[Recipe] Regular Anpan: red bean buns
［レシピ］基本のあんパン（材料の入手方法のみ）
Note: I'm still quite new at writing recipes. If something can be written better, please let me know.
One of my favourite buns to make is anpan. Anpan is a bun filled with a sweet paste. Normally, this would be a paste made from red azuki beans. 'An' means red bean paste in Japanese while 'pan' is the word for bread/bun. In Japan, they are very common and easy to find in supermarkets and convenience stores.
'An' can also refer to any kind of sweet paste such as sweet potato paste or white bean paste. Nowadays you can find all sorts of anpans. Below are some of the anpans I've made in the past. See more on Instagram.
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| Some of the various anpans I've made in the past. |
Since moving to NL, I've had to learn to make anpan from scratch to satisfy my cravings. In this post, I'd like to share with you, where to get the ingredients (in Rotterdam), and how to make anpan. In case it's not clear, when I talk about red beans in this post, I'm referring to red azuki beans and not red kidney beans.
Ingredients
Bread dough:
- bread flour or all-purpose flour (tarwebloem) 200g [100%]
- instant yeast (gist) 2g [1%]
- sugar (suiker) 24g [12%]
- salt (zout) 2g [1%]
- egg (ei) 20g [10%]
- water 70-80g [35-40%]
- milk (melk) 30g [15%]
- butter (roomboter) 20g [10%]
- [optional] bread improver (broodverbeteraar) 6g [3%]
- [optional] sesame (sesamzaad) or poppy seeds (maanzaad)
Filling:
- red bean paste (rodebonenpasta) 180g
Getting the ingredients
In one of my earlier posts, I've shared how to get bread flour in NL. Here. The bread improver can also be found at most windmill online stores. The bread improver is optional but if you like soft and fluffy bread like me, I recommend getting it. The other ingredients can be found easier at regular supermarkets.
The red bean paste might be the only trickier ingredient to find (TL;DR end of this section). In Japan, red bean paste is usually sold in the supermarkets as koshi-an (smooth) or tsubu-an (chunky). I prefer the smooth version. Unfortunately, in NL, this is not something you can just get from a regular store. That said, I like to make my own red bean paste from scratch because then I can control the amount of sugar and oil I put in it. Commercial versions are usually too sweet for me. The paste is really simple to make and I'll share it in another post when I have time.
Fortunately, the red (azuki) beans are very easy to find. I've seen them at Amazing Oriental, Wah Nam Hong and even at Albert Heijn. Organic ones can also be found at Gimsel and Ekoplaza.
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| Azuki beans and matcha. Ingredients I frequently use in my baking. |
Tip: At most Asian grocery stores, the prices in-store are usually cheaper than on the websites. Even within the same supermarket chain, the prices of the same products can differ. From my experience, WNH Markthal is slightly pricier than WNH Chinatown.
If you cannot be bothered to make the paste from scratch, you can find the ready-made paste at the Asian grocer. I've never tried them so not sure how they taste. Alternatively, you could buy canned azuki beans, mash them and add sugar.
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| My homemade bean paste |
[TL;DR] In short, get the red bean paste by:
- making it from dried beans, or
- buying ready-made ones from the Asian grocery store, or
- buying the canned beans and mash them together with sugar.
Making the buns
- Mix all the dough ingredients (70g of water), except the butter, in a bowl. Keep the remaining egg for the egg wash.
- Use a spatula or your hand to combined the ingredients. If the dough feels dry, add the remaining water in increments. The amount of water required depends on the flour and weather conditions.
- When the dough comes together, take it out of the bowl and start kneading on a lightly floured surface. I like to use a silicone mat as it makes tidying up easier.
- Knead the dough until it becomes elastic and do a windowpane test.
- After that, add in the butter and knead until it's well combined. The butter interferes with gluten formation and elasticity so it's better to add the butter after the dough is well-formed.
