Melonpan

Melonpan is an unusual little Japanese bun which is a yeast bread wrapped in a biscuit dough. I encountered in Japan but didn't get to try it as combini versions aren't vegan. Well, its their loss (I know that doesn't make sense but it makes me feel better!). I had pretty much forgotten about melonpan until I recently stumbled across a recipe for it in 'The Joy of Vegan Baking'.

I made the plain version outlined in the recipe and also made a few chocolate flavoured and green tea flavoured (its almost compulsory that Japanese sweets be green tea flavoured, remember the Oreos?).

I had some issues with the biscuit layer, I needed to make twice as much as stated in the recipe to cover the buns but in the oven most of the mixture spread across the baking tray, so that's a kink I'll need to work out. 

The verdict? They're nice but very filling! I would describe them as tasting like shortbread or a very thick chocolate chip cookie dough (without the chips) with a delicate yeasty middle. Next time I'll try to make the nice latticed tops to make them more presentable.

As I've never had shop-bought melonpan I don't know if mine taste authentic, but that doesn't matter to me (see above about it being their loss!).