ReCPY: Natto MOffin. I Repeat, NATTO MOffin!

This is a whole new level of ReCPY, everyone. I've created many baked goods in the past, but nothing compares to this. I heard Iron Chef had an episode on natto, and Morimoto made some kind of dessert with natto soaked in Coca-Cola or something. The thought of natto mixed with something sweet made me gag, but I researched a bit more about the possibility.

Why the fuck did I want to find a recipe for natto being used in dessert? I have no idea, probably because I was salivating from Yoko's natto post from the other day, with the picture of the natto/ume/shiso sushi.

During my research, I found some of the weirdest desserts with natto that are available in Japan. Natto crepes with whipped cream, and coffee jello. Apparently the strong coffee flavor kills the distinct natto flavor, so all you taste is soy, with the sticky texture. A lot of natto desserts I found were like this, mixing something with a strong a flavor to mask the natto taste, but keeping the texture of natto.

So I came across a site where this guy tried mixing natto with sugar, honey, and other sweet ingredients. I thought natto and red beans would be an interesting combination.

Though I thought about giving up on making MO-Desserts, sticky natto and sticky MOffins sounds like a great match, right? So I did it with a bit of skepticism and excitement.

There is something wrong this picture. Natto next to a can of sweet red bean paste.



I first added about 3 tblsp of red beans to three packs of natto (without the mustard and soy sauce that come with). These beans are already sweetened, by the way.



Mixing this was a lot different from mixing regular natto. Somehow when natto meets sugar, it gets very hard, making it very tough to mix them together. Maybe natto is a guy and he gets a hard-on when he encounters the red beans. After all, they are in the same bean family, so there might be a sexual attraction. Good sign, I guess.



Disgustingly sticky. I added a bit more red beans, so in the end, three packs of natto and a half of a can of red beans is about right.



Then I made my regular MOffin, this time half the batch. 2 eggs, 50ml oil, a cup of milk, half a box of mochi flour, and still 1 tblsp baking powder. I wasn't sure what to do with the natto mixture. I could have put it in the middle, but the amount was a bit too much, so I decided to simply combine them together. NO smell of natto here. Just sticky.



If you didn't know what was really inside, this just looks like regular muffins with red beans in it or something, right?



It rose very nicely.  Still looks like regular muffin, right?



Finally it cooled, and I split it in half. Though I couldn't take pictures of it, it was definitely a bit sticky, as in natto sticky.



Close up of the inside. You can see the natto and red beans inside.



Verdict? This was very good. Also, for those natto-haters, you are eating natto without knowing it-- unless you are told there's natto in it, you would never know (other than the fact it's a bit sticky-er than usual MOffin). If you like natto, it may be a bit disappointing, since there's no natto flavor. The only distinctive natto part of this MOffin was you definitely have the typical sticky-and-itchy-around-your-mouth-post-natto-consumption effect.

Who knew natto can be used this way? I am a fucking genius.