Japanese Red Bean Buns (Anpan)

Soft and fluffy Japanese Milk Buns filled with red bean paste. These Red Bean Buns are a delicious snack for any time of the day! Recipe with step-by-step photos.

Japanese Red Bean Buns

My first encounter with Japanese baked goods was, surprisingly, here in Zurich. Having constant access to delicious cakes and pastries of Swiss, French, Italian and German origins is a luxury I never take for granted. But one day, I came across some baked pastries from a local Japanese baker, Hiro Takahashi, and I was intrigued because, although I had grown up eating Chinese cakes and pastries, I had never tried Japanese baked goods before.

The very first thing I tried was a Japanese Red Bean Bun, called Anpan in Japanese. The red bean filling was a familiar taste to me, and I loved the soft and squishy milk bread surrounding it. I was instantly hooked, and so were my kids.

What are Anpan?

Anpan are soft Japanese milk buns with a red bean filling. They are traditionally decorated with black sesame seeds on top of the buns.

Japanese Bakery

Thanks to Hiro Takahashi, I discovered the wonderful world of Japanese Milk Bread and the countless ways you can transform the dough to create different types of filled buns.

My children particularly love the buns with chestnut filling, and I am rather impartial to the buns with green tea filling. There is also a kabocha pumpkin version in autumn which I always look forward to.

At home, I sometimes go through phases of baking with red bean paste, so if I have a batch of Homemade Red Bean Paste to hand, I love making these Japanese Red Bean Buns for my kids to eat at afternoon tea.

Homemade Red Bean Paste

As Red Bean Paste is not readily available where I live in Zurich, I make it at home from scratch. The process can seem long and fiddly, but it is a fairly easy recipe to make. It can even be worth making a large batch of Red Bean Paste to freeze in portions for use at a later time in other recipes, such as Mooncakes or Steamed Bao Buns.

How to Make Anpan

Making Anpan requires the following steps:

1. Make the Red Bean Paste (or use store-bought)
2. Make the Japanese Milk Buns

Making Japanese Milk Buns is very similar to making any other loaf of bread, except that you also add a floury paste to the dough. This paste, called a Yudane or Tangzhong, takes only a few minutes to make, but it makes all the difference to the finished loaf of bread.

Once you get started, you will quickly see that this milk bread recipe is quite similar to a brioche recipe, both in terms of ingredients, as well as texture of the dough.

Step 1

Make the Tangzhong by whisking together the ingredients in a small saucepan. Place the saucepan over low heat, and continue whisking until the mixture forms a thick paste. You want a thick enough consistency so that, as you whisk the mixture, the whisk leaves lines which do not move.

Scrape the Tangzhong into a small bowl and set it aside to cool. Once cooled, cover the bowl with clingfilm and place it in the fridge overnight.

If you are in a hurry, you can use the Tangzhong as soon as it has cooled to room temperature. But leaving the Tangzhong overnight allows it to develop more flavour.

Step 2

Measure the flour, yeast, salt and sugar into the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Lightly mix the ingredients together.

Step 3

Add the egg and Tangzhong. Use the dough hook to start to incorporate everything together. Slowly add the milk until a sticky dough starts to form. Then add the butter, one tablespoon at a time.

Step 4

Knead the dough on medium speed for 10-15 minutes until you have a dough which passes the windowpane test.

To perform the “windowpane test”, pinch off a small piece of dough, roll it into a ball and use your hands to gently stretch the dough. If the dough can stretch to form a thin sheet and be almost translucent so that you can see the light through it, your dough has passed the “windowpane test”. This means that you have kneaded the dough sufficiently and that the dough is ready to be proofed.

At this stage, the dough will be somewhat sticky and tacky, mostly because of the butter and high liquid content. But the dough should be coming away from the sides of the bowl during the mixing. Once the dough has had its first proofing, it will be less sticky to the touch and easier to handle.

Step 5

Lightly oil a large mixing bowl. Roll the dough into a smooth-ish ball and place it inside the bowl.

Cover with a clean tea towel, and set it aside somewhere warm for about 1 hour, or until it has doubled in size.

Step 6

Once the dough has doubled in size, gently remove the dough from the bowl. The dough will deflate as you handle it.

Step 7

Divide the dough into 9 equal portions (I recommend using a digital kitchen scale).

Step 8

If you are using Homemade Red Bean Paste, it should be cold from being stored in the fridge. Otherwise, if you are using store-bought red bean paste, place it in the fridge for easier handling later.

Portion the red bean paste into 9 equal portions, weighing 30 g each. Roll each portion of red bean paste into a smooth ball.

If the red bean paste you are using is quite soft and wet, you might find it easier to portion the paste using a spoon or ice-cream scoop.

Step 9

Using a small rolling pin to flatten a piece of dough, about 8-10 cm/3-4 inches in diameter.

Place a ball of red bean paste in the middle of the dough.

Cover the filling with the dough by pulling the edges of the dough into the centre, and then pinching those edges together while shaping the dough into a smooth ball as you do so. The pinched edges form the bottom of the buns.

Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough and filling.

Step 10

Place the filled buns onto a large baking sheet lined with baking paper, leaving enough room between the buns so that they can puff up without touching each other.

Red Bean Buns are traditionally baked as separate buns so that the whole bun can become nice and golden. However, for even softer and fluffier buns, I suggest making the Red Bean Buns like my recipe for Japanese Milk Buns, i.e. in a square baking pan so that the buns rise together, creating taller and softer buns.

Cover the pan with plastic wrap and leave it somewhere warm for about 30 minutes, or until the buns have almost doubled in size.

Step 11

Gently brush the buns with some egg wash.

Sprinkle the buns with some black sesame seeds. To do this the more traditional way, dip the end of a thick wooden spoon or similar (I use a wooden pestle) into the egg wash, and then dip the implement into a small bowl of black sesame seeds. Transfer the black sesame seeds to the bun by simply stamping the implement in the centre of the bun. Repeat this process for all buns.

Bake the buns for 20-25 minutes, or until the buns are lightly golden.

If the buns are browning too quickly (check at 10-15 minutes), loosely cover them with a sheet of foil for the rest of the baking time.

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