Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls, An-Pan, and Cheesy Dinner Rolls

I was inspired by cafenelison's Baked Buns with Red Bean Paste! I tried out making Dinner Rolls stuffed with Anko and with Cheese (not together!). Japanese version's Baked Buns with Red Bean Paste are called An-Pan. They are usually wrapped in a dinner roll type of dough. They turned out pretty good.


I used a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book for a reference and changed it around a little.

What I used:

2 cups of wholewheat flour
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 beaten egg

1. Heat up soy milk until warm. Add yeast to the milk and let it rise for 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Mix all the ingredients along with the yeast and milk.

3. Kneed the dough for 6 to 8 minutes till it is smooth and elastic. (I used my KitchenAid mixer for this.)

4. Shape dough into a ball. Place in a greased bowl. Turn once. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double.

5. Punch dough down. Divide dough into 24 balls. Cover; let rest for 10 minutes.

6. Shape dough into your desired shapes. The ones in the photo are butterhorns. I made small wedges and loosely rolled them from the wide ends toward the points.

7. Place them on lightly greased baking sheets. cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size.

8. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until rolls sound hollow. Immediately remove from pan. Cool on wire racks.


An-Pan Recipe: At step 6, Roll each portion of dough to 4 inch circle. Put 2 tablespoons of Anko in the middle. Pull edges and pinch them together and place them pinched side down on to baking sheets. Move on to step 7, then 8.

Cheesy Dinner Roll Recipe: At step 6, put a cheese stick cut into 2 inches at the wide end of the wedges and roll them with it. Make sure cheese is covered all the way around by dough. move on to step 7, then 8.

Please check my other posts for Japanese Desserts also! If you have a chance to try out any of the recipes, please let me know how you liked it.