Yaki Manju Grilled Miso Buns

Name: Yaki Manju Grilled Miso Buns
Prep time: 480 min
Cook time: 90 min
Yield: 5 servings
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: wheat flour 400 g; glutinous rice 10 g; dried rice koji 6 g; salt 2 g; water for dough 180 ml; coarse crystal sugar 150 g; red miso 100 g; starch syrup 15 g; caramel syrup 4 g; water for glaze 200 ml; water for porridge 80 ml

Quick answer

Active time: 570 min
Waiting: See the steps
Level: Hard
Servings: 5 servings
Ingredients: 11

About this dish

Four steamed buns go onto each bamboo skewer and are grilled under a sweet red miso glaze until they shine dark with small charred edges.

Gunma traces the snack to miso-zuke manju made by Harashima Ruizo in Maebashi at the end of the Edo period; the glaze turned sweeter once kuromitsu syrup arrived. The rice-koji starter ferments for a day or two and the glaze rests in the fridge for 2 days, so the work begins well before grilling day.

Ingredients

servings

IngredientAmount

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Instructions

8 steps

1

Rinse 10g glutinous rice and simmer with 80ml water for 20 minutes into thin porridge.

Cool to 30°C, mix in 6g dried rice koji, and transfer to a sanitized container.
2

Cover loosely and hold at 28 to 30°C for 24 to 48 hours.

When it smells sweet and fermented, mix in 2g salt to finish the starter. Discard all of it if pink or black mold or a rotten odor appears.
3

Mix 400g flour with all the starter and first 100ml dough water.

Add up to the remaining 80ml gradually and knead 10 minutes into smooth soft dough that releases from the hands.
4

Divide the dough into twenty similar-sized pieces and round them.

Space on a damp-cloth-lined steamer tray and proof naturally around 28°C for 60 to 90 minutes until about 1.5 times larger.
5

Steam over medium-high heat for 12 minutes, turn off the heat, and rest covered 3 minutes.

Confirm the largest bun reaches at least 74°C in the center and cool on a clean rack.
6

Boil 200ml glaze water with 15g starch syrup and dissolve 150g coarse sugar.

Whisk in 100g red miso and 4g caramel syrup, then simmer and stir 30 minutes. Cool fully, cover, and rest refrigerated for 2 days, stirring twice daily.
7

Soak five food-safe bamboo skewers in water for 20 minutes and dry; thread four buns on each.

Brush both sides with miso glaze and broil each side for 45 seconds to dry the surface slightly.
8

Brush again and grill each side for 45 seconds twice more.

When the glaze is dark and glossy with tiny charred edges, serve on the skewers and remove each bun with chopsticks to eat.