Easy anpan recipe

Anpan is also known as “Japanese sweet red bean bun”, a fluffy, airy bun filled with sweet anko (red bean) paste using adzuki bean. It is extremely delicious and I will show you how to make this elegant Japanese sweet treat at home.Check out my easy tutorial below to discover how to the popular sweet buns adored by the Japanese people from all walks of life.

Living abroad in the UK, it is quite hard to look for a decent anpan sold outside at the store. I would recommend you to check out Wa cafe for this lovely sweetbread if you could not bother to replicate this at home. If you love eating some matcha dessert, make sure to check out my matcha crepe cake recipes.

All the photos above are taken using Sony Alpha 7 II | Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera. 

Anpan

If you follow me long enough, you'd realise I am a huge fan of Japanese pastry. I made the classic anpan: soft buns filled with sweet red bean paste (using Azuki beans). I'll try making a similar version of this in matcha flavour next time. Check out my recipe below.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Servings 10 buns

Ingredients

  

For the bread

• 20 g Unsalted butter
• 2 tsp Salt
• 100 ml Semi-skimmed milk
• 100 ml Water
• 2 tsp dried active yeast
• 330 g all-purpose flour/ bread flour
• 10 g Cane sugar

For filling

• 1 cup Azuki beans
• ½ cup Sugar
• ½ tsp Salt

For decoration

• Black sesame seed
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 Large egg

Instructions

 

Red bean paste

• Boil 1 cup of Azuki beans over medium-high heat for the next 1 hour. Keep adding water when the water evaporates to keep the beans submerged.
• Drain the beans and blend them in a food processor into a fine paste.
• Transfer the red bean paste into a pot.
• Add 1/2 cup sugar (in two rounds) and 1/2 tsp salt and continue to stir the mixture for 15 minutes.

Bread

• Add 330g all-purpose flour, 2 tsp dried active yeast, 2 tsp salt, 10 g cane sugar, 100ml water and 100ml semi-skimmed milk into a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly using hand until a dough begins to form. 
• Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and begins the hand-kneading process for 10 minutes until the dough gets more elastic and less sticky. 
• Then, add 20g unsalted butter to the dough and continue kneading for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and silky. (Hand kneading refers to – fold the dough, pulling it apart, putting it back together, banging it against the surface and repeating the whole process again.
• Place your dough back into a mixing bowl and set aside for proofing purposes for 1 hour for it to rise.  
• After 1 hour, transfer the dough onto your work surface and punch it down to remove gas bubbles formed by the yeast. 
• Let it rise for another 15 minutes.
• Then, divide the dough into 10 portions and smoothen each one into a round shape.
• Let it rise for another 15 minutes.
• Press the dough to release additional gas bubble, wrap 1 tbsp red bean paste in the dough and repeat for 10 dough balls.

Decoration

• Add 2 tbsp water and 1 large egg into a small bowl and stir thoroughly. 
• Brush the egg mixture on top of each doughball (egg wash).
• Dip the end of a rolling pin into the egg mixture, subsequently into black sesame seed and then onto the red bean buns.

Bake it up

• Bake the red bean buns in an oven preheated to 200 °C for 15 minutes.