You may have heard of traditional Japanese sweets, or wagashi—but do you know how the little beauties are made? For hundreds of years, classic ingredients like mochi and red bean paste have been used to make delicate, handcrafted sweets that are often paired with green tea during tea ceremonies.
In this video, follow along with Mai, known on social media as Miss Wagashi, as she shows you how to make nerikiri, a beautiful type of wagashi that reflects the season in which it's served. Learn more about the fine art of wagashi while being mesmerized by Miss Wagashi's talent!
Join byFood's Intensive Wagashi and Mochi Making Course with Miss Wagashi
Try your hand at creating 4 intricate nerikiri designs, a pillowy strawberry daifuku mochi, and the ethereal-looking raindrop cake. Join byFood's Intensive Wagashi & Mochi Making Course and learn from the queen of wagashi, Mai-san herself! The course includes 24 tutorial videos and a detailed recipe book, so you can learn at your own pace. The finished products are little works of art that are sure to impress!
How to Make Wagashi, Traditional Japanese Sweets
Before showing us how to make wagashi, Mai shows us around her kitchen and explains how she first got interested in wagashi in a short interview. She then introduces the unique set of tools she uses to craft nerikiri wagashi, including cookie cutters, wooden sticks, and more! This time, Miss Wagashi chooses three different-colored flowers to make for us. Find out which gorgeous seasonal flower each of these wagashi are inspired by in the video.
To make the wagashi, she mixes sugar, rice flour, and other ingredients into a paste to make a ball of chewy Japanese rice cake, or mochi. Adding this to the white bean paste, she kneads the mixture until soft. Then she adds food coloring to the dough for the outer layers of the nerikiri.
In a surprisingly easy process, she then wraps the colored bean paste around a ball of shiroan, or white bean paste, to make a small ball of dough ready for decoration.
Finally, Miss Wagashi takes us through the fine art of shaping the ball of wagashi into seasonal nerikiri. First, she makes clean lines in the outer bean paste coating to form petals, with a different number and style of petals for each type of flower. Then she pokes the middle of the wagashi with a toothpick, marking where she'll place a tiny yellow ball of dough for the center of the flower. Miss Wagashi deftly uses her fingers to push, pull, and indent the dough until her nerikiri looks just right!
Book a Wagashi Making Class in Tokyo with Miss Wagashi
Itching to get your hands on some bean paste and try making wagashi for yourself? Book the Nerikiri Wagashi Class in Tokyo with Matcha Green Tea, where you'll learn how to make wagashi that reflect the seasons with Miss Wagashi, herself!
Making your own wagashi is a great way to gain a deeper feel for the process and history of Japanese sweets, which differ significantly from many kinds of Western sweets. So make sure you get a taste of traditional Japan with this personal wagashi class on your next trip to Tokyo!
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