I realized something the other day in my kitchen. I realized that I was out of amanatto and that in order to get more bean goodness, I would have to either drive 5 hours to the Chicago Mitsuwa or try and find it online to order it. Nooooooo! I can’t be that outta luck! I love’s the amanatto!
Wait, wait, I know, I’ll make amanatto yeahhhhh, that’s the ticket. Only problem is, there are zero recipes online. None. Zip. Zero. Checked high, checked low, checked the .jp, for what it’s worth. Well, that sucked.
“All is not lost yet!”, I thought to myself. I will attempt to create a recipe for amanatto. Yes, I’ll fa-diddle in the kitchen so that I may appease my hankering for candied beans!!!
So I tinkered: I used a bit ‘o this, a touch of that, a ton of sugar, a lot of time. I finally had something after all the hard work. Next, I had to taste test it. I had to make sure that this was an authentic Japanese wagashi. I loved it, David, loved it, my friends loved it, but would the Japanese?
I took this to the Japanese Festival and offered it the Japanese members of the bon odori group after our first performance. They clucked over it and tasted it. Then they asked me where I had bought the amanatto. Moment of truth…I made it. Nani? Sugoi! Sugoi! Then I was forced right then and there to hand over the recipe.
Now, I’m going to share this rendition of a classic wagashi with you. I assure you, amanatto is a must try wagashi that even non-fans of Japanese food will love. Make this tasty treat for your Japanese friends and watch as they love you forever for making fresh, made from scratch amanatto! Here’s the recipe for how to make amanatto. It’s Nihonjin approved!
These are ingredients for amanatto okonomi, or assorted amanatto. You can use a single bean variety (amanatto) or all. You can try this recipe with as many different beans as you like. These are the beans I have personally used in my own okonomi.
Okonomi Amanatto
Recipe Update 4-3-08: Coating the finished amanatto in white sugar is optional only. It gives the finished beans a touch of class, but will also up the sweetness. The sugar coating step may be omitted, but the amanatto must still be dried some before storing. An oven set on 170 degrees for five minutes should dry out a cookie sheet filled evenly with amanatto. Follow the tips for avoiding troubles with humidity
- 1 cup sorted dried lima beans, *soaked overnight in plenty of water
- 1/2 cup sorted dried, azuki beans or 1/2 cup dried red beans, soaked overnight in plenty of water
- 1/2 cup sorted dried navy beans, soaked overnight in plenty of water
- 1/2 cup sorted dried black beans, soaked overnight in plenty of water
- 3 cups water
- 4 cups white granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt to taste (I like my syrup to be a tad salty), optional
- Additional white granulated sugar, optional
*Why soak? Soaking beans overnight cuts their cooking time almost in half for starters. And the soaking process also removes the complex sugars which make beans “the musical fruit”, i.e. it gets rid of the farty part.
Directions
1.) Mix the water and 4 cups of sugar, and salt, if using, together in a medium-large size sauce pan. Bring to a boil then set to simmer.
2.) Drain beans and rinse them in cold water. Cook beans separately, according to directions (make sure not to boil the beans too much or the skins will break and make for an ugly amanatto). If you have a pressure cooker, nows a good time to use it! Drain and rinse beans in cold water.
3.) Pick out any cooked beans that are too broken or too mushy. Pick out any loose bean skins.
4.) Gently add beans to simmering sugar mixture. Simmer gently uncovered for one hour 20 minutes or until beans become translucent (*Note: Only lima beans will become very translucent).
5.) In a separate bowl, pour some of the extra sugar, set aside. Heat oven to lowest temperature (mine is 170 degrees) and have some cookie sheets handy.
6.) Strain hot beans in a colander. Gently transfer hot beans in small batches to the bowl with sugar. Shake bowl gently to completely cover beans with sugar. Use a large slotted spoon to sift out covered beans. Repeat till all candied beans are covered.
7.) Place covered beans in a single layer on the cookie sheets. Put in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until outside is no longer very moist. *Note: This step may not be necessary in dry climates. My initial run of amanatto did not need this step. My second run was done when the humidity was high and I then needed this additional step. Also, do not overdry these or you’ll ruin the amanatto!
8.) Let beans cool completely on baking sheet, otherwise, when you store them you’ll have unwanted condensation which will ruin the amanatto. After completely cooled, store beans in an airtight container, in a cool dark place (no need to refrigerate). Amanatto will stay good for about a month, in a cool, dark, dry place.
Makes approximately five cups.
*Note: Humidity is the bane of amanatto and will make the amanatto tacky to the touch. To combat moisture:
- Dry the amanatto in a humidity free locale and not necessarily in an oven with a consisitent low temperature. One good way to do that is to heat the oven to its lowest setting, turn it off, put the amanatto in, and let it coast overnight. Repeat as necessary, but be very careful not to over dry the amanatto. Over drying your amanatto will make it crispy and nasty (I’ve been there).
