Japanese · Japan

Japanese Yōshoku Bread — Melon Pan, Anpan, and Curry Pan (洋食パン)

Japanese yōshoku (洋食, 'Western-style food') bread culture has developed a distinctive set of sweet bread (kashi-pan, 菓子パン) preparations that are neither Western nor traditional Japanese but a third category: the Japanese bakery canon. The defining examples: Anpan (あんぱん, 1875) — a soft, enriched bread roll filled with sweet red bean paste (anko), created by Yasubei Kimura at Kimuraya Bakery in Ginza; Melon Pan (メロンパン) — a soft bread covered in a crunchy cookie (sablé) crust scored in a melon-grid pattern, containing no melon; Cream Pan (クリームパン) — a glove-shaped (te no hira-gata) brioche filled with custard cream; Curry Pan (カレーパン) — bread filled with Japanese curry and deep-fried in panko. Together these define a category that is distinctly Japanese despite using European-derived bread techniques.

ServesAbout 12 pieces (4 anpan, 4 melon pan, 4 curry pan)

Sourced0of 18 in BC

Cook

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

For the enriched bread dough (all three breads)

400 g

strong white bread flour

plus extra for dusting

Origin · CanadaNot yet stocked in British Columbia

7 g

instant dried yeast

Your own market

50 g

caster sugar

Your own market

6 g

fine salt

Your own market

eggs

lightly beaten

Your own market

150 ml

whole milk

warmed to 35 °C

Your own market

60 g

unsalted butter

softened, cut into small pieces

Your own market

For the anpan filling

200 g

tsubu-an or koshi-an (sweet red bean paste)

chilled; divide into 4 balls of 50 g each — paste must be thick enough to hold shape

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

1 tsp

white sesame seeds

for topping

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

For the melon pan sablé crust

100 g

plain flour

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

60 g

caster sugar

Your own market

40 g

unsalted butter

softened

Your own market

egg

lightly beaten

Your own market

1 tsp

baking powder

Your own market

For the curry pan filling

200 g

Japanese curry

thick, cooled; divide into 4 portions of 50 g each

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

For the curry pan coating and frying

100 g

panko breadcrumbs

Your own market

egg

beaten, for egg wash

Your own market

1 litre

neutral oil

for deep-frying

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

The Method

Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add the beaten eggs and warmed milk and bring together into a rough dough. Turn onto a clean surface and knead for 8–10 minutes, incorporating the softened butter piece by piece once the dough is cohesive. Continue kneading until the dough is smooth, elastic, and passes the windowpane test — a small piece stretched between the fingers becomes translucent without tearing. This is full gluten development; without it, the dough will not hold the weight of any filling.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and leave to prove at room temperature until doubled in size. Press a floured finger into the centre: if the indentation holds without springing back, the first prove is complete.

For the melon pan sablé crust: cream the softened butter and sugar together until pale. Beat in the egg, then sift in the flour and baking powder and bring together to a soft, pliable dough. Divide into 4 equal portions and press each between two sheets of baking paper into a disc approximately 8 cm across. The dough must yield to gentle pressure without cracking — if it tears, the scored grid will split during baking.

Knock back the proved dough and divide into 12 equal pieces (approximately 60 g each). Shape each into a smooth ball by pulling the surface taut and sealing the base. Rest under a damp cloth for 10 minutes; the balls will relax and lose any surface tension acquired during shaping.

For anpan (4 pieces): flatten each dough ball into a disc approximately 9 cm across. Place one 50 g ball of anko in the centre — the filling must be thick enough to sit proud without spreading. Gather the dough edges up and over the filling, pinching firmly to seal at the base. Place sealed-side down on a lined baking tray and press a few white sesame seeds onto the top. For melon pan (4 pieces): lay one sablé disc over each shaped bread ball and press gently so it adheres to the upper surface. Using a pastry scraper or knife, score a diamond (melon-grid) pattern through the cookie layer without cutting into the bread beneath. For curry pan (4 pieces): flatten each dough ball, place 50 g of cooled thick Japanese curry in the centre, seal and shape into an oval. Dip in beaten egg wash, then coat thoroughly in panko. Set aside on a separate tray.

Allow all shaped pieces to prove a second time, covered, until noticeably puffed — the dough should feel airy and give slightly under a very light touch without collapsing. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Bake the anpan and melon pan for 12–15 minutes, until the anpan is golden and the melon pan sablé is set and lightly coloured at the edges. The melon pan crust is done when it no longer looks raw and holds the scored pattern sharply.

