Ingredients of Japanese Sweets

The most important difference between Japanese sweets and Western-style sweets is their ingredients. For Japanese sweets, it is extremely rare that animal ingredients are used. For example, it isn't common that milk products or animal fat is used to make them. Probably it is only the hen's eggs that will be used for them. In contrast, for Western-style sweets, animal ingredients are mainly used to make them and it is also said that they couldn't be made without milk products; milk, butter and cheese.

Japanese sweets

(http://www.tamachi-baigetsu.co.jp/staff_blog/archives/2010/0129-1600.html)

 Western-style sweets

(http://sweets0141.seesaa.net/article/111101487.html)

Here are two important ingredients of Japanese sweets.


*Beans*

Beans are the most important ingredients of Japanese sweets. Most of Japanese sweets contain bean paste, and the beans paste is made mainly from beans. Especially, azuki beans are used for making red beans paste, so they must be essential ingredients for most of Japanese sweets. And the azuki beans could be grown all over Japan. Particularly, in Tanba, Bittyu, and Hokkaido, they are grown very much. The azuki beans made in Hokkaido is about 90% of ones distributed in Japan. Incidentally,the kidney beans are used for making white bean jams.There are other beans as the ingredients of white bean paste; ohukumame, hukushiromame, white beans and so on. Then, the green peas are used for green smooth bean paste, and the red peas are used for mamedaihuku (the rice cakes contain beans), mamekan (the sweets contains beans and cubes of agar gelatin), anmitsu (the sweets made with agar gelatin and fruits, and covered with bean paste).
And the kinako (sweet soybean flour) is also made from beans. It is made by parching and grinding soybeans. It is used for ohagi (rice ball) and so on.

azuki

(http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%BA%E3%82%AD)

*Rice flour*

The grain that is most often used for Japanese sweets is rice; non-glutinous rice and glutinous rice especially. The two is different in character each other. And their characters also change by grinding in raw or heated. So rice flour is distinguished by the way it's heated and the size of it.
Both joshinko and joyoko are made by grinding raw non-glutinous rice. The sweets used joshinko are more hard to chew. For example, dumplings and kashiwamochi (rice cakes wrapped in an oak leaf). In contrast, the sweets used joyoko are softer.
Both shiratamako and gyuhiko are made by grinding raw glutinous rice. They are used to make rice-flour dumplings, habutae-mochi and so on.
Kanbaiko, domyojiko and jonanko are made by adding water, heating and then grinding glutinous rice. Kanbaiko is also called yakimijinko and used to make rakugan (hard candy), yubeshi (sweet yuzu-flavoured steamed dumpling) and so on. Jonanko is finer than kanbaiko. Domyojiko is made by steaming glutinous rice, heating or drying, and grinding coarsely. It is used to make sakura-mochi (rice cake with bean jam wrapped in a preserved cherry leaf).

Japanese Sweets Classification

The classification of Japanese sweets according to moisture content is generally used.
If the moisture content of them is less than 20%, it is called higashi (dried or desiccated sweets) and, ones above 40% (yokan, adzuki-bean jelly, is over 30%) is nama-gashi (fresh and moist sweets), ones from 20% to 40% is han'nama-gashi (soft, semi-baked sweets).
Normally, higashi is eaten when partaking of light green tea whereas, namagashi is provided with the fuller-bodied green tea.


*Nama-gashi (fresh and moist sweets)*

<rice-cake sweets>
They are made from mainly glutinous rice, non-glutinous rice or their processed food. For
example, ohagi (a rice ball coated with sweetened red beans, soybean flour or sesame and salt), sekihan (rice boiled with beans), daihukumochi (a rice cake stuffed with sweet bean jam), domyoji (a rice cake with bean paste wrapped in a preserved cherry leaf), kashiwamochi (a rice cake wrapped in an oak leaf), suama (plain sweet rice cake).

sakuramochi

<steamed cake>
For example, yubeshi (sweet yuzu-flavoured dumpling).

 yubeshi

<baked sweets>
For example, dorayaki (a bean-jam pancake), geppei (mooncake), kasutera (sponge cake).

dorayaki

<kneaded sweets>
For example, nerikiri (a cake made of white bean jam which is artistically colored or shaped), gyuhi (a kind of rice cake made from glutinous rice or glutinous rice flour) and so on.

 nerikiri

*Han'nama-gashi (soft, sami-baked sweets)*

<bean-jam sweets>
For example, ishigoromo (water cake).

