Yatsuhashi (八ツ橋, Kyoto cinnamon rice wafers)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Rolling pin
• •Parchment paper
• •Baking sheet
• •Wire cooling rack
• •Rolling pin, clean bottle, or wooden spoon handle for shaping

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the flour

   Whisk the joshinko, sugar, nikki, and salt in a heatproof bowl until the cinnamon is evenly scattered. Do this dry first, because once hot water touches rice flour it thickens quickly, and any little pocket of spice will stay exactly where it is.

   Fine joshinko matters. Coarse rice flour leaves the wafer sandy, and this sweet has no filling or glaze to forgive it.
2. 2

   Make the dough

   Pour in the boiling water and stir hard with a sturdy spoon until the mixture gathers into a warm, sticky dough. The heat partly cooks the rice flour, which lets the dough roll thin instead of crumbling at the edges. When it is cool enough to touch, knead it in the bowl for two minutes until smooth.

3. 3

   Rest it briefly

   Cover the dough and let it rest for ten minutes. This is not ceremony. The rice flour needs time to drink the water evenly, and a rested dough rolls thinner with less tearing.

4. 4

   Roll very thin

   Heat the oven to 160C. Dust parchment lightly with joshinko, set the dough on it, dust the top, and roll it into a rectangle about 2mm thick. Turn and lift the dough as you roll so it doesn't glue itself down. Thinness is the first secret: a thick wafer dries hard, not crisp.

5. 5

   Cut the wafers

   Trim the edges, then cut the sheet into rectangles about 5 by 8cm. Slide the parchment onto a baking sheet and separate the pieces slightly. Give them room, because crowded wafers trap moisture at the edges and soften instead of drying cleanly.

6. 6

   Bake until dry

   Bake for 14 to 18 minutes, turning the tray once, until the wafers are dry to the touch and just beginning to color at the edges. They should smell of warm cinnamon and toasted rice, not browned sugar. If they darken too much, the nikki turns harsh.

7. 7

   Curve while warm

   Working one wafer at a time, lift it while still warm and bend it gently over a rolling pin, a clean bottle, or the handle of a wooden spoon. Hold it for a few seconds until it takes the curve. Once cool, it will snap, which is useful for eating and unhelpful for shaping.

8. 8

   Cool completely

   Set the curved wafers on a rack and let them cool completely. If any feel leathery rather than crisp, return them to a low oven for three to five minutes, then cool again. Yatsuhashi keeps because it is dry; leave moisture in it and the old Kyoto souvenir becomes merely a tired biscuit.

Chef Tips

• •Use nikki if you can find it at a Japanese market. Cassia cinnamon works, and I won't scold the pantry, but nikki has the particular warmth people remember from Kyoto.
• •Roll between two sheets of parchment if the dough sticks. Dust lightly, not heavily. Too much rice flour on the surface bakes into a pale, dusty coat.
• •Shape only a few wafers at a time if your oven is small. Warm wafers bend; cool wafers argue. That is the whole temperament of this sweet.
• •Store the cooled wafers in an airtight tin with a small packet of food-safe desiccant if you have one. Crispness is not pride, it's dryness.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be mixed and rested up to 2 hours before rolling, kept covered at room temperature so the surface does not dry.
• •Finished yatsuhashi keeps 1 week in an airtight tin at cool room temperature. If it softens, dry it for a few minutes in a 140C oven and cool it fully before storing again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 8g)