White Bean Paste or Shiroan is a common and delicious sweet filling in popular Japanese confectionery (wagashi) like mochi and manju. With a milder taste and soft hue, it makes a great alternative to sweet red bean paste in your desserts and snacks.
White bean paste or Shiroan (白餡, 白あん) is primarily used as a filling for sweet desserts and pastries in Japanese and East Asian cuisines. It has a milder bean taste, so those of you who don’t like red bean paste may enjoy Wagashi (Japanese confectionery) filled with white bean paste.
While you can easily buy red bean paste in Japanese or Asian grocery stores, premade white bean paste is almost impossible to find outside of Japan. It’s quite simple to make, but the process does take some time. Nonetheless, you can always make white bean paste ahead of time so it’s ready for use when you make Japanese sweets.
What is White Bean Paste (Shiroan)?
Shiroan (白餡 or 白あん) is the smooth and sweet white paste called an (餡) or anko (餡子) made from lima beans or butter beans, or in Japanese, Shiro Ingen Mame (白いんげん豆). The beans are hulled, simmered till tender, drained, and pureed/passed through before sugar is added to sweeten the paste.
You may be familiar with red bean paste made from azuki beans. The red bean paste has two types; non-hulled and coarse paste “Tsubuan” (粒餡) and hulled and smooth paste “Koshian” (漉し餡). However, the white bean paste is always hulled and smooth Koshian.
Types of White Beans Used for Shiroan
In Japan, there are several types of white beans you can use for White Bean Paste.
- Shiro Ingen Mame (白いんげん豆)
- Shirohana Mame (白花豆)
- Oofuku Mame (大福豆)
- Tebo Mame (手亡豆)
- Kintoki Mame (金時豆)
- Shiro Azuki (白小豆)
If you live outside of Japan, please try finding lima beans (butter beans) or navy beans. If you can’t find them, then the last option is Cannellini Beans. I do not recommend substituting with other beans because the taste and texture will be completely off.
Frequently Asked Questions on White Bean Paste
1. What types of white beans should I use?
Use lima beans (butter beans) or navy beans. I used Shirohana Mame (白花豆) from Hokkaido in this recipe (bought in Japan).
2. Can I reduce the amount of sugar?
You can, but typical traditional recipes require ⅔ to 1 part of sugar for 1 part of dried beans (in some cases, more than 1 part). You can replace sugar with a healthier alternative, such as maple syrup or honey but the paste will be more liquidy and the flavor can be overpowering.
Sugar is necessary for the preservation of the bean paste, but if you are going to consume it soon, you can reduce the amount slightly.
3. Is salt necessary?
You may wonder why salt (or salty taste) is required in the mixture when you are trying to sweeten. Adding some salt contrarily makes it taste a lot sweeter and brings out more flavors.
4. Can I use a pressure cooker instead of simmering on the stove?
Yes, you can cut down on the cooking time by using a pressure cooker (Instant Pot). According to the Instant Pot, it takes 6-10 minutes for soaked lima beans and 7-8 minutes for soaked navy beans. However, for making white bean paste, I use high pressure for 15-20 minutes and run the food processor.
5. Can I use a food processor instead of pressing through the fine-mesh sieve?
Yes, you can use a food processor or blender to make a smooth puree. But even though you don’t have these kitchen appliances, you can use a fine-mesh sieve to make a fine and smooth puree.
Do you have any other questions? Please leave a comment below.
Japanese Sweets Recipes with White Bean Paste
You can simply replace the red bean paste with white bean paste for wagashi, Japanese confectionery. Here are some recipes you may like to try:
- Strawberry Mochi (Ichigo Daifuku)
- Manju
- Daifuku
- Imagawayaki
- Green Tea Mochi (recipe coming soon)
Try These White Bean Paste Variations
You may not see white bean paste as often, but instead, you will see colorful fillings that are made of white bean paste. To improve the taste of bland white bean paste, it is often mixed with other aromatic and colorful ingredients like the ones below:
- Matcha An (抹茶餡) – 100 g white bean paste + 2 g matcha (green tea powder)
- Sakura An (桜餡) – 100 g white bean paste + 5 g salted cherry blossoms
- Miso An (味噌餡) – 100 g white bean paste + 10 g sweet saikyo miso
- Kabocha An (南瓜餡) – 100 g white bean paste + 100 g kabocha (pumpkin/squash) puree
- Kimi An (黄身餡) – 150 g white bean paste + 1 egg yolk
- Kuri An (栗餡) – white bean paste + kuri kanroni
- Yuzu An (柚子餡) – white bean paste + yuzu zest
- Kurumi An (胡桃餡) – white bean paste + chopped chest
- Goma An (胡麻餡) – white bean paste + ground sesame seeds
White bean paste is also used to make Nerikiri combined with gyuhi (soft mochi). Add a few dollops of food coloring to create beautiful wagashi (picture above).
Are you looking forward to experimenting with wagashi filled with white bean paste? I’d love to see your creations!
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White Bean Paste (Shiroan)
Video
Ingredients
- 7 oz dried lima beans (about 1 cup; for Japanese bean names, see end Notes)
- ¾ cup sugar (5.3 oz, 150 g; adjust to taste; you can increase up to equal the weight of the dried beans; see end Notes)
- ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
To Soak the Dried Beans (Overnight)
- To a large bowl, add 7 oz dried lima beans and rinse them under running water. Then, soak them in plenty of water overnight (8 to 12 hours; longer hours required in winter).
To Cook the Beans
- After 8–12 hours, you can easily remove the beans’ outer skin with your fingers. Peel off and discard the skins.
- Add the peeled beans to a pot and pour just enough tap water to cover the beans. To properly cook the beans, use the minimum amount of water needed to cover them; you don’t want the beans moving around in a large amount of water.
- Bring it to a boil on medium heat. Let it boil for 2 minutes while foam starts to appear.
- Pour then beans into a sieve to drain the water. Quickly rinse the pot, then put the beans back in the pot. Add just enough cold water to cover the beans.
- Cover with a lid slightly ajar and let simmer on low heat until the beans become tender, about 1½ to 2 hours. You can shorten the cooking time by using a pressure cooker (set at High pressure for 15–20 minutes).
- Once in a while, check the beans and skim off the foam on the surface. This helps to make the white paste even whiter. Add a bit more water to keep the beans covered, if needed. Make sure the amount of water is just enough to cover the beans.
- When you can easily crush the beans between two fingers, it’s done.
- Save a little bit of cooking liquid for the next step. Then, drain the remaining liquid from the beans.
To Make the Shiroan
- Transfer a small portion of drained beans to a fine-mesh strainer set over a large plate. I used a Japanese uragoshi-ki (it‘s also a flour sifter). Press the beans through the strainer using a wooden spatula. You will get a finer and smoother paste built up under the sieve/over the plate. If it’s too dry, put a tiny bit of cooking liquid on the beans before pressing. Alternatively, you can use a food processor to purée the beans. Add a little bit of cooking liquid, if necessary.
- Put the paste in a clean saucepan. Add ¾ cup sugar and ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and mix well to combine.
- Turn on the heat to medium low and let the sugar dissolve. The paste will become looser and softer.
- Then, let the moisture evaporate from the mixture until it becomes a smooth and moldable paste, roughly 15–20 minutes. Keep an eye on the paste at all times to make sure it doesn‘t burn. When you can draw a line on the bottom of the pan with your spatula, it’s done. Remove from the heat. Moisture will continue to evaporate as the paste cools down, so remove it from the pot immediately.
To Store
- Transfer the white bean paste to a clean container with a lid. If you’re using it in a few days, refrigerate. Otherwise, divide the paste into small portions and freeze for up to 2–3 months.
Notes
- Lima Beans: If you’re in Japan, you can get a variety of shiro ingen mame (白いんげん豆) such as shirohana mame (白花豆), ofuku mame (大福豆), tebo mame (手亡豆), or kintoki mame (金時豆). Or you can use shiro azuki (白小豆). For white bean paste, please use lima beans (butter beans) or navy beans. If you can’t find them, then the last option is cannellini beans. I do not recommend substituting other beans because the taste and texture will be completely off.
- Sugar: Please use granulated white sugar, and do not use sugar that has a color (such as brown sugar) because you’re trying to make WHITE bean paste. If you’re going for traditional white bean paste, the sugar amount will be two-thirds to one part sugar (by weight) to one part dried beans. If you reduce the amount of sugar significantly, it will not give enough moisture to the paste, which may result in a different texture. Wagashi is meant to be a bit on the sweet side in order to complement the bitter taste of matcha (drink).
Thank you so much for the recipe, Nami! I’ve been craving matcha mochi and it’s hard to come across in India. So, I plan on making some myself this weekend.
I couldn’t find any white bean paste online so my search led me to your page. I’ll let you know how it comes out once it’s done. Wish me luck!
Hi, I couldn’t find lima beans at my store and bought white kidney beans instead. Will they work?
Hi Daniel! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post!
Yes, white kidney bean should work for this recipe! Please adjust the cooking time if you need it.🙂
I’ve been looking for this forever! Thank you so much! My grandma use to make it and only the matsuri had it after she passed away.
Hi Kristie! We are so happy to hear you found Nami’s Shiroan recipe!
We hope you enjoy the flavor and texture of Shiroan. Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe!
Hi! Can I reduce the sugar to 100g with 200g of dried beans? Will it affect the texture of the paste? What is the minimum sugar you would advise for 200g of dried beans?
Thanks!
Hi Cassey! Sure, you can reduce the sugar amount.
Most sweets recipes can reduce of original sugar amount to 70% without changing much texture. So for this recipe; 150g x 70% = 105g
We hope this helps!
Thanks you for the detailed instructions, very grateful you put such great info up! One suggestion, with information about how much sugar, might want to specify that the amount of sugar is equal to the weight of the DRIED beans. I weighed the cooked bean paste and put too much sugar the first time around!
Hi Rhonda! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your suggestion.
We hope you enjoyed homemade Shiroan!🙂
This is a fantastic guide, thank you so much!
Quick question, upon googling Shiroan, would white miso paste be able to be used? Or would it be too salty? Thanks!
Hi Madison, Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post.
Shiroan is very sweet and often uses it for making dessert. White Miso paste is salty miso paste and often uses for soup, marinade, etc.
So it depends on what you are making. It will be too salty or too sweet. We hope this helps.
hello, can you share some amazon or other online links for good Japanese white beans to use?? thank you!
Hi Mina! Unfortunately, it’s not available online… the best place to shop would be a Japanese grocery store (but even our local Japanese grocery store here in SF they don’t carry it). So try finding lima beans/butter beans or white kidney beans/cannellini beans to make the paste. It’ll work.😊
My Shiro-an turned out very dry and hard. Is there anyway to soften it again and use it to make nerikiri dough?
Hi Val,
Thank you so much for trying this recipe!
We recommend adding a little bit of water and reheat the Shiroan. You may also add a little bit more sugar too (it gives moisture) if you like.
Please note that the paste will continue to evaporate as it cools so please remove from the heat and pot immediately when you can draw a line on the bottom of the pan.
I hope this is helpful!
Hi! I was wondering if I can make the white bean paste in the pressure cooker? Do you know if any places sells white bean paste? Thank you in advance.
Hi Katie! Yes, try high pressure 15-20 minutes, natural release. In Japan, we can buy white bean paste, but I’ve never seen it here in Japaense grocery stores. 🙁
Hi Nami!
Thank you for the reply! Yeah, I know it’s hard to find white bean paste over here. I heard that white bean paste in Japan is cheap too.
Katie
Hi Katie, yeah… probably not enough demand here. 🙂
Hi! So I didn’t measure my Lima beans before soaking them, I have no idea what I was thinking, just poured the bag in a bowl to rinse and soak.. do you know how many cups or grams the 7oz of Lima beans Would be after they’ve soaked ?
Hi Angela! I googled in Japanese and it says 2.3x (the weight)… Not sure how accurate is, but just FYI… I would have no idea…
Thank you. I think I’ll just start over. So 7 ounces of dry beans!
Good luck Angela!
Dear Nami
I just made your Shiroan and it all worked well! Your step to step guide is really helpful. My sieve was a bit bigger than yours so it turned out a coarser.
I used canned beans as I couldn’t find any dried ones. Obviously I didn’t need to soak them overnight and I just peeled the skin off, quickly boiled them for 5-10min and then proceeded to the next step and pressed them through the strainer. The rest was the same. I think the taste might be a little bit different due to the liquid in the can. I didn’t add salt since the liquid already contained salt.
