Melon Pan. Melon Pan is sweet bread covered in a thin layer of crisp biscuit/cookie crust with grid line pattern on top. The Japanese word for bread is "pan (パン)", which came from the Portuguese word for bread. Now why is it called " melon "?

Originally Melon Pan was football-shaped rather than round. Melon-Pan Melon-pan is another popular traditional Japanese snack bread. A typical melon-pan is made of a bread dough covered with a thin layer of a cookie dough. You can have Melon Pan using 18 ingredients and 22 steps. Here is how you achieve that.

Ingredients of Melon Pan

You need of Main Dough.
It's 25 g of cake flour (1/4).
It's 3 g of kosher/sea salt (1 tsp).
Prepare 40 g of sugar (3 Tbsp).
It's 4 g of instant yeast (1 1/4 tsp).
You need 1 of large egg (50 g (beaten)).
You need 50 ml of whole milk (3 1/2 tbsp; keep at 86 degrees F /30 Celsius).
You need 50 ml of water (3 1/2 tbsp; keep at 86 degrees F/30 Celsius).
It's 35 g of unsalted butter (2 1/2 tbsp; cut into small cubes and at room tempature).
You need 225 g of bread flour (1 3/4 cup).
You need of Cookie/Biscuit Dough.
Prepare 60 g of unsalted butter (4 tbsp; at room tempature).
It's 100 g of sugar (1/2 cup).
You need 1 of large egg (50g beaten).
Prepare 200 g of cake flour (1 1/2 + 2 tbsp) (if don’t have cake flour mix flour and corn starch).
It's 2 g of baking powder (1/2 tsp).
You need of Toppings.
Prepare 2 tbsp of sugar.

The name comes from the melon like appearance, such as a cantaloupe. Melonpan are Japanese sweet buns covered with a thin layer of cookie dough. They take many steps to make but freshly-baked Melonpan are scrumptious! A melonpan (メロンパン, meronpan) (also known as melon pan, melon bun or melon bread) is a type of sweet bun originating from and popular in Japan, as well as Taiwan and China.

Melon Pan instructions

Gather all ingredients.
In a large bowl, combine bread flour, cake flour, granulated sugar, and kosher salt..
Add instant dry yeast and 1 large beaten egg to the bowl with dry ingredients..
Add milk and water, both at 86F (30C). Mix until combined..
Keep mixing until it forms a loose, sticky ball. Use the dough to collect flour from the sides of your bowl. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface..
Start using the process of punching the dough in order to lengthen and stretch the gluten strands in the dough. Repeat for 5 minutes or so. Tip: If the dough doesn’t seem to be losing its stickiness, sprinkle more flour into dough..
After, stretch the dough about 10 inches (25 cm). Then put pieces of unsalted butter on top of the dough. Roll up the dough tucking the butter in, then continue the kneading process..
Finally, start banging the dough onto your work surface and fold it over away from you..
When the dough gets smooth, pull the end of your dough with your thumbs and fingers, stretching the dough into thin membrane. If the dough tears the gluten isn’t quite ready. Wait 2 minutes then try again..
Shape the dough into a ball. Place inside a bowl..
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled, 1-2 hours..
In another large bowl, (for cookie part) add unsalted butter and mix until smooth..
Add granulated sugar and mix until they are blended together. Slowly add small amount of 1 large egg into the bowl and blend before you add more egg. Continue until well blended..
Sift cake flour and baking powder into the mixture. Mix, and make dough into a ball..
Cut the cookie/biscuit dough into 1/10’s.
Roll the pieces of dough into 10 balls. Place on a baking tray covered in a baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 10 minutes..
For the Main Dough (warming dough). Remove the dough with dough scraper and transfer to your floured work surface. Press the dough down to release gas in the dough..
Make the dough into a ball. Cut the dough into 10 pieces. Make the 10 pieces into balls. Put the dough on a surface covered with plastic wrap. Rest dough for 15 minutes..
Roll donut cookie/biscuit dough into about 4 inch (10-12 cm) Repeat with all 10 pieces..
Main Dough: After resting fold dough into a ball..
Wrap the main dough with the cookie/biscuit dough. Coat your ball with granulated sugar (2 tbsp) and remove extra sugar. Then use a knife to make a crisscross pattern..
Let dough rise about 50 minutes. When dough has risen, preheat the oven to 350F (180 C). bake for 13-15 minutes. Rotate the bread so bread browns evenly. Once bread is baked, cool for 5 minutes then eat..

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). The perfect way to switch up your toast toppings. Vegan + healthier & gluten free option. Melon pan was probably one of my favourite Japanese sweet bread (Kashi Pan) next to Anpan (red bean paste bun) growing up.