Name: Yaki Manjū (Skewered Steamed Buns Grilled Under Miso Glaze)
Prep time: 2 h 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 300 g plain flour; 50 g rice koji; 3 g instant dried yeast; 1 tbsp sugar; 170 ml lukewarm water; 80 g miso; 60 g dark brown sugar; 2 tbsp mizuame or glucose syrup; 2 tbsp mirin; 2 tbsp water

Ingredients

4servings

Dough
plain flour300 g
rice koji · if dried, soak in lukewarm water for 30 minutes50 g
instant dried yeast · used alongside the koji in this recipe3 g
sugar1 tbsp
lukewarm water170 ml
Miso sauce
miso80 g
dark brown sugar60 g
mizuame or glucose syrup2 tbsp
mirin2 tbsp
water2 tbsp

Steps

Mash the koji finely and mix it with the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast. Add the flour and knead until smooth.
Cover and leave somewhere warm until doubled.
⏲ 90 min
Knock back, divide into 16 and roll into balls. Steam them, spaced apart, over boiling water.
⏲ 15 min
Put the sauce ingredients in a small pan and cook over low heat, stirring, until thick and glossy.
⏲ 5 min
Thread the steamed buns onto bamboo skewers, four to each. Toast both sides lightly on a grill or griddle pan.
⏲ 3 min
Paint the sauce thickly on both sides and grill until it bubbles and scorches in patches. Turn, do the other side the same way and serve at once.
⏲ 4 min

Variations

With red bean paste. Most are plain, but some shops fill them with anko.
From bought buns. At home, plain steamed buns from a shop can be skewered and grilled under the same sauce.

Tips

Eat it straight off the grill. As it cools it loses its moisture and becomes too hard to bite through.
Paint the sauce on thick, both sides. The brown sugar and syrup catch fast, so stay with it.
Steam the buns beforehand. The grill only has to do the outside.
The scorch marks are the point. Take them off when the sauce bubbles and blackens in patches.

More detail and the reasons why (2)

A by-product of home brewing. According to Japanese Wikipedia, yaki manjū are made from wheat dough fermented with koji and then steamed, and since they date from the days when sake was brewed at home as well, they were probably not invented by anyone as a business. Rising a dough with an alcohol ferment is the same idea as jeungpyeon, which uses makgeolli. Southern Gunma long grew wheat as a second winter crop, so flour foods were common, and the area where yaki manjū spread nearly matches the silk-producing districts.
Another way of grilling under miso. Dengaku glazes tofu and dango rice dumplings; yaki manjū takes a fermented wheat dough that has already been steamed and scorches the sauce onto both faces. In Gunma it is often sold at festival stalls and night stalls.

The basics behind this dish

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