Anko Butter Sandwich Recipe

Anko Butter Sandwich (あんバターサンド) is literally a sandwich with Anko sweet red bean paste and a slice of butter. Anko Butter Sandwich has been having a big boom for the last few years in Japan and you can find many kinds of Anko and butter bread products at bakeries and many other shops now.

The history of the Anko and butter flavor combination can go back as long as 100 years in Japan. Sweet, salty, creamy, and rich tastes have attracted many Japanese people over a long time. It is said that Anko and butter toast was invented at a cafe in Nagoya in 1920s. It was a buttered warm toast topped with Anko paste. Since then different bakeries and shops made different kind of Anko and butter breads, sometimes with margarine, and Anko and butter bread became a customers’ favorite everywhere. By the 1980s, national convenience store chains started carrying Anko Butter Sandwich, which look like a hot dog roll spread with Anko paste and butter inside, and that sealed the popularity permanently. That popularity of the flavor never went away, but Anko Butter Sandwich really hit big in Japan after a Korean version became popular on social media in 2019.

Today they make improved and modernized Anko Butter Sandwiches in Japan everywhere. We used Japanese white rolls, but it’s not limited to that. Bread you can use can be pretty much anything, such as Shokupan toast bread, croissants, and even rustic hard rolls. Butter used in the sandwich is often sliced solid butter, but it could be softened and piped. Either way it is used very liberally in the dish, sometimes too much, but that decadant look may have been one of the reasons why it gained popularity through social media photos.

Anko Butter Sandwich is definitely not something you want to eat at every meal, but it is sinfully delicious, we have to admit. If you use store-bought Anko paste and bread, you can make it instantly too. If you want to reward yourself time to time, try this sweet and rich treat!