Anpan
Considered the first bun to marry Western bread with a Japanese filling — created in 1874 at the Kimuraya bakery in Tokyo's Ginza. It paired a European bun with the most Japanese of sweet fillings: sweetened red adzuki bean paste. Anpan is a soft, buttery bun with smooth anko paste inside and black sesame in the middle of the top. It remains the emblem of Japanese bakeries, and the cartoon hero Anpanman has an anpan for a head. The secret is dough kneaded to the windowpane stage — which makes it fluffy and elastic.
Your own work in that: 45 min.
- Mixing 20 min
- Rising 60 min
- Filling 25 min
- Proving 40 min
- Baking 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneChill and portion the filling
Divide the anko into 8 balls of 50 g and chill. Cold paste is firm and much easier to wrap in dough. Soft paste sticks to your fingers and pokes through the dough.
Ingredients: 400 g anko adzuki bean paste · 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
Knead to the windowpane stage
Mix the flour, sugar, milk powder, salt and yeast, add the milk and half the beaten egg. Knead 8 minutes, add the butter and knead another 10 minutes. A stretched piece of dough should be thin enough to let light through without tearing.
Ingredients: 300 g strong bread flour · 150 ml lukewarm milk · 5 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 10 g milk powder · 30 g butter · 4 g salt
The windowpane — dough thin as a membrane, unbroken.Leave to rise
Cover and leave somewhere warm for an hour, until doubled. Test with a floured finger: the dent should stay, not spring back.
Ingredients: 300 g strong bread flour · 150 ml lukewarm milk · 5 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 10 g milk powder · 30 g butter · 4 g salt
Divide into 8 balls
Knock back the dough and divide into 8 pieces of about 70 g. Shape smooth balls, cover and rest 10 minutes, so the dough relaxes.
Ingredients: 300 g strong bread flour · 150 ml lukewarm milk · 5 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 10 g milk powder · 30 g butter · 4 g salt
Wrap the paste in dough
Flatten a ball into a 10 cm disc, edges thinner than the centre. Set an anko ball in the middle, gather the edges up and pinch firmly shut, like a purse. Set seam down and flatten slightly with your palm.
Ingredients: 400 g anko adzuki bean paste · 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
Like a purse — pinched firmly, seam down.Prove 40 minutes
Space the buns on a lined tray, cover and prove 40 minutes, until puffed by half. Heat the oven to 180°C.
Ingredients: 300 g strong bread flour · 150 ml lukewarm milk · 5 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 10 g milk powder · 30 g butter · 4 g salt
Glaze and press in a sesame dimple
Brush the buns with the remaining egg. Dip the end of a small rolling pin or a bottle cork in water, then in black sesame, and press into the centre of each bun. The dimple, called the navel, keeps the top from cracking and the bun from doming.
Ingredients: 400 g anko adzuki bean paste · 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
A sesame navel — the top will not crack.Bake until golden
Bake 13–15 minutes, until glossy and deep golden. Do not overbake — they should stay soft. Cool on a rack under a cloth so the crust stays tender. Best the day they are baked.
Ingredients: 300 g strong bread flour · 150 ml lukewarm milk · 5 g dried yeast · 40 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 10 g milk powder · 30 g butter · 4 g salt
Before you start
Homemade anko
Make anko from 200 g dried adzuki beans, cooked until soft, blended and cooked down with 150 g sugar and a pinch of salt. Koshian is pushed through a sieve, tsubuan keeps whole beans.
Other fillings
The same dough is filled with custard to make cream pan, or with curry to make breaded, fried karē pan. Anpan with white bean paste is called shiro-an pan.
The cherry blossom version
The anpan Kimuraya served to Emperor Meiji in 1875 had a salted cherry blossom in the centre instead of sesame. Salted sakura blossoms are sold in Japanese shops — soak them before use.