- If you live in a humid climate, chances are very, very good there’s moisture in your sugar. Make sure your coating sugar has absolutely zero moisture; any moisture in the coating sugar will make the sugar clump on the beans and be difficult to dry. Some people advise microwaving sugar on the lowest setting for about one minute to remove any moisture.
- Candy and dry like sizes of beans with like, that way, there’s less of a chance of over drying the finished amanatto. If you use lima and mung beans for example, the mung beans will dry out much faster than the lima. Prepare beans which differ that much in size separately.
- Make sure the amanatto is at room temperature when storing; the slightest bit of heat will cause condensation in an airtight container.
- Get some food safe silica packs and place them in the container with the amanatto.
Making amanatto at home is a time consuming process, although thankfully, it’s fairly easy to make- the steps consisting mainly of boiling beans in various fluids. My advice to you then, which I myself took when I made amanatto the second time, is if you like amanatto, double or triple this recipe. I did and my amanatto still only lasted a little over two weeks. Make lots of this at a time since the time involved is relatively the same – give or take 10 minutes- if you make one batch or three.
A great thing about making amanatto at home is the money you’ll save. The amanatto I bought at Mitsuwa cost $3.50 for two and a half cups. That factors out to $1.40 a cup. After I bought the bags of beans and sugar – $0.72/ 2 lbs. lima; $1.00/ lb. black beans; $1.80/ lb. adzuki; $1.20/ lb. navy beans; $1.99/ 5 lbs. sugar – it cost me about $0.45 a cup for made from scratch amanatto. And, let’s face it, if you don’t live near an Asian market, your only chances of trying this stuff are practically non-existent unless you make it, buy it online, or go to Japan.
Amanatto is great as a stand alone snack, but it’s even better as an ingredient or additive! Try sprinkling amanatto on green tea ice cream or adding it to yogurt parfaits or ice cream sundaes. Make a fun Japanese snack mix with amanatto, plain kaki no tane, soy nuts, toasted pumpkin seeds, crunchy non-wasabi peas, and candied ginger! Add amanatto to muffins, cupcakes or to a spice cake instead of raisins. When making daifuku, toss some adzuki or black bean amanatto (lima beans would be too big) into the hot mochi for amanatto daifuku. Come Christmas, revamp that sorry fruit cake recipe with a Japanese twist by adding amanatto along with almonds, chestnuts, and candied ginger instead of the blasé stand-bys of candied cherries and pineapple, raisins, and walnuts. The culinary possibilities for this high protein fat-free treat are almost endless. Experiment with amanatto and expand your cooking horizons!
I liked amanatto since:
- It’s a delicious way to enjoy beans!
- Amanatto is a fat free treat that’s super high in fiber and protein.
- It’s a Japanese wagashi everyone can make!
- Amanatto is a versatile ingredient in creative cooking.
I have zero complaints about amanatto.
I love amanatto, and once you try making this at home, you and yours will too!
Difficulty: Easy | Time: 2-3.5 hours | Ingredient Availability: Easy
Just curious, but is this a regional dish? I’ve never seen lima beans sold in my town in both the groceries and the farmer’s market.
@griever, I don’t think amanatto is regional, but maybe the beans that are used are. This is actually made with dried beans; I’m not sure how it would work with fresh. Adzuki beans are sold nationwide in Japan and are a must in any amanatto mix.
But as to the lima beans, meh, the mix I bought had ‘em in it and I’ve seen many recipes for shiro koshian call for either lima or navy beans. I don’t know if lima or navy beans are native to Japan but I imagine some sort of white bean is since shiro koshian is used in making fancy wagashi used in tea ceremonies and the like.
You should try amanatto griever, it’s soooo good and you have access to the “real deal”! Tell me how you like it if you try it!
I’ve definitely seen white beans galore here. I want to try this recipe, but given that it’s still hovering in the high 70s/low 80s, I think I’ll wait until October or November when I can justify baking again. x.x
@griever, I feel your pain. Even with using a pressure cooker to cook the beans, it still gets hot as an oven in the kitchen; and we have AC! It soared back up to the 90’s here in STL after being in the low, and humidity free, 70’s for a week T_T. So, no making any more amanatto till it gets cool again, and I just bought an awesome assortment ‘o beans…
griever – The second it hits 68° F let the cooking begin! ^_^
Rachel – So I have to wait till cool weather again to have your delicious amanatto? Noooo!!! T_T
Rachel I really really really love you’re recipes, especially the ones I’m able to find ingrediants for
. Umm do you think that if the humidity is high high in certain areas you’ll have to cook the beans longer? I live in florida so it’s like…. Super humid down here :\
@Kelli J., no, don’t dry the beans longer than 25 min. in the oven at 170 degrees; I just did that today since it’s been really humid again (1 1/2 hours in the oven), and they got crunchy; half a gi-normous batch o’ amanatto down the drain T_T. Humidity is tough to combat, my suggestions, which I’ll follow myself, are:
A. Dry the amanatto in a humidity free locale, not neccarily in the oven. One good way to do that is to heat the oven to it’s lowest setting, turn it off, put the amanatto in, and let it coast overnight. Repeat as necessary, but be really careful not to over dry the amanatto. My latest batch had beans of various sizes- the small ones dried way faster than the big ones and those are the ones that are crispy now. I plan on candying and drying like sizes of beans with like, that way, there’s less of a chance of over drying (like today-man, I’m sad about that)
B.) Make sure the amanatto is at room tempertaure when storing; the slightest bit of heat will cause condensation in an airtight continer.
