If you are a father or mother spending more time at home with your kids, you might be searching for something to enjoy together with a little bit of help from them. In this feature, we asked Yui Chihiro to tell us how to make amazake cakes with the help of children. With experience in baking confectionery at the iconic CAFÉ SHOZO in Kuroiso, Tochigi Prefecture, Chihiro is now poised to open her own new shop in Otari Village, Nagano Prefecture.
Cooking cakes with Chihiro is Yamato, a three-year-old boy in her neighborhood. Yamato always loves to help his mom in the kitchen. Having read the picture book Guri and Gura recently, he is also keenly interested in cake making “using butter, egg, wheat…” Indeed, he was very much willing to help Chihiro, watching every move of her hands attentively.
“I came up with recipes that include enjoyable steps for children like crushing, kneading, mixing and decorating ingredients. It’s true that confectionery making sometimes requires subtle techniques, but even a little too much mixing or too much kneading will seldom spoil these cakes. Look into the bowl from time to time and encourage your kids. ‘Almost there! You can do it!’ ‘Way to go! Now it’s my turn!’ I’m sure you can make it without worrying about details.”
Plus Koji: Koji Amazake no Moto is an essential ingredient to the recipes. According to Chihiro, Plus Koji: Koji Amazake no Moto is a perfect fit for confectionery making.
“I find it great that it can replace sugar and other sweeteners. It effectively helps reduce the amount of sugar, and its mild sweetness would also be palatable to children.”
Yamato was very much pleased with this enjoyable confectionery-making experience. “That was fun!” said he with a big smile.
A Seasonal Delight: Amazake Yoghurt Mousse
Amazake and yoghurt go very well together. With mild sweetness and a refreshing taste, this desert is meant for the upcoming season. The recipe also includes many enjoyable steps for kids, such as mixing and decorating.
“Today I picked blueberry sauce for the yoghurt mousse, but you can replace it with crushed kiwi sauce with a little bit of sugar to add sweetness, or shredded and sugared strawberry left for a while to obtain some moisture, for example.” (Chihiro)
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- ◆Amazake Yoghurt Mousse
[Ingredients (for four persons)]
- Yoghurt: 200g
- 100cc of Plus Koji: Koji Amazake no Moto
- 80cc of dairy cream
- 3g of powdered gelatin
- 1 tablespoonful of water
- 10-20g of sugar (if desired) *If you like the mild sweetness of amazake, do not add sugar. If you like a clearer taste, add some sugar as appropriate.
- ◆Blueberry sauce
- Appropriate quantity of frozen blueberry
- Appropriate quantity of sugar
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- [Recipe]
- 【1】Soak gelatin in water.
- 【2】Place paper towel on a colander, put yoghurt into it to remove water. The “dried yoghurt” should weigh about 100g. Put the yoghurt in the fridge for about a couple of hours.
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【3】Add Koji Amazake no Moto to the dehydrated yoghurt and beat it with a mixer.
＜＜＜Tip for the helping kids＞＞＞
Just stir and mix, until the mixture achieves an even color.
- 【4】Prepare dairy cream loosely, at about 60%.
- 【5】Melt gelatin by double-boiling and add it to the mixture of Amazake no Moto and yoghurt prepared at Step 3. If you prefer to add some sugar to make it sweeter, do so at this stage.
Gelatin will clump if the temperature is too low, but will not coagulate at all if the temperature is too high. So, take care of the temperature, avoid clumping when stirring, and pour it at one stroke.
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【6】Add the dairy cream prepared at Step 4 to the mixture of Step 5. When you get a clean mixture, put it into a container and leave it in the fridge for over two hours to coagulate.
＜＜＜Tip for the helping kids＞＞＞
Stir it well, so that you can get a great mix.
- 【7】Put frozen blueberry in a pan, add sugar and put it over a fire.
Foretaste it for sweetness and add sugar as necessary. Boil it down until it thickens a little bit.
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【8】Put the mousse prepared at Step 6 on a plate with a spoon. Top it with the blueberry sauce and voilà.
＜＜＜Tip for the helping kids＞＞＞
Enjoy putting source, decorating with fruits, or doing anything else to make it look better.
No Dairy Product Required: Light Amazake Scone
Using amazake helps you avoid dairy products and reduce sugar at the same time. With its mild sweetness and the light texture of flour, Amazake Scone is a smart choice as a snack for kids.
“Scone faithfully reflects the taste of flour. I thus chose local flour called jigona. I do recommend using it if it’s available. You can find it as “jigona made in xx (locality)” at a roadside station, local specialty store or large supermarket. I also used coarse beet sugar to add some roughness to the texture. Any sugar is okay if it is not available.
