“Melon Pain” or melon bread is a popular type of bread in Japan.
Slightly sweet soft bun wrapped with sweet crunchy cookie.
You will see the lines on top, which mimics the melon-like look.
My mother would make melon bread for us, but hers always had melon flavor from melon extract.
But today you will find melon bread with all kinds of flavors.
These (two pics above) were right before going into the oven.
The red one is raspberry flavored, and the white one is vanilla.
You can see the crunchy cookie top on the soft bun.
The contrast in the texture makes this bread so interesting.
Melon bread has been quite challenging for me to veganize.
This is my second attempt, and I’m getting better; the buns were perfect actually, whereas, the cookie part can still use some improvement.
They are actually quite good, but they are just not the same as my mother’s.
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3 thoughts on “Vanilla and Raspberry Melon Bread
メロンパン、バニラとラズベリー味”
William Tredwell
Hi Reiko!!! I am a huge fan of your blog, and I love seeing your inspiring posts everyday. They inspire me to be a better cook at home 🙂 I lived in Japan last year, and melon bread was my favoriteeee Convenience store food😍 Is there anyway you can send me your original recipe and/or vegan recipe? I am 95% plant based, sometimes I cheat, but I would love to be able to make my own melon bread, vegan or not vegan. Thank you!!! I am a huge fan, I hope you always keep posting!! 😍😍😍❤️❤️❤️
Reiko in reply to William Tredwell
Hi William, Thank you for your kind words. Made my day! I translated the recipe (https://cookpad.com/recipe/1397949) I used to make this melon bread below. The buns were excellent! Super soft and delicious. The cookie top is very crunchy as you can see in my pictures. I know some people prefer this type of top. If you are one of them, this is a great recipe. I would recommend adding some flavor (vanilla or some other extract) though. I would also increase the amount of sugar a bit. I just asked my mother to send her recipe (hers has more soft/moist cookie top), and I hope I can share my experience of making melon bread using her recipe on my blog soon.
Melon Bread (makes 8)
Buns
200g bread flour
3g salt
25g sugar
25g margarine (I used vegan butter)
130ml milk (I used soy milk)
3g dry yeast
-Cookie top
170g all purpose flour
50g sugar
50g margarine (I used vegan butter)
60ml milk (I used soy milk)
-other
sugar for topping
1. Make buns. Combine all ingredients, mix, and knead until smooth (I use a bread mixer). Form a ball. Let it rise for about 1 hour, until double in size.
2. Make cookie. Combine and mix all the ingredients. Form eight balls. Wrap each with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
3. Divide the bread dough into eight balls. Let them rest for 10 minutes.
4. Push the dough down to remove air from the dough. Form them into balls again. Flatten the cookie balls. Cover the top of the bread balls with the cookie dough. Do not completely cover the buns.
5. Add lines on top and dip the top in sugar. Let them rest for about 20 minutes.
6. Bake at 355F for 12 to 15 minutes.
William Tredwell
Thank you sooo much for the recipe!!! I will let you know how they turn out when I try to make them 🙂
Your blog brings wonder to my day everytime I pull it up and see new posts, I hope you never stop creating new and yummy things 🙂