<flowing sweets>
For example, yokan.

yokan

<sugared sweets>
It is important that full flavor of their ingredients is brought out.
For example, amanatto (sugared red beans).


*Higashi (dried or desiccated sweets)*

<fried sweets>
They are made by deep-fat frying. For example, karinto (dried-dough stick-shaped cookies), deep-fried beans and so on.

<candy>
For example, konpeito (small colored sugar candy covered in bulges), rakugan (hard candy), toffee and so on.

 konpeito

<rice confectionery>
For example, rice crackers and so on.

rice crackers

And the classification according to whether they keep for a long time is used too. This classify them as "asanama-gashi" or "jonama-gashi".

"Asanama" means the sweets made since morning to sell on the same day. Such sweets don't keep for a long time, so you should eat them on the same day when you buy them. Starchy sweets like rice cakes become hard in about 2 days. Their prices are lower and they are often eat at home. For example, rice-cake sweets, dumplings and so on. Most of seasonal sweets are contained in them.

In contrast, "jonama" means the sweets of good quality. Jonamagashi is called "jogashi" in Kansai region, and "kyogashi" in Kyoto. Exerting one's originality and ingenuity, jogashi chefs make them so the prices of jonamagashi are more expensive. Most of them keep for a long time, so they are 3 days old, they are still delicious. For example, nerikiri, sweet bean jelly, sweet buns,Turkish delight and so on.

History of Japanese Sweets

Welcome to my blog. In this blog, I will present Japanese sweets. At first, about the history of Japanese sweets.


*Ancient times*

Anciently people didn't have enough food and eat nuts, berries and fruits for their snacks, distinguishing form their staple diets. Then they came to call those snacks "sweets". In those days, they had no skills to process food, so they regarded sweets which were originally sweet, as the special food.

Then, they acquired the skills to reserve food. For example, they dried nuts in the sun, and crush them with millstones, rubbing stones and stone hammers. In those days, they ate acorn too, but it has too harshness to eat just as it is. So they crushed and soaked in it to skim lye, make it a ball and heat it. It is said that this is the origin of the current dumplings. In this way, the kinds of the preserved foods have increased.

They also acquired the agricultural technology. And Then, the "rice cake" was made, which is regard as the oldest Japanese processed food. It has rice in it for the ingredients, actually rice is very very important in those days, so the rice cakes were regarded as the divine food.


*The Nara period (710-784)*


In the Nara period, international exchange became more active, many envoys dispatched to China and aggressively imported Chinese civilization. Some of the Chinese sweets were also imported into Japan then. Those were called "baishi", "toshi", "kakko", "keishin", "tensei", "hichira", "tuishi" or "danki". Those are made from rice, wheat, soybeans, azuki beans, fried, characteristic shape. People valued them as the special sweets for festivals. They influenced the current Japanese foods. For examples, rice crackers.


*The Kamakura period (1183-1333)*

In the early Kamakura period (about 1191), the tea ceremony culture was imported by Eisai-Zenshi, and it became popular in Japan. In the tea-ceremony room, some snacks and sweets called "tenshin" were served. For example, bars of sweetened and jellied bean paste, rice cakes sprinkled with soy flour and bean-jam pancakes. They influenced to develop Japanese sweets.


*The Muromachi period (1336-1573)*

In this period, some southern sweets were imported into Japan by Portuguese and Spaniards. Those became the original form of the current Japanese sweets. For example, small round cookies, sponge cakes, confetti and crackers.


*The Edo period (1603-1868)*

During the Edo period, Japanese sweets developed greater. Before this period, Japan was always in civil war and people couldn't have afforded to enjoy eating sweets. But peace returned in this period and those who enjoy eating sweets increased, so the technique to make them progressed rapidly. The whole confectioners competed each other for the device, especially in Edo and Kyoto. And some sweets characteristic of districts made too in those days. Most of Japanese sweets which we eat today were made in those days.

*The Meiji period (1868-1912)*

After reaching the Meiji period, Japan became westernized rapidly and it influenced Japanese sweets very much. What is particularly important was the Western cookwares. For example, oven was imported and many baked sweets came to made.


Like this, Japanese sweets was influenced by various foreign cultures and progressed by it.
Thank you for your reading.