Chestnut Wagashi for the New Year

Wagashi is (are?) my new food obsession. (Check out my Pinterest board!) After false starts, failure and years of dreaming, it's time to start making them.This is as close as I'm going to get to a New Year's resolution, but I think that making wagashi at least once a month is a reasonable goal.

I followed this lovely and detailed recipe for basic shiro-an (white bean paste) posted here on the blog of Marjorie Yap's Issoan Tea School blog: http://issoantea.com/?p=1311. (Also here.)

 A little food coloring, chopped chestnuts, some sculpting and shaping and a dusting of cocoa powder resulted in a slightly-oversized confection that was nonetheless delicious.

A bit of a mess at first, and lots of experimenting with food color.
Chopped chestnuts were mixed with shiro-an inside.

Finally, a color that's acceptable! (First results were, um, undesirable.)
Now to shape them up.

Shaping with plastic wrap was sort of like
shaping kinton with chakin, only less messy.

A final dusting with cocoa powder. Ready to eat.