Melonpan

Melonpan

Alternative names	Melon pan, melon bun, melon bread
Type	Sweet bun
Place of origin	Japan
Main ingredients	Dough, cookie dough
Media: Melonpan

A melonpan (メロンパン, meronpan) (also known as melon pan, melon bun or melon bread) is a type of sweet bun from Japan, that is also popular in Taiwan, China and Latin America. They are made from an enriched dough covered in a thin layer of crisp cookie dough. Their appearance resembles a melon, such as a rock melon (cantaloupe). They are not traditionally melon flavored,^[1] but in recent times it has become popular for manufacturers to add melon to melon bread. 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. In the case of such variations, the name may drop the word "melon" ("maple pan") or may keep it despite the lack of melon flavor ("chocolate melon pan").

The name has a bilingual etymology, since melon is a loan word from English, while pan^[2] is from the Portuguese word for bread.

In parts of the Kinki, Chūgoku, and Shikoku regions a variation with a radiating line pattern is called "sunrise", and many residents of these regions call even the cross-hatched melon pan "sunrise".^[3]

Melonpan and pineapple bun from Hong Kong are very similar. By comparison the Japanese style is lighter in weight and taste, slightly dryer and has a firmer outer layer (including top cookie crust) which resists flaking unlike its Hong Kong counterpart, which should be treated with care as the top cookie crust tends to flake easily. The Hong Kong version is also moister and is generally soft on the outside and inside and has a stronger butter flavour.

• 

  Homemade melon buns

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  Melonpan variety containing chocolate chips

See also

• Pineapple bun
• List of buns

References

1. ↑ Kazuko, Emi: Japanese Food and Cooking
2. ↑ See Infoseek Japanese-English dictionary for pan/パン and Japanese words of Portuguese origin
3. ↑ "Melon Pan"/"Sunrise" dialect survey map from Nikkei

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Melonpan.

• Melon Pan Recipe

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