The baked scone tastes good by itself, but also goes well with fresh cream or jam. You can also make a variety of scones by adding chocolate, nuts, or orange peel to the dough. When you eat it on the next day, I recommend using a toaster oven to heat it.” (Chihiro)
Children will enjoy kneading the dough. You can leave this step to your kids to a considerable extent as it rarely affects the outcome.
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- ◆Amazake Scone
[Ingredients (for eight smaller pieces)]
- 130g of Jigona (if unavailable, all-purpose, or weak flour)
- 20g of whole-wheat flour
- 10g of beet sugar (or any sugar of your choice)
- 1 teaspoonful of baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoonful of rice oil (or scent-free vegetable oil without peculiar taste)
- 60cc of Plus Koji: Koji Amazake no Moto
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- [Recipe]
- 【1】 Preheat the oven at 170℃.
- 【2】 Put the powder ingredients (down to salt on the list) into a bowl and stir them with a mixer.
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【3】 Add rice oil to the mixture prepared at Step 2 and beat it with a mixer. When it’s almost done, mix it still further with hands in rubbing motions.
＜＜＜Tip for the helping kids＞＞＞
Stir ingredients with a mixer, until the oil and water apparently mix together.
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【4】Add Koji Amazake no Moto to the mixture prepared at Step 3 and mix them with hands just like bringing them together. Take care not to knead too much but to fold it into one piece.
＜＜＜Tip for the helping kids＞＞＞
Knead, knead and the fold it. You can ask your kids to help bring the dough together.
Too much kneading will affect raising. Know when to change hands. “Well done! Let me finish.”
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【5】Cut the dough into whatever shape you like, place it on an oven sheet, and top it with Koji Amazake no Moto (not included in the listed amount) using a spoon.
＜＜＜Tip for the helping kids＞＞＞
Help cut the dough into a shape and size they like and apply Koji Amazake in a thin layer on its surface.
Koji Amazake on the surface will make a good brown color.
Ask your kids to help make the scone look better.
- 【6】Place the dough prepared at Step 5 into an oven and bake it for 25-30 minutes.
- 【7】Take it out when the surface gets deliciously brown.
Nicely Mild and Sweet: Amazake Banana Cake
“Amazake Banana Cake” features the mild sweetness of amazake and banana.
Kids can play key roles in crushing with their hands, mixing the dough, decorating. The tantalizing aroma coming out of the oven, the delicious-looking golden brown color will attract cheers from the kids.
“Crushing bananas as completely as possible will create better texture. Mixing coconut or something else that goes with banana in the dough is also a good idea.
I used cane sugar to get milder sweetness, but you can use any kind of sugar you like.” (Chihiro)
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- ◆Amazake Banana Cake
[Ingredients (for a pound cake mold)]
- 1 egg
- 20g of cane sugar (or any sugar of your choice)
- 25g of butter
- 80g of weak wheat flour
- 20g of almond powder
- 1 teaspoonful of baking powder
- 2 smaller bananas
- 60cc of Plus Koji: Koji Amazake no Moto
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- [Recipe]
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【1】 Put 100g of bananas in a bow for crushing. When it is crushed completely, add Koji Amazake no Moto, and stir.
＜＜＜Tip for the helping kids＞＞＞
Ask your kids to help crush bananas in the bowl with their hands. “Make sure to leave no big chunks in there,” would be good advice.
- 【2】Double-boil and melt butter.
- 【3】Preheat the oven at 170℃.
- 【4】Put an egg and sugar in a bowl. Double-boil and stir them to a temperature slightly higher than body warmth. Stop double-boiling and stir further until the mixture gets whitish and thick.
- 【5】Put the melted butter from Step 2 and the bananas from Step 1 into the bowl used at Step 4. Beat them with a mixer.
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【6】Sift the powder ingredients into the mixture prepared at Step 5 and mix it using a rubber spatula in cutting motions.
＜＜＜Tip for the helping kids＞＞＞
Stir and mix. Ask your kids to change over when it’s almost done to avoid too much stirring.
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【7】 Pour the mixture into a mold covered with oven paper and place the residual banana onto it for decoration.
＜＜＜Tip for the helping kids＞＞＞
Put bananas onto the dough for decoration. Ask your kids to decorate it as they like. You can line the pieces up in order or at random – the cake will look good either way.
- 【8】Bake it in the oven for 40-45 minutes. Check if it’s well-cooked by poking a bamboo skewer to see if any unbaked dough comes up.
- 【9】Remove the mold and cool down the cake for a while. Cut it into any size of pieces you like and serve it on a plate.
