One Bite at a Time: Wagashi

I made some wagashi, Japanese Confectionary, at the cultural activities session last week. After class a group of us went to a confectionary shop near the Kyoto Museum and made these tasty snacks (plus one more). The one on the left is supposed to look like a Persimmon and the right one is a changing Maple Leaf. The persimmon has white bean paste on the inside and mochi on the outside. The maple leaf has black bean paste on the inside and I'm not quite sure what the exterior is made out of, but it was really tasty. I also made the little, thinner maple leaves with a cookie cutter, but they were pretty much pure sugar (still tasty though!). I also learned how to make one more that looked like a ball of spaghetti with bean paste on the inside, but everyone ate that right when we were done making them. Everything was made by hand and the ridges in the leaves were made with a triangular piece of wood. Everything is edible and I enjoyed it all with a nice cup of tea the other night after a satisfying home-cooked meal of chicken breasts and spaghetti with Mascarpone sauce ^_^