Hard-Baked Rice Crackers (堅焼きせんべい, Katayaki Senbei)

A hard senbei should make a small wooden sound when you tap it. That sound is not decoration. It tells you the water has gone, the rice has tightened, and the cracker is ready to meet fierce heat without turning leathery.

People imagine rice crackers need a factory press and mysterious powders. They don't. The first secret is drying. Make a dough from uruchi rice flour, steam it so the starch fully swells, knead it smooth, then shape it thin and let time do the stern work. If there is too much moisture left inside, the senbei browns outside and sulks in the middle. Dry it properly and it bakes hard, clean, and full of grain.

The glaze is just shōyu and mirin, with a little sugar if you like the old shopfront shine. Brush it on only near the end. Put it on too early and the soy burns before the rice is crisp. We season after the cracker has earned its body, then return it to the heat just long enough for the tare to set into a dark gloss. Nothing hidden. Rice, fire, soy, and patience, which is a shorter ingredient list than most people expect.