It is said that buns, especially the sweet ones have a link to the arrival of spring and are sometimes connected to special religious occasions. Whichever the case might be, it’s undeniable that buns in their simplicity make for delicious dessert-like snacks that are thankfully lesser in calories compared to your favorite piece of indulgent pastry like creamy cakes to brownies. You can bake buns easily at home and they stay good for a good many days too. So here are some Special sweets in that family.
This Chinese sweet bun is steamed and pure white because it’s not baked or fried like other buns. It dates back to the Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BC), which ruled east China. While the history of the buns is sacrificial, not human-kind, the name “Barbarian head” suggests otherwise. Heds were sacrificed, but since Chancellor Zhuge Liang didn’t want to sacrifice his men to tame the rive Lu’s turbulent current, he instructed his men to kill off livestock and stuff them into dough-shaped like human heads. These Mantou buns got this name afterwards when the general crossed the river successfully.
“One a penny, Two a penny, Hot cross buns ♬”, who can forget this nursery rhyme, especially if it was part of you, or your kid’s childhood? These English sweet buns are popular during Lent and Good Friday celebrations and there's some Christian folklore surrounding this bun. It's made with regular bread ingredients and dry fruits and the name comes from the marking of a cross (crucifixion of Christ) on top of each bun. You will find them around during Christmas and Easter celebrations in England too.
For the Japanese, anpan is a sweet roll filled with beloved azuki beans, or red bean paste. The story goes back to a Japanese samurai who invented this sweet bun during the height of unemployment in Japan. This was 150 years ago when Samurais were losing their profession due to their roles being cut down. So, a former samurai, Yasubei Kimura, who happened to be a skilled baker, invented the Anpan and he opened one of Japan's first bakeries, Buneidou, in 1869, which is still being run by his descendants, renamed to Kimuraya. Today this sweet bun has become a staple of Japanese bakeries in the modern world.
These ornate-looking sweet buns are from Mexico which have been around since the French colonised the country. The name comes from the Spanish word that means shells, because of the ridge-like pattern on the bread’s surface. You will find this bread being baked during most Mexican holidays, notably during the Day of the Dead. The bread below the shell-like crust is soft and moist and the shell, cracks to give that beautiful pattern, which is in turn made from sugar, butter and flour.
This sweet bun is from Honduras and going by the name, it means coconut bread (pan: bread, coco: coconut). It came to the east via Honduras via colonialism and settled in the Philippines where coconuts also grow in abundance just like Honduras. It's beautifully golden brown outside encasing a filling of coconut inside, the Filipino version that is. The one made in the country of origin uses coconut flakes in the dough itself.
Straight from Morocco, Krachel are sweet rolls with a strong flavor of fennel and anise, topped with sesame seeds. They are similar to France’s brioche, but these use spices and a lot less butter and can be eaten with jam, sugar or honey. The sesame seeds are said to be flavored with orange blossom water making this sweet bun truly Middle Eastern in its flavors. This name changes, as you move from one region of the country to the other, going by Qrashel, Krach, in the northern areas, or krachet, in the south.
Sticking to East Asian speciality, this is another steamed bun that is filled with a sweet red bean paste like Anpan, but it is not brown because, like Mantou, it is steamed. Jjinppang is from South Korea and inside the soft steamed bun is a filling of sweet red bean paste. Here’s the most interesting part, Jjinppang is made from sourdough! The traditional Jjinppang, uses them, it's the same yeast used in makgeolli, a local rice wine, but the younger varieties such as hoppang usually don't do away with the fermentation.