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Home » Recipes » Bread

Japanese Honeydew Bread

Published: Aug 28, 2020

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The first time I visited Japan, I made it my goal to eat as many appetizing dishes as I could. I had an entire list to tackle and only two weeks. Needless to say, I wasn't able to try everything I wanted but I did discover many new favorites including Japanese honeydew bread. This bread was nothing like I've had before. They looked like melon pan but unlike melon pan, they actually tasted like a melon. Coated in a sugar topping, the soft pastry is filled with a honeydew custard. It was amazing. Years later, here I am still thinking about that bread. And so, here is my version of the Japanese bread, honeydew bread in all its glory!

honeydew bread
japanese honeydew bread
honeydew bread
Print Recipe

Japanese Honeydew Bread

Total Time2 hrs 45 mins
Course: Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: bread
Servings: 8
Author: Cherry on My Sundae

Ingredients

Honeydew syrup

  • 2 cups honeydew chunks (about ¼ of a honeydew)
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar

Dough

  • 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • ½ cup warm milk, 100-110 degrees F
  • 1 ¾ cups bread flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons butter softened
  • 1 large egg

Honeydew custard

  • 1 ½ cups honeydew juice (about 2 cups honeydew chunks)
  • 4 large eggs
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup honeydew syrup

Bread topping

  • 5 tablespoons softened butter
  • ⅓ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tablespoons honeydew syrup
  • 1 ½ cups cake flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 drop green food coloring optional

Instructions

  • Make honeydew syrup. Puree 2 cups honeydew until smooth. Combine with sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat in a medium saucepot. Continue to cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
  • Prepare dough. Combine active dry yeast with 1 teaspoon sugar and warm milk. Let sit for 10 minutes or until yeast has been activated and mixture is foamy. Mix together yeast mixture with bread flour, salt, sugar, softened butter, and egg until dough comes together. Knead dough for 7-8 minutes or until smooth. Transfer dough to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm area for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
  • Meanwhile, make honeydew custard. Puree about 2 cups honeydew to make 1 ½ cups honeydew juice. Whisk together juice with eggs, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, and ¼ cup honeydew syrup. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat in a medium saucepot, whisking continuously. Continue to simmer until thickened, about 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a clean bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on top of the custard and let cool completely.
  • Punch down dough and divide it into 8 even pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball and roll it out into a 6-inch circle. Fill the center of the dough with 2 tablespoons honeydew custard (add more custard if you can!) and gather up the edges to seal in the custard. Place seam side down on a lined baking sheet and continue with remaining dough. Loosely wrap the honeydew bread and let rise in a warm area for 1 hour.
  • Meanwhile, make bread topping. Cream together softened butter with sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and beat until combined. Add 2 tablespoons honeydew syrup, cake flour, baking powder, and green food coloring if using. Mix well until food coloring is well distributed. Shape dough into a log and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or until firm.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Remove bread topping from fridge and slice into 8 pieces. Flatten each piece until it's big enough to cover top of the bread. Lay bread topping on top of rolls and score the top, making a crisscross pattern. Bake honeydew bread for 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms of the bread are browned. Let cool completely. Serve.

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

Let's dive right in shall we? Before we can even start making the bread, we have to make the main flavor component, the honeydew syrup. If you can find honeydew syrup that doesn't taste artificial, by all means, go for it. I was unable to find any so I went the natural route and decided to make it myself.

honeydew melon

All you have to do is puree 2 cups of fresh honeydew in a food processor and simmer it with a bit of sugar until it is reduced by half. If your honeydew is already very sweet, you can reduce the amount of sugar or omit it altogether.

make honeydew syrup

About 20 minutes later, the honeydew syrup should be slightly thickened, darker in color, and more concentrated in flavor. We're going to use this syrup for both the custard and the bread topping.

Now it's time to make the dough. First, activate the yeast with a bit of sugar in warm milk. Then, add the remaining ingredients including the bread flour, salt, sugar, softened butter, and egg. Knead the dough until smooth; the dough will be soft but that just means the actual bread will be too! Proof the dough for about 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.

dough

Meanwhile, make the honeydew custard which will be the filling for the honeydew bread. Puree another 2 cups honeydew to yield 1 ½ cups fresh juice. Combine the juice with eggs, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, and ¼ cup of the honeydew syrup we prepared. Simmer the mixture over medium heat, whisking continuously to prevent the egg from curdling. Once the custard starts to thicken, take it off the heat and pour it into a clean bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on top of the custard to prevent the skin from forming and let it cool completely.

honeydew custard filling

Once the dough is ready, punch it down and divide it into 8 equal portions. Roll out each portion into an 6-inch circle and fill the center with the custard. If you're able to successfully stuff more custard in the rolls, kudos to you! I found it a little tricky to close the seams when I put too much filling.

fill the rolls with custard

Place the rolls seam side facing down on a baking sheet and lightly cover the rolls. Proof the bread once more for another hour.

While the bread is rising, make the bread topping. To make the topping, cream together butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add an egg followed by honeydew syrup, cake flour, baking powder, and 1 drop of green food coloring. The food coloring is optional but it adds a lovely green tint. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get it the same green with just natural honeydew juice so food coloring it is!

top with the coating and score

Are you still with me? Good because we're almost at the finish line. Cut the chilled bread topping into 8 portions and roll each to a circle big enough to cover the bread. If your kitchen is hot, you want to work quickly because the topping can get sticky when warm. Score the tops in a crisscross pattern and bake the rolls for 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms are browned.

honeydew bread

Phew, that was a lot of work! But I can happily say that these honeydew bread were very similar to the ones I had in Japan. The bread is soft and the custard has the perfect amount of sweetness with a hint of honeydew. Now to try this with canteloupe...

honeydew bread

For more sweet bread inspiration check out braided lemon bread!


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Reader Interactions

Comments

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  1. Carolyn JSD

    July 01, 2021 at 12:54 am

    These are HEAVEN on Earth!!!! My 16 ur old made them Ho way Dew flavored first and they were not only relish but beautiful! Second time she made them cantaloupe flavored! Delish!!! Then she made strawberry flavored and they were so good too. Finally, we were attending a Celebration of Life ceremony and she wanted to make them. 177! She made Honey Dew, Strawberry and Fresh Peach from our garden!! It took her 16 hours but EVERYONE loved them!!! Thank you for sharing this phenomenal recipe and tips!!

    Reply
    • Cherry on My Sundae

      July 01, 2021 at 2:24 pm

      Wow, your daughter did an amazing job and I can't believe she made all those flavors! I'm so glad they were such a hit!

      Reply
  2. Allie

    August 27, 2021 at 9:34 pm

    Just made these, cantaloupe flavored, and they are delicious! Very fun to make and overall nice, clear instructions.

    The one part that was a bit confusing was wrapping the filling into the dough--I definitely did not have enough to make 8-inch circles, and unless your hand is enormous the picture makes it look like the circles are more like 4-5 inches and fairly thick. I tried both the biggest circle I could get (~6 inches and quite thin) and smaller and thicker like in the picture. The bigger, thinner one was much easier to seal up, while the smaller one was hard to close and was kind of a mess.

    I also had way more custard than I could possibly use in 8 of these. I think I used less than half of it. So if I make these again I would either double the bread part or halve the custard. That said, extra custard isn't really a bad thing!

    A few questions for next time:
    1) is there any reason I shouldn't make parts of this recipe (syrup, custard, dough, topping) in advance and then assemble and bake?
    2) How long do these keep in the fridge?
    3) Can you freeze them?

    Anyway, great recipe overall!

    Reply
    • Cherry on My Sundae

      August 28, 2021 at 3:09 pm

      I'm so glad you enjoyed the bread! I always have leftover custard too but I find it just easier to make a bigger batch than a smaller one, but that's a personal thing. Plus I smear the leftover custard on some buttery toasted bread and it's pretty great! I adjusted the recipe to read "roll the dough into 6-inch circles," to make it easier for others to follow - thank you!
      Here are the answers to your questions 1) You can absolutely make the syrup and custard 2-3 days in advance. The topping you can make the day before and just keep it in the fridge. 2) Like all bread, they won't keep very long. I would recommend keeping them for no more than 4 days. 3) Yes you can freeze them. I would wrap them up and freeze them once they cooled.

      Reply
    • Twigs

      October 04, 2022 at 1:26 am

      What to do with remaining custard???? Am lost

      Reply
  3. Denise

    August 30, 2021 at 9:10 am

    Can’t wait to try these! I’m addicted to getting a melon pan and coffee every morning from Lawson when in Japan. Even the small villages sell them. These look so good! I have a lovely dead ripe melon to try it out!

    Reply
    • Cherry on My Sundae

      August 30, 2021 at 2:19 pm

      I hope you like them! Let me know if you have any questions!

      Reply

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Hey there! My name is Christine and I'm a chef during the day and food blogger at night. Welcome to my world highlighting what's in season, sharing travel tidbits, and just living a simple life in the busy city of Los Angeles.

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