How to make KURIKINTON (chestnuts sweets) & Chestnuts Mochi 〜栗きんとん〜 | easy Japanese home cooking

Welcome to Taiji's Kitchen. Today I'm going to show you how to make kurikinton and also chestnut paste filled mochi. So this wagashi or Japanese sweets of kurikinton may not be so well known outside of the middle area where I come from, it is quite common in our area and this is a very special thing for me because this is one of those seasonal thing, they only sell in the stores between September and November, October and the rest of the year you can't find this anywhere. So every year I always look forward to this and my grandmother often bought this for me as a souvenir. This is also a bit of a nostalgic flavor for me and I'll be honest and say this does take a little bit of work, a little bit of time, but it is definitely worth it and for this you only need pretty much just two ingredients, chestnuts and sugar, that's it. So I hope you enjoy this and I hope you give this a try as well. Then, let's get started. Here are the ingredients for kurikinton. I have here regular chestnuts and also sugar and if you don't want to use sugar you can also substitute this with honey. So like I said I'll be also making mochi or daifuku mochi with the chestnut paste that I make for the kurikinton as a filling. So for that I have here the glutinous rice flour and we're going to also use sugar for that as well. Then let's start cooking. Before we go into cook the chestnuts, I want to show you how to choose the quality chestnuts. So what you want to look for is that you want to find some full chestnuts. So as you can see here, this chestnut has grown so much that it has exploded out of the shell. So you want to find chestnuts looking like this or kind of looking roundish like this. Like these. When you see from the top they're quite round and when you push them they're quite full. And the chestnuts what you want to avoid are chestnuts that have like holes like this. When there's a hole that means it's eaten up by a bug. So you want to avoid this kind of chestnuts. And also what you want to avoid is that when you push them, this kind of sinks in. That means it's not filled with chestnuts and probably doesn't taste as good either. Or this one, when you push them, it kind of like sinks in inside. Maybe you can hear the sound. It sounds very light. So those chestnuts you want to avoid. So you want to look for the holes and see if it doesn't go flat. And instead, you want to find chestnuts that looks full and also like expanding like this. Now let's cook the chestnuts. So before you boil the chestnuts, make sure you wash them because sometimes chestnuts they have some dirt around them. So in a pot, I'm going to put in the chestnuts right here. So make sure you have enough water to cover everything. And then I'm going to turn the heat to high and put the lid on and bring this to boil. So once it starts boiling, then I'm going to turn the heat to simmer and let this cook for at least 45 minutes to an hour or so. Nothing ruins this recipe than undercooked chestnuts and you can't really overcook chestnuts. So you want to cook long enough to make sure that it's cooked through. So it's been about 45 minutes. Let's see if these are cooked through. Be careful. These are very hot. Let's see. I'm going to cut this this way. So as you can see, these are fully cooked. What you want to look for is that these are all kind of powdery white, then this is cooked through. If it's not, then it might look like this. Then you might have to cook for another 10 to 15 minutes or so. Okay, then let's take all the chestnuts out and cut them. I'm just going to cut these up all in half. So this is kind of bad parts for whatever reason. So you don't want to put this in the kurikinton, then it'll just ruin the whole flavor. Oh yeah, this is also bad. So these you can't see from outside, so you just have to cut them up and see how good they are. Oh yeah, this is also bad. So take that out. And so I didn't talk in the beginning about the amount. So I want to make three to four each of kurikinton and mochi. And so usually for one kurikinton, you'll need one to one and a half or sometimes two chestnuts. So for the next process, I'll be using a colander like this. So what you want to do is you want to scrape out the inside of the chestnuts using a spoon like this. And what you want to be careful is that you don't put these kind of these brown skin. So this is going to get the bitterness to it. So you want to try to avoid putting this in. So you want to make sure you don't put in the skin inside. So when you spot them, try to take them away as possible. And then what we're going to do here is I'm going to push with a spoon against the colander like this. So that as a result, you have very fine pieces of chestnuts. So in this process, it's better not to use a food processor so that you can spot these small bits of the skin. You want to take as much of these out and then we're just going to keep doing that for the whole thing. And as you can see here at the end, you have these skin pieces inside left. That's also why we do this through the strainer. So this is looking so good. So fluffy. Now let's measure this. So we have about 160 grams of the chestnuts. To that, we're going to put in about 20% of that of sugar, which is about 32 grams. Yeah, perfect. And then we're going to also put about the same amount of water, which is about two tablespoons. So it's easier to mix in a bigger pot. So I'm going to put this back in here and we're going to mix this so that the sugar will be evenly spread out. So during the mixing, when you spot a piece of skin like this, you want to take it away. So this has been evenly mixed and