Wednesday, November 05, 2025

What is bread without yeast like?

I will introduce Japanese bread without yeast.

Steamed bread. I use baking powder.

Castella. I don't use yeast or baking powder. Whisk together flour, egg and sugar before baking.

Dorayaki. I use baking powder for this.

Sake manju. This is a Japanese original bread fermented with rice malt, not yeast.

Oyaki is a local dish representing Nagano Prefecture. It is a dough made by kneading flour or buckwheat flour dissolved in water, wrapped with ingredients such as vegetables and red bean paste and baked. It has long been loved by local people as a food that symbolizes the powdered food culture of Shinshu (Nagano Prefecture). ̇

Ingredients

(12 pcs worth)

・300 g all-purpose flour

*If you don't have any, you can use cake flour.

【A】

・Boiling water cup 1

・1 teaspoon vegetable oil

・1/4 teaspoon salt

・all-purpose flour as needed

*For dusting. If you don't have any, you can use cake flour.

・vegetable oil

[Stir-fried eggplant with miso] *4 servings. T10 minutes

・Eggplant 2 pieces

・2 shiso leaves (cut into 5 mm cubes)

・vegetable oil

・Miso

・Sugar

[Kabocha bean paste] *4 servings. T15 minutes

・200 g pumpkin

・vegetable oil

・Sugar

・Soy sauce

・Salt

[Cut dried daikon radish] 4 pieces. T15 minutes * Excluding the time to rehydrate the cut dried daikon.

・20 g dried cut daikon

・30 g carrot

・1/2 aburaage

・vegetable oil

・Soy sauce

・Sugar

Preparation and Preparation

Make the [Miso-sauteed Eggplant].

1 Remove the stem of the eggplant, cut into 5mm thick semicircles, and soak in water to drain.

Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a frying pan, add the eggplant and fry quickly over medium heat. Cover with a lid and steam over low heat for 5 minutes.

3 When it softens, add 2 tablespoons of miso and sugar and mix. Add the shiso and divide into 4 equal parts.

Make [Kabocha bean paste].

4 Peel the kabocha squash and cut into thin strips.

5 Heat 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in a frying pan, add the kabocha squash and quickly fry. Add 1/4 cup water, cover with a lid and steam for 5 minutes.

6 When it softens, add 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of soy sauce and a pinch of salt, mix roughly, divide into 4 equal parts and roll into balls.

Make the cut dried daikon radish.

7 Soak the dried daikon radish in plenty of water for 15 minutes, then squeeze out the excess water and cut into 1 cm lengths. Cut the carrot and aburaage into 3 cm strips.

8 Heat 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in a saucepan and stir-fry the carrot and the dried daikon in that order over medium heat. Add 1 cup of water, deep-fried tofu, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Cover with a drop lid and simmer until the soup is gone, then divide into 4 equal parts.

How to make it

Make the dough.

1

【A】Mix the ingredients. Put the all-purpose flour into a bowl, and add [A] while mixing with cooking chopsticks.

2

When the water has settled all over, mix with your hands to form a lump.

3

Take the dough out onto a cutting board or stand, and knead it with the base of your palm for 2~3 minutes until the dough is smooth.

4

Place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit at room temperature for 15~20 minutes.

Wrap the sweet bean paste.

5

Divide 4 into 12 equal parts, round them, sprinkle with a little flour, and roll out to a diameter of about 10 cm.

6

Place one piece of red bean paste in the center of the dough, gather the surrounding dough together to form folds, and close the mouth tightly.

7

With the opening facing down, lightly crush and rotate to form a circle.

steam after baking

8

Lightly coat a frying pan with vegetable oil, and line up Step 7. Cook over low heat until both sides are golden brown.

9

Put them in a steamer that is steaming (it is OK to put the oyaki on top of each other) and steam over medium heat for 10 minutes.


Ganzuki is a local confectionery popular in the Tohoku region, especially in Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures. It is a pastry like steamed bread made by mixing flour, sugar, eggs and baking soda. There are two types of pastry: black ganzuki with brown sugar and white ganzuki with white sugar. It has a simple taste and is eaten as a daily snack or light meal. ̇

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