- Let the dough rise for about 1-2 hours until more than twice the original size. I like to put the dough in the oven at 40°C.
- Punch the dough to release the gas and divide into 9 (about 40g each).
- Let the dough rest for about 10 mins. This is important as a well-rested dough is easier to handle and roll.
- While the dough is resting, divide the red bean paste into 9 (30g each). If the paste feels too soft, do this step in the beginning and store them in the fridge to harden it.
- Roll the dough into a disc and make the edges thinner than the centre.
- Wrap the red bean paste into the dough.
- Let the dough rise for a second time for about one hour until it rises to twice its original size. Again, I like to put it in the oven at 40°C.
- Bush the egg wash on the buns and sprinkle some sesame/poppy seeds on top.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180-190°C for 15-17 mins. This really depends on your oven.
- The buns should be done when the crust shows a nice brown colour.
Anpans fresh from the oven.
This is actually a simplified version of my usual recipe. Normally, I prefer to bake with the sponge and dough method. The method produces buns with more consistent results and the buns stay moist for longer. I think I'll write about this in another post.
Tips for using a bread machine: To be honest, I haven't kneaded dough for a while by hand since I got a bread machine. If you're using a bread machine as well, you can skip Steps 1-6. Place all the ingredients in the bread pan and start the dough programme. Like kneading by hand, I prefer to add the butter at a later stage but it's up to you. My bread machine usually kneads for 15-20 mins before letting the dough rise so I put in the butter after 10 mins.
My friend made a nice video clip of me making anpans:
Matcha anpans with mochi.
Using oat flour
If you read my previous post, I've been trying to use more oat flour in my baking. Oats are very nutritious and can lower cholesterol. I've tried replacing 10% of the (wheat) flour with oat flour and got some nice results. Below is a comparison between a regular anpan and an oat anpan.
The 100% wheat version rose higher and so was softer and fluffier. The 10% oat flour version is slightly denser but still soft. The oat flour also lends a nice nutty flavour to the bun which I think complements the sweetness of the red bean paste. Definitely, something I will continue making.
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| Red bean anpan with 10% oat flour (left) taro anpan with 100% wheat flour. |
Hope you enjoyed reading this and perhaps even tried the recipe.
I would love to hear your comments and suggestions.
あんパン：材料の入手方法
オランダに来てから、あんパンは以前みたいにスーパーやコンビニなどで簡単に買うことができなくなりました。自分で作ったら？と思っても、まずは材料がどこで買えばいいと考えないといけませんでした。特にあんこはオランダで買えますか？今回は材料の入手方法について、書きたいと思います。レシピは以下の通り：
材料：
- 強力粉または中力粉 (tarwebloem) 200g [100％]
- ドライイースト (gist) 2g [1％]
- 砂糖 (suiker) 24g [12％]
- 塩 (zout) 2g [1％]
- 卵 (ei) 20g [10％]
- 水70-80g [35-40％]
- 牛乳 (melk) 30g [15％]
- バター (roomboter) 20g [10％]
- [オプション]パン改良剤 (broodverbeteraar) 6g [3％]
- [オプション]ゴマ (sesamzaad) またはケシの実 (maanzaad)
- あんこ (rodebonenpasta) 180g
手順は上の英文を参考してください。
前回の投稿で、オランダで強力粉や薄力粉の入手方法について紹介しましたので、ぜひ読んでください。せっかくですから、風車から小麦粉を買ってみませんか？パン改良剤も風車から買えます。あんこ以外の材料は普通のスーパーで手に入ります。
あんこを見つけるのが少し難しいかもしれませんが、小豆から作るという手もあります。小豆は思ったより、簡単に買えます。アジアンスーパーのAmazing OrientalかWah Nam Hongはもちろん、Albert Heijnででも見たことがあります。 有機の小豆ならGimselかEkoplazaで手に入ります。自分は糖質を気にしますので、あんこはいつも手作りです。
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