Little Miss Bento

A little late for Mid-Autumn but I decided to share this as I love Japanese wagashi (anytime of the year)!

Ever since I saw the super cute rabbit mooncakes sold at Minamoto Kitchoan at Takashimaya Singapore, I fell in love with those baked wagashi sweets. Minamoto Kitchoan is an exclusive store selling traditional Japanese confectionery here in Singapore. It is rare to find such authentic Japanese wagashi here in Singapore. All their sweets are beautiful and make perfect gifts too.

Since I didn’t buy Minamoto Kitchoan’s mooncakes in the end, I figured I could make my own.

If you have some shiro-an (Japanese white bean paste), you too can try out this recipe.

Ingredients (makes about 6)

• shiro-an 200g (Japanese white bean paste)
• egg yolk 1
• joshinko 1 tbsp (rice flour)
• tsubuan 90g (Japanese red bean filling)
• mirin 1 tsp

Method

1. Place the shiro-an in a microwavable bowl and gently cover with a kitchen paper napkin. Heat in the microwave at medium heat (700W) for 1min30secs.
2. Add half the egg yolk and 1tbsp joshinko to the heated shiro-an and mix well. Heat in the microwave again, this time at low heat (500W) for 30secs. Add the remaining egg yolk, mix well and heat again for another 30secs.
3. Remove and mix well again. The mixture will be a nice soft dough that can be molded and shaped. Divide into 6 servings of 26g dough and keep the remaining dough aside.
4. Divide tsubuan paste into 15g each (6 portions).
5. Flatten the dough from step 3 and wrap the tsubuan inside from step 4. Shape into a nice round oval. Repeat for all 5 remaining portions.
6. Use the remaining dough and shape the small triangular ears for the bunnies. Then use a skewer stick and create the eyes.
7. Brush a thin layer of mirin on top of the wagashi before baking in the oven at 200C for about 15mins until the ears are nicely browned.