baking. a japanese tradition.

over spring break, i spent my days a-cookin’. at the end of the tragically short week, i decided to make something very labor/time-intensive. i baked an pan. no, that wasn't a typo. an pan (あんぱん) is a very popular asian bread that is filled with sweet azuki bean jam. also, it is what this guy's head is made of:


it being spring break and all, i went all-out hardcore and dug up a recipe off e-recipe.org. in JAPANESE. i then spent nearly an hour meticulously translating the 17-step recipe:



though the recipe wasn't quite as tedious as it looks, it provided way too much info about the basics of bread-making, which just aren't all that fascinating for someone who's baked before and wants to plow through the prep. still, practicing my rusty japanese was quite fun and i discovered interesting little tidbits like the characters for "bread flour" (強力粉) literally translate as "strong flour."

on that note, the recipe called for a little too much "strong flour" and really should've used a mix of regular and bread flours. the end product was a little too chewy and dense for a light snack-type bread.



not to go too much into the tedious recipe (which was further complicated by the metric measuring system), but the ingredients consisted simply of bread flour, sugar, salt, egg, dry yeast, warm water and butter. prep was pretty standard: mix, knead, 1st rising. de-gas, shape, 2nd rising. fill, shape, proof & bake.

the filling was something of my own concoction since i was too cheap to buy canned anko. i've also been told a few unnecessarily gruesome stories about the unsanitary conditions at anko factories, so that justified my purchasing of a $2 bag of beans rather than a $5 can of them in mashed, sugared form. my own version of anko took nearly 4 hours of boiling:



it was quite tasty and pleasantly sweet, but i foolishly decided to forgo the addition of any fats. later, i would discover that my attempt to be health-conscious resulted in a crumbly (rather than creamy) filling that just wasn't sweet enough (despite several tastings and countless heaping spoonfuls of sugar). i've now learned my lesson and will respect the full fat and sugar content of future pastry-making endeavors.



shaping and baking went pretty well. only 3 or so of my an pan buns leaked their fillings! ...out of 12. still, they're quite beautiful, non? a very lovely breakfast when toasted and served with a side of lightly sugared strawberries: