Anpan is Japanese Red Bean Bun, made of soft sweet bread stuffed with a sweet red bean paste filling. These make a delicious snack or on-the-go breakfast that will pair perfectly with a Matcha Latte.
Back in the day when I was in college just a few years back (not really), we used to frequent an Asian bakery called JJ bakery. We would pack our trays with all sort of Asian bread, including delicious Anpan (Japanese Red Bean Bun) or simply Red Bean Bun. We hoard enough for a week worth of snack and breakfast. We have since graduated to 85 degrees C bakery but my love for these buns hasn’t changed. They’re soft, sweet and extremely satisfying.
I do not claim to be original all the time, I learned how to make these Red Bean Bun and the methods from Just One CookBook’s Anpan recipe. But Nami made the buns using dough enriched with egg and butter. I use just a simple Milk Bread recipe for my buns. No egg or butter, just soft and milky bread dough surrounds a ball of sweet red bean paste. Let’s make them!
Red Bean Paste Buns (anpan) Recipe
If you’ve made Brioche before, you know enriched dough takes just a bit more work, not impossibly difficult, just slightly more work. I don’t want to ever discourage you to try making brioche, but this milk bread dough is super simple and you really can’t go wrong. The dough comes together easily as one-two-three.
The first rise should take somewhere from 2 – 3 hours, may be longer depending on the ambient temperature. Keep the dough covered and in a warmer spot of the house if possible. One batch of dough is enough to make 8 buns. Divide it into 8 equal portions, you can use a kitchen scale to be exact, or just eyeball it.
One the dough balls are divided, let them rest for 15 minutes to relax the gluten. This will help the next step of filling and shaping the bun easier. When you’re able to shape them more evenly, they will rise and bake more evenly in the oven. Once filled and shaped, they will need to rest for a second rise before baking.
Anpan あんパン. An All Time Favorite Bun! Known As…
I usually use a coarse red bean paste with some of the bean still visible in the mixture. You should be able to find them at Japanese or Korean grocery store. This Sweet Red Bean Paste is the same brand, the packaging will be similar, but this one is a “fine” paste. These are usually in the dried or canned goods section, and not refrigerated. I always refrigerate the leftover once the package is open.
A coat of egg wash will ensure your Red Bean Buns come out golden brown and delicious. Traditionally, these buns are garnished with a dot of black sesame seeds, but you can see I’m quite the rule breaker here and use white sesame seeds instead. They were just what I had in my freezer. You can toast them, or use them raw like I did.
The trick to add the sesame seeds in a neat round cluster is to use a small pestle or something with about ¾” diameter. Dip the flat end of the pestle in egg wash, then immediately dip it in the sesame seeds to pick them up, lightly press them on top of the dough to deposit the sesame seed cluster. Make sure you add egg wash to the bun before adding the sesame seeds so they will stick. Bake the buns for 15 minutes or longer if necessary until they’re golden brown.
Anpan Babka Buns (red Bean Milk Bread)
These Anpan or Japanese Red Bean Buns sure bring back lots of good memories of my college days, which for some reason always involved food. I guess even before I even knew it, bread ran my life, and I don’t mind it at all. Do me a favor and have a Red Bean Bun with a cup of homemade Matcha green tea latte, I think you’ll love it!
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Koubo Bread Hokkaido Azuki (red Bean) Anpan 80g
Some of the links above are affiliate links, which pay me a small commission for my referral at no extra cost to you! Thank you for supporting my blog.Discover how to make unique Japanese sweet bread Anpan. Fluffy Japanese bread buns using the Yudane method filled with sweet bean paste. This is an easy recipe to follow.
Discover how to make unique Japanese sweet bread “Anpan”. Anpan is simply Japanese sweet bread buns filled with sweet bean paste. Many readers of Chopstick Chronicles fell in love with Shokupan and requested how to make sweet bread using the yudane method. So here it is!
Anpan is soft and moist Japanese milk bread filled with sweet bean paste called “An” or “Anko”. Japanese call bread “pan” which is derived from Portuguese pao or pain (bread). So An-Pan literally means sweet bean bread. It is pronounced An Pan. Japanese people young and elderly love Anpan and every Japanese bakery sell Anpan with their original recipes.
Ginza Kimuraya, Tokyo
There is an Anpan speciality bakery in Ginza, Tokyo called Kimuraya. It is my favourite Anpan shop. Whenever I go to Tokyo, I make sure I get anpan from this bakery. Their Anpan is made from Sakadane (Sake yeast cultured in koji rice malt) which is so unique to Japan. It would be difficult to attempt this special version, for obtaining the necessary ingredients would not be easy. However, do not despair as there is another way to make Japanese bread deliciously soft and moist.
That is the Yudane method that I mentioned in my Shokupan Japanese Milk Bread Recipe post. Yudane is a mixture of bread flour and boiling hot water. The hot water gelatinises the starch in the flour which takes in more water thus making it soft and also increases the sweetness of the bread. If you are interested in the Yudane method, read more in my Shokupan, Japaneses milk bread post.
Anpan is unique to Japan though most ingredients you should be able to get without much trouble. I also included baker’s percentage in the brackets.
Anpan あんパン • Just One Cookbook
Depending on which bean you use to make sweet bean paste, you can make different variations of Anpan. Here I made Kuro (black) Anpan and Shiro (white) Anpan. Even though the Kuro anpan looks dark gray, the bean paste is made from red (Aka) or adzuki beans. Shiro anpan paste is made from white beans. Please read how to make each bean pastes in my previous posts. Also, you can add matcha powder to the bread flour to make a matcha version. For both Anpan bread I cooked, I used sesame seeds but often poppy seeds are used too.
They are usually just round buns, though I wanted to make them a little taller and cuter so I used a muffin mold to shape. So when I wrapped the sweet bean paste with bread dough, I placed them in a muffin tin. If you don’t have one, just second proof without putting them in a muffin tin. One important tip I can give you is that when wrapping the bean paste ball, the dough gathers at the top (which becomes the bottom part of bun) and this tends to become thicker. In order to make the dough a uniform thickness, when rolling it out, make the centre part a little thicker than the edge.
I recommend having Anpan with Hojicha. Sweet bean paste is really suited for Japanese green tea of any kind. I often have Anpan and Matcha latte as a weekend treat.
Anpan Sweet Buns Are Popular In Japan, Let's Learn Why!
A: Yes you can. Individually wrap them with cling wrap, and place them in a ziplock freezer bag. It will store in a freezer for a month.
A: No, the bread dough includes cow milk and egg. If you alter those ingredients, you can make a vegan version, but this recipe is not vegan.
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Japanese Perfection Baking: Step By Step Guide To Making Japanese Kare Pan (curry Buns) And Chocolate Anpan (sweet Bread)
*5 You can do the finger window test. The dough should be smooth and elastic. You would be able to see through your fingers.
*6 If your oven can’t set 86°F (30°C), you can create the environment with a styrofoam box with two cups of hot water in it as the photo indicates in above post)
Calories: 178 kcal | Carbohydrates: 31 g | Protein: 5 g | Fat: 4 g | Saturated Fat: 1 g | Cholesterol: 15 mg | Sodium: 171 mg | Potassium: 89
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