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Matcha Melon Pan (Japanese Sweet Bread)

food
5
food
165 mins
bread
side dish
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by Natasha
Published on 12 October 2022
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In 2018, I visited Japan and going there was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. When I was visiting Tokyo, we went to a regular market and came across a small bakery that only sold melon pan. I had never had a melon pan before, so it came as a surprise that it didn’t taste like a melon at all. But otherwise, it was very delicious! So referring back to my culinary experience in Japan, I missed eating this. Since melon pan isn’t a staple in Indonesian cuisine, I would like to show you how to make a melon pan at home!

What is Melon Pan

Melon pan is a classic bread that’s been a staple in Japanese cuisine. Originating from Japan, it has made its way internationally, with its popularity in countries like Taiwan and China, making its version of the melon pan like Taiwan with its pineapple bun.

Melon pan is a classic soft bun with a crunchy cookie layer on the outside that has the appearance resembling the fruit rock melon or as many other people might know a cantaloupe. The word melon comes from its similar appearance to a melon while the word “pan” comes from the Portuguese language meaning bread.

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Matcha Flavoured Melon Pan

Even with its appearance resembling a rock melon, it traditionally doesn’t taste like a melon, but in modern days, a lot more bakeries have started to use melon flavouring for the bread. There are many variations of flavours for melon pan and I’ve decided to go with matcha.

Matcha is a great traditional Japanese flavour that’s been commonly used in baking and cooking in the past few years. I chose to do matcha because I don’t like something too sweet, matcha gives that earthy and tiny bitterness that balances out all that sugar in the cookie topping. Matcha also gives a green colour so it’s great to resemble a rock melon. Other than matcha, you can always experiment with other flavours like chocolate, strawberry and many more!

When making the matcha melon pan, it will be similar to the coffee buns that I have made previously, which involve two components: The cookie top and the bread bun. We will first make the bread dough and while it’s fermenting, we can make the cookie top. Unlike the coffee buns, the cookie top is a lot more moldable and it’ll have more of a crunchy texture than crispy. You will also learn to score the top to resemble a melon skin pattern.

The Best Time to Eat Melon Pan

This matcha melon pan is great for a morning breakfast, and during my experience eating this in Japan, it was cream-filled. So you can always add more to your liking, but for me, I prefer the matcha melon pan plain itself.

So do try this Melon Pan recipe out and see for yourself!

Some tips that might be useful:

  • You can experiment with trying other flavours for the topping such as melon, chocolate, strawberry, etc. You should replace these ingredients in place of matcha for the cookie topping ingredients.
  • You can add a filling like whipped cream, custards or jams.
  • This is baked at a low temperature to keep the color of the cookie topping.

Some terms you might need to know:

Matcha Melon Pan (Japanese Sweet Bread)

by Natasha
servings
4 people
prep time
150 mins
dish type
Bread
cook time
15 mins
course
Side dish
total time
165 mins

ingredients

  • for the Bread Dough (Bowl A)

    • 80 grambread flour
    • 2 tbspcastor sugar
    • 1 tbspmilk powder
    • 2 tbspbeaten egg
    • 1 tspyeast
    • 70 mlwater

  • for the Bread Dough (Bowl B)

    • 70 grambread flour
    • 0.25 tspsalt
    • 30 gramunsalted butter(in room temperature)

  • for the dough - extras

    • 5 gramunsalted butter(as needed, for brushing)

  • for the Matcha Cookie Topping

    • 30 gramunsalted butter
    • 60 gramcastor sugar
    • 28 gramegg(beaten)
    • 85 gramcake flour
    • 2 tspmatcha powder

instructions

Making the bread dough

  1. Warm up some water (for bowl A) in the microwave at 800 watts for 30 secs.
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  2. In a bowl, add the yeast and warm water. Stir it around until all the yeast has been soaked.
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  3. In a large bowl, add bread flour (for bowl A), castor sugar (for bowl A), milk powder, beaten egg (for bowl A) and the yeast mixture. This will be bowl A.
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  4. In another bowl, slightly smaller, add bread flour (for bowl B), unsalted butter (for bowl B) and salt. Do not mix this. This will be bowl B.
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  5. Mix bowl A with a spatula until the dough turns sticky and tacky.
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  6. Add bowl B to bowl A and mix the dough with the spatula until fully combined.
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  7. Take the dough to a work surface and knead the dough until it turns smooth.
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  8. Grab a clean bowl and grease the inside of the bowl by taking some butter and brushing it all around the bowl.
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  9. Add the dough to the greased bowl and wrap it with some cling wrap. Let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
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Making the sugar dough for the topping

  1. In a bowl add unsalted butter (for matcha cookie topping) and castor sugar (for matcha cookie topping). Cream everything together using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment until nice and fluffy.
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  2. Add the beaten egg (for matcha cookie topping) and vanilla extract and mix until fully incorporated.
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  3. Sift out the cake flour and matcha powder to the mixed butter mixture.
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  4. Take a spatula and fold the dry ingredients into the batter until there are no more visible dry ingredients. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it in the fridge to cool for 20 mins.
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  5. Divide the dough by cutting it using a bench scraper, in half.
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  6. Add the each dough dough to a piece of cling wrap. Add another piece to cover the top of the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough flat into a 10-12 cm circle.
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Continue to work on the bread dough

  1. Degas the dough by punching the air out lightly, using your fist.
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  2. Weigh the dough and divide it into four pieces. Shape each dough into a ball.
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  3. Cover the dough with cling wrap and let it rest for 10 minutes on your work surface.
  4. Degas the dough by flattening it out with your fingers. Shape the dough into a ball.
  5. Place each dough onto the sugar dough, making sure the smooth top is covered by the sugar dough.
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  6. Lightly press down the edges of the sugar dough to make it stick to the bread dough. (At this point, the other piece of cling wrap is still on the sugar dough)
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  7. Prepare a baking tray lined with a baking mat/baking paper. Add the dough onto the baking tray, placing the bread side down. Uncover the cling wrap on top of the sugar dough.
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  8. Use a plastic bench scraper or a small knife and lightly score the top in a criss-cross pattern to make the “melon” pattern.
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  9. Cover the dough and let the dough rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
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  10. Preheat the oven to 170 C.
  11. Take the cling wrap off the dough. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes. Now turn the heat down to 150 C and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
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  12. Now you can enjoy this as a light breakfast or midday snack!
bread
side dish
matcha
bread
melon pan
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Natasha
Bake it till you make it!