Cherry Blossom Sweet Bean Paste

• 25 grams Dried white sweet bean paste
• 40 grams Sugar
• 100 ml Water
• 1 to obtain your desired color Red food coloring or red yeast rice powder
• 3 leaves Cherry blossom leaves preserved in salt
• 5 Cherry blossoms preserved in salt (optional)
• 1/4 tsp Cherry blossom liqueur (optional)

1. Rinse the cherry blossoms and leaves, then soak in clean water for 1-2 hours.
2. Dry thoroughly and mince.
3. Add ingredients marked with a to a small saucepan (preferably Teflon) and let stand for about 20 minutes.
4. Mix in a small amount of food coloring until you've reached the desired color, then warm over low heat.
5. Stir the mixture constantly until you achieve the desired consistency.
6. Take the mixture off the heat and mix in the cherry blossoms and leaves that you prepared in Step 1 and/or the liqueur.
7. Now it's done.
8. For this batch, I used red yeast rice powder (nature's own food coloring).
9. It transforms into a different color...
10. I bough the dried white sweet bean paste at Tomizawa shop.
11. It's sooooo convenient.
12. "Wataboushi" (the headdress worn by the bride in a traditional Japanese wedding).
13. Cherry Blossom Bean Paste Rolls
14. Cherry Blossom Dorayaki
15. For this, I just minced a cherry leaf and added it to a chunky red sweet bean paste.
16. It takes about one leaf for every 50 g of bean paste.
17. I tried making this with twice the amount of cherry blossoms and no food coloring, and this is the color it came out as.
18. Cherry blossom cookies.
19. I used this to make my favorite sakura-mochi (cherry blossom rice cakes).
20. This spring, I made anko-dama (bean paste balls).

white sweet bean paste, sugar, water, rice powder, salt, salt, blossom liqueur

Taken from cookpad.com/us/recipes/169345-cherry-blossom-sweet-bean-paste (may not work)