Melon Pan

メロンパン（めろんぱん）

Melon Pan is a kind of sweets in Japan and it is loved by all Japanese from children to elders.  This Japanese sweets bread is not a special Japanese food like Sushi, Tempura or Mochi. This is but an everyday sweet.  It is not expensive and can be found anywhere. Sometimes it may be nostalgic for Japanese who had a memory of buying it with his/her mother, with friends on the way going home or might be eating out with boy/girlfriend. Today we are focusing on this soul sweets, Melon Pan.

[ What is a Melon pan?]

Melon Pan is a Japanese sweet bread covered with a thin layer of cookie crust on top.  A baker created Melon Pan about 50 years ago in Kobe. Because the bread was shaped similarly to the melons appearance, it was named Melon Pan. The flavor has nothing to do with the name, they are not traditionally melon flavored, but in recent times it has become popular for manufacturers to add melon to melon bread.

[How is the latest Melon pan?]

Variations exist, including some with a few chocolate chips between the cookie layer and the enriched dough layer, and non-melon versions flavored with caramel, maple syrup, chocolate, or other flavors, sometimes with syrup, whipped or flavored cream, or custard as a filling.  The classic Melon Pan is so popular among tourists that come to visit Japan. You can always find the melon pan in Japanese convenience stores like 7-Eleven, Lawson, Family Mart, and Marunaka.

[If you want to bake it…]

I add receipt of a Melon pan. If you are interested in please try it.

Ingredients:

1/2 g sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 cup cake flour

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1 recipe of basic bread dough

Instructions:

1-Add butter and sugar in a bowl and mix for 2 minutes. Add egg and mix for 1 minute, and then add cake flour, vanilla and lemon zest. Mix well for 5 minutes. Form the cookie dough into a log and leave it in room temperature for 30 minutes.

2-After making the Japanese Basic Bread Recipe, divide it into small balls and let it rest for 15 minutes.

3-Cut the chilled cookie log into pieces similar to the number of basic bread balls, and roll out into flat rounds. Then cover the bread dough balls with the cookie dough rounds. Roll the cookie surface in sugar, and score with a knife in a grid pattern that gives it its unique shape when baked. Place on the baking sheet with parchment paper and let rise for 50 minutes.

4-Bake at 400F for 10 minutes. Take out of the oven and let it cool in room temperature.

Melon Pan is not difficult to make at home. You will love the tasty contrast of crispy cookie and soft and sweet bread. I hope you will try this at Home and see how tasty it is!

【Where to find a Melon pan shop】

I attached some links to access to Melon pan shop. You can find a nice bakery to buy melon pan from links as follows.

◆https://tabelog.com/keywords/%E3%83%A1%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B3%E3%83%91%E3%83%B3/kwdLst/

◆https://tabelog.com/matome/773/

◆https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1305/A130503/13191181/