What kind of wagashi confection is Momoyama?
Today for this blog article, I bought a Wagashi (和菓子) or a traditional Japanese confection called Momoyama (桃山) at a supermarket near my house.
The Wagashi Momoyama can be found in many supermarkets around the country, commonly eaten in daily life as a casual snack going well with green tea.
Manju (饅頭)
Until recently, I thought Momoyama was a kind of Manju (饅頭) cake simply because it looks like that. But I researched the confection, and I found the thought incorrect.
Momoyama (桃山)
According to the article 桃山 (和菓子) on Japanese Wikipedia, Momoyama is a baked Wagashi confection categorized as a Han-Namagashi (半生菓子).
Han-Namagashi is one of the classifications of Japanese sweets by water content and refers to the confections whose water content ranges from 10 to 30 percent.
Momoyama consists of Shiro-An (白餡: sweetened white bean paste), sugar, egg yolk, and a little kudzu (arrowroot) powder or rice flour called Mijinko (みじん粉).
The ingredients are mixed, kneaded, molded, and then baked. So unlike Manju, Momoyama contains the sweet bean paste Anko (餡子) in its dough.
Momoyama is actually a relatively new Wagashi confection, commonly filled with sweet white bean paste or Shiro-An.
This cake is soft and milky, featuring the gentle, refined sweetness from Shiro-An and egg yolk.
