QUICK Red Bean Paste Recipe (Anko

5 from 7 votes

Sweet Red Bean Paste is the foundation of many Japanese sweets, and I've come up with an easy way to make it. This Anko recipe stacks several kitchen hacks to reduce the time required to prepare red bean paste from several hours to about forty-five minutes, with only a few minutes of active work.

Recipe Video

Anko or Sweet Red Bean Paste is a basic building block of many Japanese desserts like Mochi and Anpan. This quick red bean paste recipe makes a delicious creamy Tsubuan with only 5 minutes of active work.

Red Bean Paste (あんこ - Anko)

Anko forms the basis of most traditional Japanese pastry, so having a good sweet Red Bean Paste recipe is a must if you want to delve into the world of wagashi. The traditional process involves hours of soaking, simmering, and stirring to make. Growing up, it was always a treat when my mom made a batch, but I remember one time when she almost burned the house down after leaving a pot of red beans unattended.

The good news is that I've spent the past few years working on a simplified recipe for making Anko. The process I've developed takes advantage of some modern science to significantly reduce the time and effort required to make a delicious Red Bean Paste with a creamy texture that rivals the Anko made in the best wagashi shops in Japan.

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Red Bean Paste (あんこ - Anko)
Why My Recipe Works
Ingredients for Red Bean Paste
How to Make Red Bean Paste Quickly
Ways to Use Red Bean Paste
Other Japanese Sweets Recipes
📖 Recipe
FAQ
Comments

Why My Recipe Works

Using a pressure cooker to cook the beans physically speeds up the cooking time for the beans by raising the boiling temperature of the water.
Adding salt and baking soda to the boiling liquid chemically speeds up the cooking time by weakening and breaking down the pectin in the beans. This makes them soften faster.
Usually, the sugar is added to the cooked beans, which must then be stirred constantly like risotto until the Anko has thickened. Separating the boiling liquid from the beans and reducing it to a syrup with the sugar speeds up the time to finish the Red Bean Paste and cuts the time you need to stir the beans.
The syrup-making process also has the added benefit of making the finished Anko very glossy, a sign of high-quality red bean paste.

This quick Anko (Japanese Red Bean Paste) recipe is the easiest way to make this sweet treat that forms the basis for sweets like mochi and ohagi.

Ingredients for Red Bean Paste

Adzuki beans - Adzuki beans, also sometimes spelled Azuki beans (pronounced ah-zu-ki) are a legume that has been cultivated in East Asia for thousands of years. Although there are a few exceptions (the most notable being sekihan), Adzuki beans are almost always sweetened and used to make traditional Japanese sweets. When buying adzuki, look for beans that are vibrant maroon in color with shiny taut skin. The beans should also be relatively uniform in size and color. Different sized beans won't cook in the same amount of time, and different colors usually indicate the presence of bad beans in the mix.
Salt - Salt plays two roles here. The first is that the sodium ions switch places with the calcium ions in the pectin in the beans. This weakens the pectin that holds the skins together, making them soften faster. The second purpose of the salt is to enhance the umami taste in the beans. Personally, I don't like my red bean paste to taste salty, so I use only a tiny amount, but you can increase this to ¼ teaspoon or more to make it saltier.
Baking soda - a small amount of baking soda raises the pH of the boiling liquid, breaking down the pectin molecules in the beans. This significantly speeds up the time required to soften the beans.
Sugar - Sweet Red Bean Paste is usually used with other ingredients to make desserts. Because the Anko needs to sweeten the other ingredients, it is generally made quite sweet. I don't like my red bean paste cloyingly sweet, so I use a ratio of 1:0.9 Adzuki beans to sugar, but if you want sweeter anko, you can increase this ratio to as much as 1:1.3. Also, I like using evaporated cane sugar for this because it has a slight caramel flavor.

How to Make Red Bean Paste Quickly

The first thing you want to do is wash the Adzuki beans. I usually wash them in a strainer, but you can also do this with a bowl. If you're using high-quality beans, you shouldn't have an issue with bad beans or foreign debris, but you may want to give them a once over to ensure you don't have any red beans with holes in them or pebbles or twigs.

Add the washed red beans to a pressure cooker and add the water, baking soda, and salt. Affix the lid, set it to "high," and bring the cooker up to pressure over high heat. Reduce the heat until you have a constant stream of steam escaping, but it doesn't sound like a jet about to take off. Set the timer for twenty minutes.

If you're using an electric pressure cooker like an Instant Pot, you can follow the same times, adapting the processes for your setup.

If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can simmer the beans in a regular pot, but it will take over an hour for your beans to soften. You will also likely need to add some water part of the way through the cooking process to keep the beans from burning.

Once the timer is up, cut the heat and let the pressure fall naturally. I usually let it sit for another twenty to thirty minutes. If you are not using a pressure cooker, you can skip this step and proceed once your beans are soft enough to smash between your fingers.

Put a strainer over a frying pan (I recommend using a non-stick pan for this), and drain the cooked red beans. Use a spatula to press on the beans to get as much liquid out as you can, but don't press so hard that the beans start coming through.

Add the sugar to the bean liquid and turn the heat onto high heat. As the mixture comes to a boil, skim off any scum that floats to the surface. Continue boiling the liquid until it's about the thickness of maple syrup and has reached a temperature of 230°F (110°C).

