Tessen (Uiro)

Photo

Recipe

Make Uiro, full recipe (not 2/3). Steam 25m on medium high worked great.

Steps

Roll out balls of uiro, coating in katakuriko.
Pretty side up, cut using a 9cm diameter cutter (I used our biggest stainless steel tea sifter top).
- This will leave the frills on the bottom side, which is the ugly side. When you wrap them, the frills will be on the inside instead of the outside.
Place the shiroan on the ugly side (opposite of how you cut it).
Wrap as in the video taken on 2025-06-06.
Make puff using a wider mesh (ie tea can sifter) as in the video taken on 2025-06-07.
- It looks better if the strands are longer and more defined. So push them through harder, get long strands, then just take a portion of the long strands as in the video.

Tips / notes

Get the shiroan ball wet. Place it on the uiro, then wetting your finger, get the ball really wet. Do not get any of the uiro wet.
- If the uiro gets wet, it’ll stick to itself, and it won’t have any volume in the petals.
When doing the pinch (left half pinch → creates 3x petals, then repeat on right), the middle tends to be the smallest. Make it a little bigger than you think it needs to be.
After making the initial petals, press in from the upper outside of each petal to close up the hole in the center.
Uiro might get sticky as you work it and shape into petals. Just add some katakuriko.
When rolling it out, it will contract a bit after every roll. Don’t cut it immediately after rolling, otherwise it will shrink.
- Waiting 10 seconds is probably fine. I just rolled them all out first, then cut them all.

Questions / things for next time

~~I have no idea how to adhere the puff to the top. Getting the uiro wet didn’t help much, and it discolored it (because it wetted the katakuriko). Figure that out.~~
- Update: an hour later, it didn’t matter much. Somehow the moisture in the shiroan bonded with the uiro, and while it wasn’t totally solid (ie it fell when I flipped it upside down), it was pretty good.
Two-layer uiro is nice, even two-layer of the same color. White on inside, pink on outside, or both white.
- Way to do it: make two 13g balls, smoosh together, then roll out and cut.
Rather than being completely flat on top, it might be nice to have the pistil (?) slightly depressed in.