Celebrate summer with this delightful Japanese dessert called Anmitsu! It’s a Japanese wagashi dessert with agar agar jelly, fruits, mochi, red bean paste, green tea ice cream and a good drizzle of sweet black sugar syrup.
Anmitsu (あんみつ) is a summer dessert (but why don’t we enjoy all year round?) made of small cubes of agar agar jelly, sweet azuki bean paste, mochi, a variety of fruits, ice cream, and boiled peas. It’s usually served with black sugar syrup called kuromitu that you pour onto the jelly before eating.
Watch How to Make Anmitsu
Delightful Japanese wagashi dessert with agar agar, fruits, red bean paste, green tea ice cream, and drizzled with kuromitsu.
What’s included in Anmitsu:
- Agar agar jelly (kanten): Agar or agar agar is a white translucent jelly made of seaweed, which is suitable for a vegetarian/vegan diet instead of animal/chemical-based gelatin.
- Sweet red bean paste (anko): As you may know, majority of wagashi (Japanese confectionery) includes sweet red bean paste. It’s a crucial part of anmitsu (coming from anko)
- Mochi: This type of mochi is called shiratama dango, and it’s a classic Japanese sweet dumpling. It’s made of glutinous rice flour. They are chewy and soft at the same time.
- Green tea ice cream: You can use vanilla ice cream instead, but I wouldn’t recommend other flavors of ice cream to avoid conflict in flavors.
- A variety of fruits: You can pick your favorite fruits to go with anmitsu.
- Red endomame peas: Anmitsu is topped with these boiled and chilled peas. These specific peas could be hard to find. I took a short cut and used these peas from a canned Fruits Mitsumame.
- Black sugar syrup (kuromitsu sauce): This is another crucial part of anmitsu (coming from kuromitsu). This syrup is usually made of Okinawan black sugar.
Imagine. Enjoy putting mouthfuls of these delicious items from the bowl… Despite all the differences in texture and flavors, this dessert represents quintessentially Japanese harmony, where everything works together. It doesn’t take too long to prepare, especially if you can purchase sweet red bean paste, kuromitsu, and green tea ice cream (but trust me, homemade is SOOO good!).
Anmitsu Trivia
This is just a trivia for those who want to know a little bit more about anmitsu. Anmitsu recipe actually evolved through different periods of time and this agar agar jelly dessert has many variations now.
It started as mitsumame (みつ豆).
- mitsumame = agar agar jelly + black sugar syrup (mitsu) + red endomame peas (mame)
- mitsumame + fruits = Fruits Mitsumame.
- mitsumame + shiratama dango = Shiratama Mitsumame
- mitsumame + ice ceam = Cream Mitsumame
- mitsumame + sweet red bean paste (anko) = Anmitsu
- mitsumame + sweet red bean paste (anko) + ice cream = Cream Anmitsu.
- mitsumame + sweet red bean paste (anko) + ice cream + shiratama dango = Shiratama Cream Anmitsu
- mitsumame + sweet red bean paste (anko) + ice cream + shiratama dango + fruits = Fruits Shiratama Cream Anmitsu (and that’s this recipe!).
Hope you enjoy! Thanks so much for reading!
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Anmitsu
Video
Ingredients
- 1 batch agar agar jelly (kanten)
- 1 batch shiratama dango (mochi)
- 6 Tbsp red bean paste (anko) (for my homemade recipe, click here)
- 6 scoops green tea ice cream (or vanilla ice cream)
- strawberries
- banana
- kiwis
- kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup)
- boiled red endomame peas (optional)
Instructions
- Please note that we can prepare everything but Shiratama Dango ahead of time. If you cannot purchase sweetened red beans, green tea ice cream, kuromitsu at a Japanese grocery store, you can find the recipe link in the ingredient section above.
- Make agar agar jelly.
- Make shiratama dango.
- Cut fruits into bite-sized pieces. Divide agar agar jelly, fruits, shiratama dango, sweet red bean paste, and ice cream evenly into serving bowls. Serve with kuromitsu on the side.
