Kuzu-yaki
Photo
Recipe
Directly followed the sweets lady’s recipe: https://youtu.be/3YDoN65v0gI. Only difference was using blue instead of red.
Color marbling
Be sure to mix the two colors coarsely! You don’t want them to mix completely, otherwise you lose the marbling effect (but you also don’t want them too coarse, otherwise the marbling is too big and you can’t see it in the individual sweet cut).
Yaki-ing
Don’t worry about caramelizing the joshinko coating. The texture will not change much in the end. The goal is for the coating to crisp up slightly and give it defined edges, not to make it crunchy.
Ingredients
- 75g kuzuko
- 150g sugar
- 400g water
Steps
- Make kuzu like usual on stove
- If doing marbling, split beforehand then cook both batches separately. Mix coarsely after both are cooked.
- Put into 11cm x 14cm thing
- chuu-bi 10m steam from recipe
- Dust with joshinko, sear on teflon
Major notes
- Our nagashikan is like 15x18cm. This recipe is for 11x14cm. That matters. Ours turned out super flat.
- Either block off some of the nagashikan, or scale the recipe.
Trials
2025-08-08
- Making two batches simultaneously means they’ll both be ready simultaneously… which is hard. Needs two people.
- Smaller saucepan cooks slower (less surface area)
- Color first, then cook the batches.
- I blended the two colors together in a saucepan, then poured into the nagashikan. But when I did it, they were still super hot, and they blended too much. Need to wait until cooler next time.
- Cut all the kuzu into blocks (4x2 for the smaller nagashikan), then rolled into joshinko.
- Used a stainless steel pan, worked great. Kept the heat to 3 ish.
- Turn the kuzu after you hear some popping sounds, then settling. Kinda sounds like moisture is evaporating, then quieting.
- Dried it on a paper towel on the cooling rack baking sheet.
IMPORTANT
- CUT WITH A WET KNIFE. EVERY TIME.
- It leaves awful marks and scraggly bits and stuff if you don’t. Wet the knife between every single cut.
How to eat
Nothing special.