For the curry pan: heat the neutral oil to 170 °C in a deep, heavy pan. Lower the curry pan pieces in carefully and fry, turning once, until the panko is a deep, even golden brown and the crust shatters at the tap of a fingernail. Remove and drain on a rack. The crust must shatter at first bite, releasing the curry steam within.

III

Quality Hierarchy

Reserve — Kimuraya Bakery's sakura-an anpan (Ginza, Tokyo): salt-preserved sakura blossom on top, sakura-flavoured anko within — the original 1875 formulation presented to Emperor Meiji, available only in spring. This is the historically significant standard against which all anpan is measured.

Estate — Home-milled or artisan bread flour; hand-made tsubu-an from dried azuki beans simmered and sweetened to order; Japanese curry filling made from a named block roux (e.g. S&B Golden Curry) simmered with aromatics, cooled to a thick paste.

Market — Quality supermarket bread flour; commercial tsubu-an or koshi-an from a Japanese grocery; a decent ready-made Japanese curry cooled and thickened as needed. The sablé crust made fresh regardless — this cannot be substituted.

House — Standard plain flour blended with a small measure of bread flour for structure; tinned sweetened red bean paste used directly; jarred curry concentrate. Results will be competent rather than distinctive.

Sensory Tests

◇Touch. The windowpane test: a small piece of kneaded dough stretched between the fingers becomes translucent without tearing, confirming full gluten development.

◇Touch. After the first prove, a floured finger pressed into the dough leaves an indentation that holds without springing back.

◇Touch. The melon pan sablé disc yields to gentle pressure without cracking or tearing before it is draped over the bread.

◇Touch. After the second prove, the shaped pieces feel airy and give slightly under a very light touch without collapsing.

◇Sight. Baked anpan is evenly golden; the surface shows no splits, confirming the filling was thick enough and the dough adequately developed.

◇Sight. The melon pan sablé holds its scored diamond grid sharply and shows light colour at the edges — the moment it no longer appears raw.

◇Sound. The curry pan's panko crust shatters audibly at the tap of a fingernail; the colour is deep, even golden brown.

◇Where it lives or dies. The bread dough must reach full gluten development — the windowpane test — before the first prove; without this structural foundation, no filling will be contained and no crust will hold.

V · Cross-Cuisine Parallels

French viennoiserie — pain aux raisins and croissant aux amandes share the defining principle of enriched bread dough (butter, milk, egg) as a vehicle for sweet fillings; the Japanese kashi-pan tradition uses the same enriched base but replaces French fillings with culturally specific ones: anko, custard, or curry. German Gefüllte Hefekuchen — Central European filled sweet yeast breads, particularly those using poppy-seed or red fruit paste, are structurally parallel to anpan: a slightly sweet bread dough wrapped around a thick paste and baked. The cultural specificity of the filling — red bean paste versus poppy seed — is precisely what defines the cultural territory of each bread.

Pillar V

Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.

The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.

Enter · from $49 a year

What to Pour

The pairing

The Yamazaki 12 Year Old Single Malt

Suntory Spirits — Yamazaki Distillery · Yamazaki — Suntory Distillery

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

Whisky

From British Columbia

Nothing from British Columbia holds against this yet.

Without alcohol

No pour without alcohol holds against this yet.

Why each one works is part of membership — Enter · from $49 a year →

The whole pairing

VII · Origin & Lineage

Japan — anpan was created in 1875 by Yasubei Kimura at Kimuraya Bakery, Ginza (est. 1869, Japan's oldest Western bakery). Kimura deliberately combined Western enriched bread technique with Japanese anko filling in place of jam or butter, producing a bread that was neither purely Western nor traditionally Japanese. Emperor Meiji's patronage secured anpan's status as a symbol of Japan's Meiji-era modernisation filtered through Japanese taste. The sakura-an variant — with salt-preserved sakura blossom and sakura-flavoured anko — remains Kimuraya's signature and Japan's most historically significant bread. Melon pan's origin is disputed: possibly 1910s Osaka or 1920s Tokyo; it is named for the visual resemblance of its scored cookie surface to a melon's skin, and contains no melon. Curry pan was created in 1927 at Cattlea Bakery, Tokyo. Together these three preparations define kashi-pan (菓子パン) — Japanese sweet bread — as a third category: distinctly Japanese despite its entirely European-derived technical foundation. Sources: Japanese Farm Food (Nancy Singleton Hachisu); Japanese Patisserie (James Campbell).

Pillar VII

Origin and lineage are part of membership.

Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.

Enter · from $49 a year