Fukui Prefecture is a scenic, rural region covered with rice paddies. It is also the birthplace of the popular Koshihikari rice variety, which Fukui-based confectioner Seiyogashi Club uses to make its Inahorori cookies.
The dough used to make the cookies contains flour made from roasted Koshihikari cultivated in the prefecture mixed with wheat flour, almond flour and sugar, among other ingredients.
"Ina" is another word for rice, and horori is a word that can be used to express something falling apart gently.
When you take a bite into an Inahorori cookie, it breaks softly and the flavor of roasted rice fills your mouth.
Rice flour is used in many kinds of confections, but the use of roasted rice is rare. The cookie is a curious combination of nostalgia and novelty.
"We want children, who don't know the deliciousness of roasted rice, to eat the cookies," Seiyogashi Club Director Yasuhiro Hasegawa said.
Fumihiro Takakura is the fourth-generation owner of the confectioner. Previously the family had run a Japanese confectioner for three generations. Takakura learned how to make Western confections in Tokyo and Kobe before returning to his hometown to launch Seiyogashi Club -- "seiyogashi" means Western confectionery.
Since opening, the shop's products have gained widespread popularity.
Eight years ago, the shop started experimenting with new products containing flour made from the prefecture's rice. Inahorori cookies and Tsunetaro steamed buns are the results of their efforts. Tsunetaro is the name of the first-generation owner of the family business.
Inahorori cookies were used to make offerings at Ise Jingu's outer shrine Geku in Ise, Mie Prefecture, in 2013 and won the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister award at the National Confectionery Exposition in Mie in 2017. They were also part of an airline's in-flight sales inventory in 2012.
-- Nakashima is a food writer.
Price: 700 yen excluding tax
Shop: Seiyogashi Club's Maruoka branch
3-45 Maruokacho Nishisato-Maruoka, Sakai, Fukui Prefecture
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
