Anpan
A soft enriched bun round bean paste, with a cooked flour paste in the dough for softness.
Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).
Ingredients
tangzhong
- 20 g strong flour
- 100 ml milk
dough
- 280 g strong flour
- 40 g caster sugar
- 5 g instant yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 80 ml milk
- 40 g butter, soft
to finish
- 300 g anko
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
Method
- A COOKED FLOUR PASTE IN THE DOUGH, and it is why these stay soft for days where a plain bun is stale by morning. Flour and milk whisked and cooked to a thick paste gelatinises the starch so it holds far more water than raw flour can.
- Tangzhong: whisk the 20 g of flour into the 100 ml of milk, cook over a medium heat stirring, 2 to 3 minutes, until it thickens to a paste and lines drawn in it hold. Cool completely.
- Add it warm and it kills the yeast; add it hot and it cooks the egg.
- Mix the dough ingredients with the cooled tangzhong and knead 12 minutes. It is wetter than a bread dough and should not have flour added -- it comes together late.
- Butter in only once the gluten is developed, in pieces, and knead 5 minutes more until smooth and glossy.
- Prove 1 hour until doubled. Divide into 10 and rest 15 minutes covered -- unrested dough springs back and will not take a filling.
- Roll the anko into 10 balls and chill them.
- Flatten each piece thinner at the edge than the middle, a bean ball in, and gather the edges over, pinching firmly shut. SEAM DOWN.
- PRESS EACH ONE FLAT to about 2 cm, which is the shape. A domed anpan has a thick base and a thin crown and the paste sinks.
- Second prove 45 minutes. Egg wash, a dimple pressed in the centre with a wet thumb, poppy seeds in the dimple. Bake at 180C for 13 to 15 minutes until deep gold.
Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.
Filed under Japan · All recipes