Kohakutou! Recipe for Japanese crystal jelly! Be careful with mold!

Kinako

4 years ago

Have you ever heard about “Kohakutou”?
Its jelly looks like crystals.

Kinako

Kohakutou is so beautiful dessert!

This time, I tried to make Kohakutou.
Everything went well until the end…
I am going to show you how to make “Kohakutou” step by step and the big mistake I did, too.

Recipe for Japanese Kohakutou (crystal jelly)

I used Kante（agar）） to make Kohakutou.
Of course, you can use gelatin, too.

Tear apart the kanten into a pot and add water to it.

When the Kanten dissolves in the water, add sugar.

When the sugar dissolves into the water, pour the kanten liquid into a tray.

For the color, usually, people use food coloring agents.
But this time I preferred using juice drinks instead.

I wanted 3 colors, red, purple, yellow.
So I used orange juice, berry juice, red shiso juice.

I poured the juice into the kanten liquid.
When people use a food coloring agent, they put the color using a toothpick.

The color changed over time.

Kinako

I wanted more yellow color!

Leave it for a while until the kanten turns solid.

When the kanten is solid, cut this!
Some people cut it with a knife, and some people cut it with their hands.
So I used both!

So beautiful!!!
Now you just need to dry it for 5~10 days.

When each kanten is dry, “Kohakutou” is done!

Kinako

When it’s dry, it will crystalize.

I recommend making Kohakutou except for the humid season

To dry this, it usually takes 5 to 10 days.
Sometimes, use a hairdryer, too.

Otherwise, your beautiful Kohakutou might get mold due to humidity in the air.

I tried to dry it naturally, mold appeared on the 4th day…

Kinako

Crying!!!!!

・

Kinako

The weather was not good either.
On the 3rd day, it rained and the air was so humid.

I realized that making Kohakutou in humid season is difficult.
When I did that, it was still April, but sometimes the air was warm and humid.

So I’m thinking about trying “Kohakutou” next winter or during dry seasons

Use a cooling rack to dry Kohakutou

タイガークラウン長方形ケーキクーラー №563 鉄(クロームメッキ) 日本 WKCB1

I recommend you to put Kohakutou on a cooling rack to dry perfectly.

I didn’t have a cooling rack available at that time and I left the Kohakutou inside a tray.
I changed the position of Kohakutou to expose it to the air, but it didn’t work well.

When you try, please use a cooling rack.