Anko (Red Bean Paste)

Anko (餡子,あんこ), or sometimes we call it An (餡, あん), is sweet red bean paste made from azuki beans.

It’s one of the basic ingredients for wagashi (Japanese confectioneries).  It’s usually used for filling for mochi, dango, and dorayaki, and topping for Anmitsu and Green Tea Shaved Ice, as well as for dessert soup called Zenzai (Oshiruko).

There are several types of red bean paste.

Tsubu-An (粒餡,つぶあん)

When azuki beans are cooked until soft and the mixture is not pureed and there are still whole beans left, it’s considered Tsubu-an (つぶあん).

Because it’s still chunky, it’s great for fillings for sweets like Strawberry Daifuku, Dorayaki, Daifuku, and Taiyaki etc.

If you would like to make homemade recipe, please scroll down.

Tsubushi-An (つぶし餡)

It’s between tsubu-an and koshi-an, where some of azuki beans are crushed but the skins are included.

Koshi-An (漉し餡, こしあん)

Koshi-An (こしあん) is very smooth, pureed azuki beans where the beans are cooked until soft and passed through a sieve to get the finest texture without the skins.  The package looks like this.

If you would like to make homemade recipe, please scroll down.

Ogura-An (小倉あん)

Traditionally, ogura-an (小倉あん) means the regular koshi-an mixed with tsubuan which is cooked in sweet syrup.

For tsubu-an, dainagon azuki bean (大納言小豆), the highest quality of azuki beans, is used.  However, in recent years, “ogura-an” is basically just tsubu-an.

How To Make Anko from Scratch

To learn how to make Tsubu-an, click here for the recipe.

Or to learn how to make both Tsubu-an and Koshi-an with a pressure cooer, click here for the recipe.