Vanilla & Matcha Melon pan with sourdough starter

Following my last post, Sourdough Annn pan, here is another Japanese bread.

Melon pan!

(Are you thinking 'what's melon pan?', then here is the answer.;D)

Lana, Andy, and I, we all love this sweet buns. This time I made one with vanilla biscuit on top and the other matcha green tea biscuit. The matcha ones also have chestnut paste inside.

I think the beauty of Melon Pan comes down to the skin (the biscuit.) I like my skin to be nice and crunchy, not to thin but not too over powering to the bread. The ratio I usually do is '50g dough to 40g biscuit' for a bun.

Ingredients:

*Bread*

Starter (banana) 120g

Very strong Flour 250g

Milk 150g

Egg 1

Sugar 30g

Honey 1 tbsp

Oil 15g

Butter 35g

Salt 3g

---

*Biscuit*

Butter 60g

Sugar 115g

Plain Flour 200g

(For matcha, use 190g flour +  10g matcha powder)

Egg 1

Not only is the biscuit goes well with the sweet bun, but also it's pretty awesome as is. So, if you get any leftovers, bake them at 175 ºc for 10 minutes, then another 10-15 minutes at 150 ºc.

They are so moreish. ;-d

Inside the Matcha Melon Pan.

Chestnut and Matcha, it's like a dream team!

They are best eaten on the day they are baked (if you could kept them long enough...), but if you're having them the following day, I recommend you put them in the fridge (since it has chestnut paste inside) and take them out to room temperature or warm them up slightly in the oven before you eat them.

Melon Pan with banana yeast - 自家製酵母メロンパン

I've made melon pan so many times both at work and home that I've lost count of it, and eaten even more since I was a little kid. I love melon pan and perfecting my own melon pan is something that I've been trying for a long time.

And finally, I think that day has come! I made melon pan a few days ago, and it was the best melon pan I've ever made! What made me even more proud was that I used my own banana yeast. Baking classic Japanese breads with my own starter is another challenge that I've set myself. So, I'm very happy that not only did these melon pans taste one of the best ever but also came from my yeast (Thanks to my trusted guy, Mr Banana Yeast!)

I feel I'm one step closer to my dream... ;D

Two of my top tasters fighting for one...

Lana loves melon pan too. She decided she wasn't going to share with Andy and had her own one!

Melon pan

Any Japanese or anyone who is into Japan must know メロンパン(melon pan, which means melon bread). For me Melon Pan is something I've liked since I was a kid and tried so many of them from different shops.

So..., for those who are thinking "what is Melon Pan?'. Although Melon Pan has the word 'melon', it doesn't necessarily means the bread has melon in it, nor even melon flavoured. The reason why it's called 'Melon Pan' is because it looks like a melon. (No? Ok, it does in my eyes anyway...) Usually a sweet bun is topped with biscuit and the biscuit has lines to make the bread look like melon.

In Japan you get all sorts of melon pans such as green tea melon pan, one with custard cream inside..., I've had earl grey flavoured one, mango flavoured one, strawberry, caramel, chocolate..., the list goes on and on....

I'm sure everyone has the one they like. I like the one with crunchy biscuit on top of a nice soft bun. And of course, a freshly baked melon pan is simply too good to resist. :D