i made kanto style sakuramochi over the weekend. as you know, there are two styles of sakuramochi - kansai (western japan) and kanto (tokyo & eastern japan). i made the kansai one before therefore it would be good to try this out as well. kanto style's a crepe-like pancake roll filled with anko red bean paste then wrapped with pickled sakura leaf.


i couldn't find tsubu-an (chunky red bean paste) at the store so i made my own. because the regular red beans i bought at the supermarket were of a china variety and less red, they actually turned out a light shade of greyish red instead. the good thing about making your own anko is that you can control the amount of sugar that goes into it. i added alot less sugar (about 3 cups bean to 1 cup sugar) so it really brought out the flavor of the beans. i also wrapped some with the shiro-an white bean paste i made some months back. they froze really well and tasted just like freshly-made after thawing. i'm still trying to get used to eating the leaves together though. i find them a little hard to eat coz they're kinda stringy and fibrous.


so there you have it, kanto style vs. kansai style. if you ask me which is better, i would have to say both are nice in their own way. the good thing about making the pancake one is that its much easier and less time consuming to prepare, unlike the glutinous/sweet rice where you have to soak and steam beforehand. i figured i'll be making the kanto style one more frequently now.

recipe uses hakuriki-ko (薄力粉) which is weak flour in japanese. the author of this recipe suggests using a combination of normal wheat flour + some wheat starch (the kind used in chinese crystal dumplings) but i read that cake flour (low protein flour) works just as well so i used that. with the combination of glutinous rice flour, the pancake turns out really nice and chewy and if you serve it hot, it has this crispy edges and chewy center so its really good.

recipe source : wagashi maniac