蒸し饅頭（むしまんじゅう）
Mushi Manju / Steamed Bun Stuffed with Sweet Vegetable Paste

This is a basic Mushi Manju which can be arranged to many kinds of Manju, such as 利休饅頭（りきゅうまんじゅう） (Rikyu Manju / bun with black sugar), 南瓜饅頭（かぼちゃまんじゅう） (Kabocha Manju /with sweet pumpkin paste) and so on. (Cooking Time: about 1 hour)

Directions

1. Mix sugar and hot water well with a spatula in a bowl. When the sugar dissolves in the water, leave the bowl until it cools down.
2. Sieve wheat flour with baking powder twice. Sieved the flours into the bowl when the sugar water cools down. Mix them lightly but not squeeze. When the dry powders disappear, cover the bowl with a plastic film and then let sit it in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
3. Divide An paste into 10 balls.
4. 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.
5. Divide the dough into 10 balls and expand each of them into flat disk sheets which has a little thinner edge than the center.
6. Make a circle with thumb and forefinger of your hand and put one of the dough sheets onto the finger circle. Remove the extra wheat flour away from the surface of the sheet with a kitchen brush. Put one of the An paste ball on the sheet and wrap the ball by closing the edge of the sheet. This is Manju ball before steaming.
7. Add extra water into a steamer and lay a kitchen cloth on the mesh shelf in the steamer. Lay a parchment paper on the kitchen cloth and heat the steamer at high until steam comes out.
8. Mist water on the paper surface and put the Manju balls onto the paper with over 1 inch of distance each other. Mist water on the balls to moisten the surface well. Please beware against burning yourself by hot steam.
9. Cover with the lid of the steamer and steam them for 12 or 15 minutes.Then, turn the heating off and leave until the Manju balls cool down a little.
10. Pick the warm Manju balls up from the steamer, and serve.

Notes & Arrangements

• 利休饅頭（りきゅうまんじゅう） (Rikyu Manju) can be made with black/dark-brown sugar or molasses and Koshi-An (strained Azuki bean paste). If the black sugar is in large blocks, please crush them into small pieces and make them dissolve into 70 mL of hot water by boiling in a small sauce pan. Then, sieve the syrup once to remove extra particles which cause craters on bun surface after steaming. Note: The name 利休（りきゅう） is taken from the father of Japanese tea cetemony, 千利休（せん　りきゅう） (SEN, Rikyu).
• 南瓜／芋饅頭（かぼちゃ／いもまんじゅう） (Kabocha/Imo Manju) can be made with sweet pumpkin/sweet-potato paste as stuffing. You can also mix about 50 g of the paste in the sugar water to make the bun. Please control the amount of the water because of the moistured vegetable paste.
• 蕎麦蒸し饅頭（そばむしまんじゅう） (Soba Mushi Manju) can be made with 蕎麦粉（そばこ） (Soba-ko / Buckwheat flour) and wheat flour. The total weight of the mixed flours is 100 g, but you can mix the buckwheat flour up to in the proportion of 8 to 2.
• If your steamer is made of glass or metal, water may drop from the lid to the Manju balls during steaming. So, please cover the lid with a large kitchen cloth to shut the drops out. You may not need the cover against Chinese bamboo steamer because the steam comes out through the bamboo lid smoothly.
• You can freeze the Manju balls before steaming. Please seal each ball with a plastic film before freezing. Before serving, put the freezed balls into the steamer and steam for longer time than the direction mentioned above. I think it is pretty tasty to enjoy the Manju just after steaming!
• Misting water on the Manju before steaming make the surface of the balls glossy.
• Please keep the Manju left for a several minutes after steaming, otherwise a thin film may come off the surface by touching the hot ball.