAR HAS DISSOLVED. Added with it, the sugar competes for the water and the agar never fully hydrates.
5. Sugar in, stirred until clear, 2 minutes.
6. Anko in, in three additions, beating smooth after each. The mixture is thick and lumps form instantly if it all goes in at once.
7. Salt in. Cook, stirring constantly, 10 to 12 minutes, until it thickens and a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a channel that closes slowly.
8. Pour into a wet tin -- wet, not oiled. Agar releases from damp metal cleanly and oil leaves a film on the cut face.
9. SET AT ROOM TEMPERATURE, 2 hours. Chilling it fast makes it brittle and it cracks when cut.
10. Cut into blocks with a wet knife. It keeps two weeks wrapped and the surface firms into a faint crust, which is wanted.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes