What is Anko?
Anko is a delicious sweet bean paste made from boiled adzuki beans and sugar. It is a popular and essential ingredient in Japanese sweets, enjoyed for its rich, earthy flavor and smooth texture.
It is a versatile ingredient that can be used in traditional Japanese sweets such as mochi, daifuku (rice cakes) and manju (steamed pastry) as well as Western-inspired desserts and breads such as anpan (red bean buns).
Although anko requires only a few ingredients, you might have found that store-bought anko can vary in sweetness, taste, and even texture. These variations can be determined by the quality of the beans, the cooking method, and the type of sugar used.
I’ll admit that making anko at home can be time-consuming, but nothing beats the taste of homemade anko sweetened to suit your own personal taste. Not to mention, it has so many uses, there is never any waste!
A Brief History
Anko has an incredibly long history in Japanese culture. In fact, carbonized adzuki seeds discovered in ruins that date back to the Jomon period (6000-300 B.C.) show that adzuki beans have existed in Japan for literally thousands of years.
Anko originated from China and is believed to have been introduced to Japan during the era of Emperor Suiko (607 A.D.) inside a steamed bun similar to today’s “nikuman” filled with meat, vegetables and adzuki bean paste. Monks used the beans to make a salted bean paste which they used for medicinal foods.
It is said that sweet red bean paste as we know it today started to appear between the Muromachi period (1336-1573) and the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600). This was around the time that the culture of Japanese tea ceremony spread across Japan and traditional Japanese sweets made with anko were often served with matcha tea.
Types of Anko
There are two main types of anko: smooth (koshian) and chunky (tsubuan). Koshian is made by removing the skins of the cooked azuki beans and grinding the insides into a paste, which is then mixed with sugar. The process results in a refined sweet bean paste with a beautifully smooth texture. On the other hand, tsubuan contains crushed whole beans with the skin on, which produces a chunky texture with a satisfying bite.
Which type is better? Well, that comes down to preference, but generally, koshian and tsubuan can be used interchangeably in most recipes that call for red bean paste. If you’re interested in learning how to make tsubuan, check out my recipe here!
How I Developed This Recipe
I wanted to make this koshian recipe as accessible as possible, so my goal was to use as few ingredients and tools as possible. I guess in that sense, I’ve chosen a more traditional method in creating my red bean paste.
For the sweetness, I used a mixture of sugars to add a little depth and personalization to the recipe.
Koshian can be used in many Japanese sweets, so I hope you’ll try this homemade anko!
Ingredients & Tools
Making homemade koshian requires 3 simple ingredients:
- Dry adzuki beans – It’s important to use good-quality adzuki beans and ensure that they’re within their best-before date. Old beans tend to take longer to cook, and sometimes they won’t cook properly at all. I personally used dainagon adzuki beans for this recipe, which are a little bigger and more luxurious variation of regular adzuki beans, but regular adzuki beans work just fine. Soaking is not required, but will speed up the cooking time.
- Sugar – What kind of sugar you use is up to you, both white and light brown are good (avoid dark brown as it will overpower the flavor of the beans). I personally use a mixture of granulated white sugar (60%) and light brown sugar (40%). The granulated sugar makes it sweet and highlights the flavor of the beans while improving the consistency of the paste, whereas the brown sugar adds a bit of depth without being overpowering. You can experiment with the ratio according to your preference, or you can simply use one kind of sugar.
- Salt – A pinch of regular sea salt helps bring out the flavor and balance the sweetness.
Making anko is similar to making jam, using an equal weight of adzuki beans and sugar works best. If you want to reduce the sugar, I don’t recommend going lower than 80%.
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Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make smooth “koshian” sweet red bean paste at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
Place a sieve over a bowl and add the adzuki beans. Fill with water, wash, and drain to remove dust and debris.
Transfer the beans to a pot and fill with water until the beans are covered by 1-2 inches. Bring to a boil over a medium heat.
Boil for 10 minutes and then drain the water. This step will help remove astringency from the beans.
Rinse out the pot and add the beans once more. Fill with fresh water so that the beans are fully submerged, then bring to a simmer.
Scoop out any foam that forms around the top of the water, cover with a drop lid, and simmer for 40-60 minutes. The drop lid helps keep the beans submerged.
Check occasionally and top up with more water if necessary.
After about 40 minutes, scoop out a few beans and run them under cold water to cool. Squash them with your fingers, if they feel grainy then they need more time. The beans are fully cooked when you can smudge them between your fingers and the texture feels soft and smooth.
Place a fine-mesh sieve over a heatproof bowl and pour the beans through. Crush and work the beans through the sieve using a pestle, spatula, or similar tool. The sieve will catch the skins.
Pour water over the skins if necessary, to help loosen the skins from the paste and prevent waste.