C.) Get some of those silica packs and place them in the container with the amanatto.
I hope yours turns out!
@Kelli J., I had a thought as I was putting my amanatto away in a container: Adding a bit o’ cornstarch to the coating sugar. I’ll try that next time since I think it’ll make the sugar less clumpy, provide better and more even coverage and also help curtail the humidity problem. This is absolutely untried as of yet, it’s still just a thought, but it’s something I will try next time and see how it turns out. I was also thinking of rinsing the beans (the sugar is now in the beans) and thinking of drying the beans before coating with sugar. We’ll lick this humidity problem yet!
I’m soaking the beans now and planned on making em tommorrow since it’s Friday and ill have the weekend from school yay!
so I will use your suggestions and i alos think that I will try the cornstarch idea and that way I’ll be able to tell you how it comes out in case you don’t plan on making another batch soon ^_^
@Kelli J, Hmm, add only a tiny bit of cornstarch to the sugar and experiment with any of the above suggestions in tiny batches of candied beans. Oh and since you live in FL, your sugar might already have some moisture in it. That’s going to affect how dry your amanatto is. Some people recommend microwaving your sugar on the lowest setting for a minute to remove the moisture. I’m going to try that too next time. I feel bad for making you work this out alone T_T. Humidity sucks.
@On a side note, in the j-life section of Anime Insider this month, there’s a candy featured called “Gorilla Boogers”; that’s amanatto! The candy company only used black beans for their amanatto and you can too to make a ghoulish Halloween snack! Gorilla Boogers, good stuff…
Can I save the candying liquid for later use?
@Eva, I thought about saving the candying liquid, but never did. My thoughts are since the liquid is now inoculated with bean juice, it won’t keep as long as sugar syrup. Not just that, but the liquid may leave an after taste in fresh batches. Just my thoughts. I say try it, but be aware the liquid may spoil quickly.
How long are you able to keep these bean?
@Rosa, amanatto last about one month in a cool, dry dark place.
Went to Koiwa which is in the prefecture of Tokyo in October 2008 and missed this treat. Then my sister (who lives there) sent me some strange little candied black beans around December (in beautiful packaging) that my 2 year old inhaled!!! They look like what is called Gorilla Boogers online. They are very good! He finished the last package about a week ago, and I am attempting this recipe for us; or wait a few weeks for some more small packs from my sis. (Each pack is about 15 beans)
I still have 14 minutes of simmer time left and have had a hard time keeping it at a simmer. As the water evaporates the lover volume gets too hot and starts to boil, then I turn it down too much to get it back to simmer and then it is too cold. So for the last hour I have had to watch it pretty closely. I cook with gas if that makes any difference. Oh, I drug out the never used candy thermometer, and its reading close to 200 degrees F +/- just a little bit. Hope that is a good temp. We’ll see.
One other difference, my black beans seem much smaller than what my sister sent me. Maybe it’s a different variety of black bean.
Tiffany, you’ll love homemade amanatto!! One possible reason your black beans are smaller than the ones your sis sent are that her’s were probably black soy beans, while we usually have plain ol’ black beans here.
I have some advice on drying out the beans, and that’s to not over dry them! This is a real problem in the summer for us since we use the oven to do it to avoid the humidity here. Check on the beans often in the oven or put them in a warm, dark, dry space. My last batch I made, I didn’t add additional sugar, but dried them slightly in the oven after draining them and rinsing them in clean water. They looked good and tasted great! But the additional sugar coating looks nifty as well. Good luck and please post how they turned out!!
Hi, i have one question because it bothers me ^.^ since i’m not from U.S.A i don’t understand pretty well the word “cup”, i mean what do you think when you say that ( i know it sounds stupid ). I want to do amanatto cause i heard of this and i’m a little confused about something. So the problem is : “cup” means the large cup of those for tea ( the little ones ? ) because i put into a bowl 4 large cups of sugar and it looks veeeery much ^.^ (like 1 kg ). Thank you !