Another side note; I used Xylith(ol) and for anyone also using that I recommend 1 part Xylith to 1 part beans. I used 2/3 Xylith at first and that was way too sweet.
After it cooled down it got harder than I expected and crystallized so I added a bit of water again. That might have been due to the Xylith but the end result was satisfying. Especially for a first try 😊
Thanks for the recipe!
Monika
Hi Monika! Thanks so much for trying this recipe with canned beans! You gave us a lot of tips for those who want to try with canned beans and I really appreciate it! Thanks so much for your feedback, Monika!
Hi! Could you tell me the grams of cooked beans I need to use? Thanks!
I mean canned**
Hi Becca! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
We didn’t test with canned beans, and we are not sure the exact weight. You can try adding 20% of sugar to the weight of the canned bean and see how it goes?
We hope this helps!
Thanks so much for sharing this! I’ll also probably be using canned beans and it helps to know they work as well.
Could you please specify the quantity of canned beans you used for the recipe?
If i make the paste for nerikiri is it okay to put the mochi flour straight into the pan after the paste is done? When the qhite bean paste is still freshly warm
Hi renimon20! I actually never made nerikiri and I don’t know the proper method off the top of my head… Sorry! I wish I know.
The recipe is amazing, however, I made it much simpler because I live in Belgium and you cannot find so easily Lima beans. I used canned beans (giant ones) and the way I do it is: drain the canned beans, put them on a sieve and press until I have pressed beans in a bowl and the skin that remains in the sieve. Then I cook them according to your recipe. I find this much easier and faster. I have now a new batch of shiroan ready to be used as icing for my son’s first birthday cake!
A week ago, I used my first ever made shiroan to fill in my hiyokos. I will tag you on my story when I prepare them again!
Thanks again for this amazing recipe!!!
Hi Milena! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so glad to hear you made Shiroan! And thanks for sharing your tip on canned beans, too! My readers will appreciate your information. 🙂 You made Hiyoko!?!? WOW. I get a lot of DMs (IG stories tags) so I might have missed your stories… if I did, I’m so sorry! I usually go through #justonecookbook on IG posts so I may see them if you have posted it to a regular post. You’re amazing!
Hi Nami! Yes, I made Hiyoko myself. It’s very easy and super tasty! Brings back memories from when we visited Japan. 🙂
No problem at all for the reply. I tagged you on my recent IG story with Hiyoko I made following your recipe for shiroan. If you can’t find it, it’s on my IG page (@mori_no_joshi) under the tag “homemade”. 😉
Thank you! I woke up this morning and saw your post on IG! Thanks for sharing. They look IMPRESSIVE!!!!
Thank you for posting this! I tried this recipe recently using dried Lima beans, but they were all different sizes and many of them were very small, so it felt like so much work to peel them one by one and soaking the smaller beans took much longer to get the skin off. The paste was so delicious, but I wondered if I would ever want to peel the beans again! I’m excited to try your method of canned beans and especially of putting them directly into the sieve and pushing them through with the skins on because I was wondering if it could be done! Now I’ll be making more matcha shiro-an flavored ohagi soon. 😁
Hi Nami, do you know if I could used canned beans? I can only find canned Lima/butter beans so I’m hoping so! Thank you so much this is so useful because I really love sweet potato, and my friend loves matcha so I can just split the batch, perfect!
Hi Ki Li! Sorry your comment got caught in the spam folder. I’ve never tried it so I can’t 100% say with confidence that it’ll work… Sorry. If you end up trying, please let us know! 🙂
Hi
Can I use white kidney beans ?
Also there is one Japanese wagashi that I love the most it has white bean paste filling and milky taste. The pastry itself also has milky taste a bit like manju
Wonder if you know how to make it ? I found recipe books from Japan but to be honest the recipe from cookbook normally not accurate….
Hi Bella! I’m not too sure… but when I looked for white kidney beans substitute, I found this artcle.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/white-kidney-beans/
It says you can use navy beans, which are a substitute for lima beans… So… maybe?!?!
White bean paste filling with milky taste? Do you have a picture? So many wagashi in Japan… 😀