栗饅頭
Kuri Manju / Baked Bun Stuffed with Chestnut Paste
The look of this sweet is similar to a chestnut. This is the reason why we call it Kuri
Manju. We usually use Shiro Koshi-An as stuffing of Kuri Manju in Japan. In this recipe, however, 栗餡 (Kuri An / chestnut paste) is used for richer taste. (Cooking Time: about 1 hour except cooking Kuri-An)
Ingredients (for 12 eaches)
| 栗餡 (in suitable amount to cook easily) |
栗
Kuri /Chestnut | 1 lb |
| Sugar | 50 g |
| Bun |
| Wheat Flour | 150 g + extra |
| Baking Powder | 1 ts. |
| Sugar | 50 g |
| Egg | 1 each |
| Vegetable oil (or melted butter) | 1 tbs. |
| Milk (as liquid to make glossy surface) | suitable amount |
Directions
- Boil/Steam whole chestnuts for 40 or 50 minutes. Cut each of them into halves and scoop out the inside.
- Pick the amount of about 5 eaches of them and cut into small dices. Crush the rest using a food processor and mix sugar well. If you do not have a food processor, strain the rest with a sieve and mix them with a sugar water at middle or high heating range.
- Mix the small dices of the chestnuts into the chestnut paste. Divide into 12 balls with a barrel shape.
- Sieve wheat flour with baking powder once.
- Put an egg, sugar and vegetable oil into a bowl and mix them well.
- Sieved the flours into the bowl and mix them lightly but not squeeze. When the dry powders disappear, cover the bowl with a plastic film and then keep it in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Make a layer of extra wheat flour in a tray and pour the dough from the bowl into the tray. Add extra flour on your hand and knead the dough lightly until it becomes as soft as your earlobe.
- Divide the dough into 12 balls and expand each of them into flat disk sheets. Put one of the dough sheets onto your hand and brush the extra wheat flour away from the surface. Put one of the Kuri-An paste ball on the sheet and wrap the ball as like a barrel shape. This is Kuri Manju ball before baking.
- Lay a parchment paper on a cookie baking tray and put the Kuri Manju balls on the paper. Spread milk on the top of balls using a kitchen brush. Bake them at 350 F in a oven for 15 or 20 minutes, and serve.
Notes & Arrangements
- You can use
Shiro Koshi-An
or Imo An
(sweet potato paste) instead of Kuri An.
- It is easy to make Kuri An with conserve of chestnuts; just crushing them into paste. Please reduce the amount of sugar as you like.
- In the standard recipes, the liquid to make glossy surface is a mixture of yolk and 味醂 (Mirin / sweet rice wine). But milk works similar as the mixture. The reference #1 used a mixture of soy sauce and Mirin which makes color and flavor but not glossy surface well.
References
- Kuri-Manju, Taste of Japan "Japanese Sweets" (a lecture of the series of cooking Japanese dishes at Japan House, UIUC in 2002)
