The connection between amazake and Hina-Matsuri
One of the five seasonal celebrations of Japan, Hina-Matsuri, also known as Doll Festival or Girl’s Day, is held on each year March 3 to wish for girls’ healthy growth. On Japan’s old lunisolar calendar, the celebration fell at around the time that peach blossoms bloom, so it is also known as Momo no sekku (Peach Festival). The Festival is generally celebrated with displays of Hina-ningyō (ornamental dolls), chirashi-zushi (sashimi and vegetables on rice) and osuimono (clear soup) with clams, as well as white sake and amazake, but in olden times, peach blossom wine made by steeping peach blossoms in refined sake was drunk. Peach blossom is a lucky flower thought to repel demons and bring long life. There is even a Chinese legend passed down through time that a man who drank peach blossoms floating in water lived to 300 years old.
From the Edo period of Japan’s history (1603–1867), white sake was drunk instead. The venerable sake shop Toshimaya, which was established 1596, the first year of the Keichō period (1896–1615), launched a white sake before Momo no sekku that was rated for its deliciousness and became a specialty of Edo (present-day Tokyo). The custom of drinking white sake at Hina-Matsuri is said to have spread from Edo all round Japan. But white sake is an alcoholic beverage produced by mixing mirin or shōchū with steamed sticky rice or rice kōji (malted rice), maturing it for around a month and lightly pulverizing the fermenting mash. Since it has an alcohol content of about 10%, it became the custom to instead serve children alcohol-free amazake (a sweet drink made from fermented rice).
Amazake sweets that even children can enjoy
Made from rice kōji, amazake is a sweet drink made by saccharifying the starch in rice. It can be drunk as is, and used in many other ways. Cook and confectioner Watanabe Izumi-san introduces sweet recipes she says she’d love families with children to try. With a three-year-old herself, she serves amazake every day.
“Since my child was born, I’ve wanted to avoid sweet things made with sugar as much as possible. I still wanted to eat sweet things, though, so that’s why I started making treats with amazake. It’s nutritionally balanced, and good both for my child and myself. I have become obsessed with amazake, and use it in place of mirin when marinating meat or fish, and use it is stews to give them depth of flavor. For breakfast, I mix amazake and ginger powder into my yogurt, and I think it keeps me going.”
The three sweets Watanabe-san suggests below contain no sugar and are lightly sweetened with the addition of amazake. The Amazake Cream Cheese Mousse combines three fermented foods—amazake, cream cheese and yogurt—which are a perfect match for each other. The pretty Amazake Milk Shiratama is a hot sweet of rice flour dumplings perfect for this still cold season. She recommends garnishing them with fruit. The Amazake-Banana Muffins are fluffy when fresh out of the oven, and have a moist crumb when they cool.
“The muffin batter can be made in one bowl in 10 minutes, so they’re easy to make. The don’t contain butter, so they’re mild and healthy. Less sweet than others, they’re delicious spread with amazake as if it were jam. The bananas can be swapped out for jam, cheese, boiled potatoes and the like. Whether made at home or store-bought, amazake varies in sweetness, so adjust the amount to taste.”
Nutritious and mildly sweet, why not celebrate this Hina-Matsuri with amazake-based sweets?
Watanabe-san’s amazake sweet recipes
Amazake Cream Cheese Mousse
［Ingredients (Makes 6 small glasses)］
70 g cream cheese
35 g plain yogurt
150 g amazake
80 g fresh cream
3 g gelatin powder
1 tbsp water
Strawberry jam, strawberries, kiwi fruit to garnish
［Preparation］
1.Blend the amazake to a paste using a stick blender. (It can be used without blending, but is smoother if blended.)
2.Allow the fresh cream and yogurt to come to room temperature.
3.Sprinkle the gelatin in the water and allow to stand for 5–10 minutes.
［Method］
1.In a bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the amazake and yogurt in turn, beating with a whisk after each addition.
2.In another bowl, beat the fresh cream until soft peaks form.
3.Heat the gelatin mixture in the microwave for 10 seconds to dissolve. Add to the cream cheese mixture and beat quickly until well combined.
4.Stir in the fresh cream and divide between the glasses.
5.Garnish with strawberry jam, strawberries and kiwifruit cut using a cookie cutter.
Amazake Milk Shiratama
［Ingredients (Makes two servings)］
54 g shiratamako (glutinous rice flour)
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp cranberry juice
1 tbsp aojiru (or other green vegetable juice)
40 g amazake
80 ml milk
［Method］
1.In a small bowl, mix 18 g shiratamako and the water, kneading with your hands. If floury, add a little more water until the dough becomes as soft as an earlobe. Roll into five equal sized balls. Divide the remaining shiratamako into two small bowls and repeat the process using the cranberry juice in one bowl and the aojiru or vegetable juice in the other.
2.Bring enough water to cook the balls to the boil. Roll each ball again before adding it to the boiling water. Once the balls rise to the surface, boil for 1 minute, then turn off the heat.
3.Microwave the amazake and milk for 40 seconds in a microwave-safe cup. Stir well before pouring into a bowl. Drain the shiratama balls well and add to the amazake mixture.
* If desired, a little juice from finely grated fresh ginger may be added to the amazake and milk before heating.
Amazake-Banana Muffins
［Ingredients (Makes 10 muffins)］
220 g cake (plain) flour
10 g baking powder
2 eggs
100 g amazake
2 bananas (about 150 g)
50 g milk
80 g vegetable oil
40 g walnuts, roughly chopped
［Method］
1.Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).
2.Break the bananas into a microwave-safe bowl using your hands. Cover with wrap and heat in the microwave for 1 minute 30 seconds. Break up using a whisk (leaving some lumps is fine).
3.Add the eggs, amazake, milk and vegetable oil in turn, stirring with the whisk after each addition.
4.Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and fold in. Finally, fold in the walnuts.
5.Line a muffin pan with paper cases. Spoon batter equally into the paper cases and bake for 20 minutes.
*If desired, spread with butter or honey. Also delicious spread with amazake.