I'm going to separate this into small bite size pieces. So I have here four small balls for the filling for mochi and here I have for the kurikinton. Let's finish up making kurikinton first. So for the kurikinton, I'm going to use a saran wrap, put this in the middle and it's going to make a small neat shape. So what we're going to do is kind of just kind of wrap it up like this, twist like this and then you kind of push down a little bit inward like this and then you have the shape kurikinton. The second one as well, twist like this and then push it down. So these are finished. So today I'm not going to eat everything. If you're in a store, it's better to store it like this in a saran wrap, then it doesn't come in contact with oxygen, then it'll stay longer. So the last two I'm going to save it for tomorrow. And when you store them, make sure you store in the fridge and make sure you eat in the Now let's make the mochi dough. So for that, I have a very easy ratio. So for each mochi, I'm going to use one tablespoon of goodness rice flour, one tablespoon water and then one teaspoon of sugar. So I'm going to put in here four tablespoon of goodness rice flour. And then this I'm going to put in four tablespoon of water and then this four teaspoon of sugar. And then we're just going to mix this and this I'm going to put in a saran wrap over it. Then let's make mochi dough using microwave. So we're going to heat this up for about a minute or so. And if you want to see more in detail video of how to make mochi dough, please watch my other video on mochi or mochi ice cream. So this is just perfect. That's halfway cooked. I'm just going to make this up like this. So this bowl is really hot, so please be very careful that you don't burn yourself. Then we're going to put the saran wrap back on. And heat this up in microwave for another 10 to 15 seconds or so. So I'm going to mix it a little bit more. Then this is finished for the mochi dough. Let's assemble with the chestnuts paste. So then let's bring this together. So I forgot to list this in the ingredients, but we're going to use starch. So on a flat surface, put in some starch. Here I'm going to put in the mochi dough. Put a little starch over it as well. And be careful, this is very hot, so make sure you don't burn yourself. I'm going to separate this in four pieces. And now I'm going to flatten this. So you want to try to make this flat. And then pick up one of the chestnuts paste and then wrap it around like this. And you want to try to bring the edge together like this. Pinch them together like this. And then when it starts sticking, you can use a little bit of starch to it. Make sure it's all sealed up. And then take out the excess starch out, and then this is finished. Here's a mochi, or daifuku mochi, with a chestnut paste as a filling. Let's make it again. Flatten this out. And then put the filling inside and try to coat it around and pinch the end together. Here we have two kurikinton and two mochi with chestnut filling. I'm going to cut up one of the mochi to see what it looks like inside. Oh yeah, it's looking very good. And this is finished. Let's go eat. Whew, that was a little bit of work I have to say, but it's definitely worth it. Let's eat. Itadakimasu! Oh, this looks so amazing. So for you, it may not look so special, but this is kind of nostalgic, and at the same time this is just really autumn for me. So then let's dig in. So let's start with the kurikinton. Itadakimasu. Mmm. Creamy, aromatic, and not too sweet. Just perfect. Mmm. Oh, it's just totally amazing. Mmm. So good. And here I also made green tea for myself. Please excuse me for slurping. Oh, green tea is just perfect to go with this kurikinton. Mmm. Oh, it's so delicious. Mmm. That was so good. Let's try it with the mochi. Mmm. It's also good. So even though the filling is exactly the same, because it's coated with mochi, there's chewy texture of the mochi, and also very subtle sweetness of the rice just gives another layer to the flavor. Mmm. So good. Mmm. Ah, so delicious. Mmm. So you may be wondering what I'm using to eat the sweets. These are special kind of little bit bigger toothpick to eat the Japanese sweets. So these are called kuromoji. So kuromoji is actually the name of a tree, and we make these toothpicks out of that, especially for eating Japanese sweets. And all the Japanese sweets are made so that you can easily cut with these toothpicks. Mmm. And of course, this is not the real thing. This is my attempt of making it myself. Ah, so delicious. So you may think this is very small, and it's not a lot, especially compared to like Western cakes, but the flavor is really full. So these are not meant to be filling. These are really to enjoy the flavor. And the amount of sugar is just perfect. Not too sweet, just enough to bring out the flavor of the chestnuts. Mmm. So totally delicious. Mmm. This is just a really awesome flavor. So good. Mmm. So if you'll excuse me for my slurping again. Mmm. So good. Ah, so delicious. Ah, this is so amazing. So delicious. Gochisosamadeshita. Oh, that was definitely so delicious. So to be honest, this did take a little bit of work. Cooking I didn't have to do anything. It took about an hour. And making the paste and such took about half an hour or so. And making the mochi dough also another 10 to 15 minutes. So it did take a little bit of time. But it is definitely, definitely worth it. And you can make this only in this season. So I really hope you give this recipe a try. If you enjoyed the video, please hit that like button. And I'll be so, so grateful if you could share my channel and my videos with your friends and family. Then, I look forward to seeing you in the next video. Bye.