Ama-what? Amazake is a Japanese sweetener. In Europe it is not very well known, so if you hear from amazake for the first time, that is not surprising at all. Do you already have a jar at home? Then you are a real "early adopter". You probably shop in the organic shop or eat macrobiotic.
What is amazake and what can you do with it?
6 July 2022
What is amazake and how does it look ?
Amazake has a cream color. The structure and thickness is comparable to tomato sauce.
How is amazake made?
The special thing about amazake is that it tastes sweet, but actually only consists of rice and sea salt. How is that possible? We ferment cooked rice with a little help from the “koji” fungal culture. At some point in the fermentation, the star
ch converts into sugars. At that point we stop fermentation.
The advantages
- vegan
- gluten-free
- lactose-free
- fermented
- no added or refined sugars
How do you use amazake?
In Japan they use it a lot as a drink. You mix it with 3 times as much water and possibly some fresh ginger.
So what can you do with it?
Make a…
- Drink (with vegetable milk and fresh ginger)
- Pudding (with agar-agar or kuzu and coconut milk)
- Cookies (check this recipe from Monique van der Vloed)
- Baby food
- Salad dressing
- Smoothie
Tips for baking with amazake
Baking with amazake is a bit of a challenge. But once you know how it works, it is super fun. You can use it very well to keep your baked goods vegan and gluten-free.
The difficulty is that amazake resembles nothing in structure and operation. That is why it’s suggested it can replace egg, butter and milk. Our tip: take amazake as a starting point, build a good batter around it with oat, spelt or nut flour, plant milk and seasonings such as chocolate or (dried) fruit. Baking powder and a pinch of salt also help.