Discard the skins and fill the bowl with fresh water.
If your sieve is not that fine, you can make the paste smoother by blitzing the contents of the bowl in a food processor. This is an optional step for an extra smooth result.
Let the bowl sit for 5-10 minutes so that the bean paste can sink to the bottom.
Pour away the top of the water, being careful not to pour away any of the paste.
Top up with fresh water and repeat twice more. This step will make the flavor brighter and more refined.
Pour the bean paste into a cheesecloth.
Squeeze out the excess water.
You will be left with a dry and crumbly paste. Set it aside for later.
Add the sugar and 2-3 tbsp of water to the pan. Heat on low/medium-low and mix continuously.
Once the sugar has dissolved, mix in the bean paste.
Continue to stir over the heat until thick enough to draw a line on the bottom of the pan.
Turn off the heat and mix in a small amount of salt to balance the flavor.
Transfer the koshian to a heatproof container and cover it with plastic wrap, touching the surface. This will prevent it from drying out.
Once cool to the touch, seal with a lid and transfer to the refrigerator or use straight away in your favorite Japanese dessert. See more about how to store below.
Jump to Full Recipe MeasurementsHow to Store
Due to the absence of additives and preservatives, homemade anko does not last as long as store-bought. Because of this, it is recommended to keep it in the refrigerator and use it within 3 days. If you can’t use it within this timeframe, consider dividing it into portions and freezing it. Homemade anko can be frozen for up to 1 month.
Storage Summary
Room temperature – Not recommended.
Refrigerated – 3 days.
Frozen – Up to 1 month.
I hope you enjoy this Soboro Don recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
Use Koshian in These Recipes
- Ichigo Daifuku (Strawberry Mochi)
- Dorayaki (Red Bean Pancakes)
- Mizu Yokan (Red Bean Jelly)
- Taiyaki (Fish Shaped Pastry)
Looking more inspiration? Explore my Japanese Desserts Roundup Post for a carefully selected collection of tasty recipes to spark ideas your next sweet treat!
Homemade Koshian (Smooth Sweet Red Bean Paste)
Ingredients
- 200 g dry adzuki beans
- water
- 175 g sugar I use 60% white sugar, 40% light brown sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Pour 200 g dry adzuki beans into a bowl and fill it with water until the beans are fully covered. Swill the beans around and then drain the water. Repeat 2-3 times to wash.
- Transfer the beans to a pot and fill with fresh water until they are submerged. The water should cover the beans by 1-2 inches. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes.
- Drain the water and discard.
- Rinse out the pot and pour the beans back in. Fill the pot with fresh water once more, making sure the beans are fully submerged. Again, the water should be 1-2 inches higher than the beans.
- Bring to a boil over a medium heat once more and scoop out any foam that forms on the surface of the water.
- Once it's boiling, lower the heat slightly and place a drop lid on top. Gently boil until the beans are fully softened (usually about 40 mins to 1 hour). Check the beans occasionally, stir them and top up the water as necessary so that they're always submerged.
- After 40 minutes, take a few of the larger beans, run them under cold water to cool them down, and smudge them between your thumb and forefinger. If they're soft enough to spread like a paste, the beans are fully cooked. If it's a little hard or grainy, continue to cook. Check every 5-10 minutes until they're soft to the core.
- Once soft, turn off the heat. Place a fine-mesh sieve over a heatproof bowl and pour the beans through.
- Crush the beans thoroughly, pushing them through the sieve as you go. I used a pestle to grind them. Pour water over them occasionally to make loosen the insides of the beans from the skins.
- Scrape the bottom of the sieve into the bowl to catch all of the bean paste, then fill the bowl with fresh water. Note: For an even smoother result, you can pour the mixture into a food processor and blitz before pouring it back into the bowl.
- Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until the paste has sunk to the bottom. Carefully pour out the top water, being careful not to pour away any of the bean paste, and refill with fresh water. Repeat 3 times in total (this step improves the flavor of the bean paste).
- Pour the bean paste into a cheesecloth and squeeze out all of the water. Set aside for now.
- Add 175 g sugar to a saucepan along with 2-3 tbsp of water. Heat on medium-low and stir continuously until the sugar has dissolved.
- Mix the red bean paste into the melted sugar and mix continuously over the heat until you can draw a line across the bottom of the pan. (Be careful not to overcook as it will firm up once cooled).
- Turn off the heat and mix in ¼ tsp salt.
- Transfer to a wide container and cover with plastic wrap touching the surface to stop it from drying out. Leave to cool to room temperature, then eal the container with a lid and store in the fridge for up to 3 days. Alternatively, divide into portions and freeze for up to 1 month.
- Use your homemade koshian red bean paste to make a variety of Japanese desserts!
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