Dump the beans into the pan with the syrup and stir the mixture together. Now you want to continue cooking while stirring the beans until it's thick enough that you can run a spatula across the pan without having the Anko immediately flow back into the path you traced with your spatula.

Let the Red Bean Paste cool to room temperature, then transfer it to a sealed container and refrigerate it overnight. This step is very important as it gives the baking soda time to neutralize while allowing the flavors in the Anko to meld and mature.

Ways to Use Red Bean Paste

While anko can be enjoyed on its own, it's most often used as a filling for sweets like monaka, mochi, or pastries. I have recipes for daifuku mochi, which wraps strawberries with red bean paste and mochi; ohagi, which wraps rice with a layer of red bean paste; and taiyaki, fish-shaped pastries with anko filling. I also have a recipe for Red Bean Soup that's traditionally served at New Year celebrations. You can check out more Asian sweets recipes in my article, 9 Asian Dessert Recipes.

Other Japanese Sweets Recipes

📖 Recipe

Red Bean Paste

By: Marc Matsumoto

5 from 7 votes

Print Pin

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 45

Total Time 50

Yield servings

Equipment

1 Strainer

1 Pressure cooker

1 12-inch Non-stick Frying Pan

1 Spoonula

1 Instant Read Thermometer

1 Glass Storage Containers

Units

Ingredients

225 grams adzuki beans
4 cups water
¼ teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon salt
200 grams evaporated cane sugar (~1 US cup)

Instructions

Put the 225 grams adzuki beans in a strainer and wash them well.
Add adzuki beans, 4 cups water, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, and ⅛ teaspoon salt to a pressure cooker and affix the lid.
Set the pressure to high and bring the cooker up to pressure over high heat.
Adjust the heat down to maintain a gentle stream of steam escaping from the valve and then set a timer for 20 minutes.
When the timer goes off, turn off the heat and let the pressure drop naturally for 20-30 minutes.
When the pressure has dropped, open the lid and then dump the beans into a strainer set over a frying pan (a non-stick pan works best). Press on the red beans with a spatula to get as much liquid out of the beans as possible, but don't press the beans through the sieve.
Add the 200 grams evaporated cane sugar to the bean liquid and bring the mixture to a boil. Skim any scum off that floats to the top, and continue boiling the mixture until it is thick and syrupy and has reached a temperature of 230°F (110°C).
Add the Adzuki beans to the syrup and stir well to combine. Continue cooking the mixture while constantly stirring until the red bean paste has thickened enough that you can run a spatula across the pan without the Anko immediately running back into the path.
Let the Anko cool to room temperature and transfer it to a container and refrigerate it overnight.

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Nutrition Facts

Calories • 176kcalCarbohydrates • 43gProtein • 6gFat • 0.1gSaturated Fat • 0.1gPolyunsaturated Fat • 0.03gMonounsaturated Fat • 0.01gSodium • 78mgPotassium • 361mgFiber • 4gSugar • 25gVitamin A • 5IUCalcium • 22mgIron • 1mg

FAQ

What is Anko or Red Bean Paste?

Anko (あんこ or 餡こ) is a sweet red bean paste made from adzuki beans that have been cooked until tender and then sweetened with sugar as it is cooked down into a thick paste. It can be prepared with whole beans remaining for tsubuan (粒あん), or it can be mashed and passed through a sieve to make a smooth paste known as koshian (こしあん).

How do you pronounce Anko?

Anko is a two-syllable name that is pronounced as follows:

an like swan
ko like corner

Is Red Bean Paste vegan?

As long as the sugar you use is vegan-friendly, this red bean paste recipe is vegetarian and vegan.

Can you taste the baking soda in the anko?

If you eat the anko right away there will be a slight bitterness to the anko from the baking soda. To eliminate this, all you need to do is leave the anko in the fridge overnight. This allows the baking soda time to neutralize and you will not be able to taste it the next day.

What's the difference between tsubu-an and koshi-an?

Tsubu-an literally means "chunky anko" while Koshi-an means "strained anko". As the names imply, Tsuban leaves the beans intact while Koshian has the beans smashed and pressed through a strainer to achieve a smooth consistency.

What to make with Red Bean Paste?

Red Bean Paste forms the basis for many types of wagashi (和菓子) or traditional Japanese sweets. For example, rice cakes can be stuffed with Anko to make Daifuku (大福)or various types of mochi such as Kashiwa Mochi, Sakura Mochi, or Kusa Mochi. The sweet red bean paste can also be wrapped around a ball of mochi rice to make Ohagi (お萩) or Botamochi (ぼたもち). The Anko can be pureed and gelled to make Yōkan. It can be turned into a soup to make Oshiruko (おしるこ) or Zenzai (ぜんざい). Stuffed into buns it becomes Anpan (あんパン) stuffed between pancakes it becomes Dorayaki (どら焼き), and stuffed into a fish-shaped pastry it becomes Taiyaki (たい焼き). In the photo below, I've stuffed some anko into a rice wafer to make Monaka (最中), which has a light, crispy texture and wonderful toasted rice aroma.
Anko, or Japanese red bean paste stuffed into monaka with adzuki beans in the background.

How much Anko does this recipe make?

This recipe will make about 750 grams of Red Bean Paste.

Comments

5 from 7 votes (1 rating without comment)