Saturday, April 5, 2008

My First An-Pan

This is my all time favourite bun, an-pan (bread with red bean paste). I remember that this was one of the earliest "fancy" bans I tried. If I'm not wrong, it was probably from Yaohan at Plaza Singapura. My mom used to bring my brother and I there when we were young. I remember that this was one ban I would pick. Now I can bake my own, I'm a proud girl.

I had originally wanted to use this Hokkaido Milk Loaf recipe, but I could not find any Bulla thickened cream at the Shopnsave near my place. (That's the touble when supermarkets try to make consumers stay loyal to them. Shopnsave issues stickers for purchases above $15, and for every 12 stickers collected within a month, they would give consumers a voucher for $9 off. Since I started taking MRT home on my own instead of waiting for hubs, I've been shopping at Shopnsave.) I had seen it at Carrefour yesterday, but thought I could get it on the way home.

Without the all important heavy cream, I went through my collection of to-try recipes. I had bookmarked Florence's Black Sesame Bun as reference. If only we have such cute bake stuff here, check out her black sesame fillings! I used the sweet bun recipe and it yielded exactly the same number of buns for me, 14.

I had overbaked the first batch, the round ones. The paper cup is also stuck at the bottom, perhaps I should have brushed the paper cups with oil before placing the dough in. These six buns turned out hard and dry, wonder if baking them before eating would make any difference. The second batch was placed in a loaf pan. Having learned my mistake, I reduced baking time and the buns turned out super soft to touch! It is really really soft when I bit into it, but I'm not sure why there is a hole between the bun and the red been paste. However, I'm not too worried about that as it happens to those commercially available buns as well.

I had cheated this time, I didn't make the Tsubushian (潰し餡, the red beans are mashed after boiling). I bought two packets from Daiso yesterday. I really like the location of my office now. I can go to PH at Bencoolen, Sun Lik at Seah Street or Daiso at Plaza Singapura. I should probably learn to make the paste on my own. Hubs tasted it, said that it's no different from the commercial ones. To him, convenience is top priority. I am not sure if it is cheaper to make our own an-pans although I know what ingredients I had used, NO PRESERVATIVES. But I like the satisfaction of making what I enjoy eating, too.

7 April: An-pans are yummy and soft especially after being toasted for a mere 2-3 minutes. Even the round ones are soft. Recipe is a keeper though I find the tsubushian a little on the sweet side...

2 comments:

KWF said...

yuri, from your pic, I think the paper cups you use are those for making cupcakes? Try using those for making bread. They're thicker and can hold the shape better. These do not usually stick much, so no need to grease them.

Yuri said...

yes wf, the cups are for cupcakes as I have collected quite a lot of such cups! I didn't know there are those just for bread, must look out for them.