No.86 [YURI’S RECIPE] Sweet summer jelly

Now that we are entering summer I would like to introduce a lovely cool Japanese sweet. Kingyoku-kan is a jelly style sweet that is made from agar-agar.

There are various styles and this is particularly attractive with a flower created inside. It is served chilled and with its coll appearance, it is a perfect sweet in warmer weather. It is typical of Japanese sweets designed to give a total experience for all the senses. We can all be thrilled that it contains no fat, no gluten and is low calorie! You can get the ingredients in the UK but you will need to make shiro-an (white bean paste) which is the main ingredient in the flower and agar-agar for the jelly. It takes practice to master the techniques for making the flower but it is a lot of fun and very satisfying.

RECIPE

1 – Beat a white bean paste with the hand mixer until you get the right consistency to be able to hold a peak as shown in the picture. (Reduce moisture with a microwave if it is too soft.)
2- Colour the paste with your prefered hydrangea colours using food colourings. Use some matcha powder to make a green paste for leaves. (Wilton food colourings are used for the flowers in the picture.) Keep some without colouring for the base & centre of the flowers. (Pictured on the left.)
3 – Put the hydrangea coloured bean pastes randomly into a piping bag with a nozzle 349. (Set the green paste aside for later.)
4 – Make a base for the hydrangea with an uncoloured bean paste.
5 – Pipe hydrangea petals all around the base.
6 – Pipe small dots with uncolored bean paste in the centre of each flower. 7 – Put green bean paste into piping bag with a nozzle 352.
8 – Pipe two leaves.
9 – Freeze the piped flowers.

How to make a Kingyoku jelly
(Make a jelly while freezing the piped flowers)
10 – Mix agar-agar with the water and boil it until the agar-agar is well dissolved.
11 – Add the sugar and boil it for about a minute. Let it cool.
12 – Put some Kingyoku jelly into small cups and put hydrangea flowers upside down and chill in a fridge.
13 – Enjoy it !!

INGREDIENTS(for 6)

White bean paste 200g
Agar-agar 2g
Sugar 150g
Water 220g
Matcha powder 1tsp
Wilton gel colour
(blue, purple, violet)

EQUIPMENTS for flower piping

Flower nozzle (no.349, no.352)
Flower nail
Flower lifter
Baking sheet
Piping bag