Karee Pan, or Curry Bread, is one of the most delicious Japanese food creations ever! It is, as the name suggests, a bread roll filled with curry; it sounds so simple but it’s so incredible.
Classic karee pan, and the type you will find sold everywhere in Japan, is fried karee pan but in this recipe I am going to show you how to bake it instead (just to make it a little healthier). The fried version is so delicious though, so I definitely recommend trying it! Karee pan, like Yakisoba Pan, is so convenient because it’s basically one meal packed into one bread roll that you can eat easily anywhere!
I actually prefer Karee Pan to plain curry with rice, because it’s easier to eat on the go and it’s just amazing. I can’t remember when I first had karee pan, but my daughter only had her first taste of it a few years ago and now whenever she goes back to Japan, she has to have karee pan. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but my high school had the best canteen ever, so of course it had karee pan so I would get one whenever I forgot to pack my lunch (which I often did on purpose). They also sold fried rice, ramen, udon, and just every other amazing food for an insanely cheap price. High school was my chubby, carb-loading food monster phase…it was great.
Karee pan isn’t filled with regular curry though. Because it is packed into a bread roll and eaten like a sandwich, the curry needs to be much thicker than regular curry. To make it thicker, you mash up some potatoes into the curry; and also use mince instead of beef chunks. Then you can eat it easily so it makes a perfect lunch! I hope you enjoy the karee pan!
Ingredients
Bread Roll
- 180 g Baker's Flour
- 20 g Plain flour
- 20 g sugar
- 2 g salt
- 3 g dry yeast
- 140 g milk
- 30 g butter
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- Olive oil spray
Curry filling
- 100 g beef mince
- 3 potato
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 250 ml water
- 70 g store bought Japanese curry roux
- 1 tsp garam massala
Instructions
- Combine the yeast, milk, and sugar in a small bowl or jug then cover and set aside for 10 minutes then stir in the egg.
- Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.
- Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the liquid mixture and stir to form a soft dough.
- Transfer to an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and knead for about 5 min or until smooth and elastic.
- With the mixer motor running, add the chopped butter and mix until the butter is combined and a smooth and silky dough forms.
- Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover and set aside in a warm place to prove for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
- Meantime, make the curry filling.
- Cut the carrot, onion and garlic finely.
- Peel and cut potato into bite size pieces and cook until soft to make potato mash. Set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a frying pan and cook the onion, carrot, and garlic until soft then add beef mince to the frying pan to cook.
- Add water to the frying pan and bring it to boil.
- Turn the heat down to low and add the curry roux.
- Stir and mix the curry roux to dissolve.
- Add the mashed potato and simmer till the mixture has thickened.
- Pour it into a flat container and when it is set, divide it into 8 even sizes.
- Divide the bread dough into 8 equal sized balls and knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth.
- Wrap the curry piece with a bread rol.
- Spray it with olive oil and roll in panko crumbs to coat the bread.
- Repeat the process for the 7 others.
- Place them on a cooking paper lined oven tray and cover with clean damp cloth and set aside for about 45 min or until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 180 degree and bake for 15 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Question on eggs! There are two questions further up about whether or not to add egg with conflicting responses – one response says to add a whole egg and the other says no egg at all.
Please provide clarification on whether or not an egg is needed for the dough. Thank you!
Hi Krista, No egg at all. I will update the recipe shortly.
please clarify tt’s it’s 180 degrees C so 350 degrees F cuz I messed hat up
Hi Charles, sorry for the confusion. Yes that’s correct. 180°c is 356°F 😀
Hi Shihoko,
I was wondering how exactly you fill the dough? Do you freeze the curry and then place cubes of it in the dough and then bake it or do you just allow it to cool in its mold and then add it? Do you let the dough proof after adding the curry or do they go straight into the oven? Do you know what type of bread dough this is – whether or not its laminated, rich, straight, enriched, lean, or yeast dough?
Also, thank you so much for putting the ingredients in grams! It takes the conversion step out for me. I can’t wait to try this one out soon! 😀
Hi Hanna, This is yeast dough and curry is very thick so you do not need to freeze or anything. The dough need to be proofed like making An-pan after it is shaped. I am trying to update all recipes but I have over 240 recipes here and am updating 2 a week so take a while…. but will get this one too eventually.
Really quick, is the dough upposed to be gooey? Cause that’s what’s happnening to me
Hi Zoe, no it is not supposed to be gooey…. supposed to be soft bread.
im gonna try this soon!
I hope you enjoy it 😀
Hi Shihoko,
Thank you for your wondeful recipes! I find your blog posts really helpful in my learning to make Japanese homemade food, especially because I live in Sydney and can easily find the ingredients you list!
I want to try making this curry pan as it looks delicious. My question is, can you make them in advance and freeze them? Would you freeze them raw or already baked? How long can you store them in room temperature once made?
Hi Luciana, the curry bread probably is served best when they are freshly baked. However, if you have to you can freeze them after you baked them. It will last about a month in a freezer and you can microwave to reheat. It will be ok for a couple day in room temperature 😀
Thanks for your reply Shihoko! 🙂
I didn’t do very well with the bread so I’ve got a couple of questions for next time.
– was there supposed to be an egg in there? It is in the recipe, but not the ingredients list. I added it, but then had to add a lot more flour to get the dough to the right consistency.
– was the milk supposed to be warm? I don’t think my yeast reacted to it so the bread didn’t rise. I’m not sure if the yeast is just old though!
Hi Nikki, Thank you for trying and making the recipe. Sorry it did not turn out well for you. I fixed the recipe. You are right, there is no egg listed and you are not supposed to add egg either. Yes the yeast and everything need be not old…. otherwise the bread will not rise well and it is all depend the room temperature too.
If I do not have baking flour can I use all normal flour? Will it be very different?
I will assume yes, It will be different texture.
Hi, Do you add the whole egg or just yolk as i dont see it in the ingredients list?
Hi Thank you Pam to bring my attention to the recipe. I need to update the post and the recipe, It is whole egg 😀 I will update the recipe asap.
Just the bread alone is amazing, let alone the filling! I love foods that you can easily carry with you and especially when they’re filled with something! I wish I could reach through the screen and grab one… or two… ok maybe 3 😉
Thank you Kathleen 😀 It will be great if we could 3D print out and taste and flavour comes with it 😀 Then I will grab something from your blog.
Oh my. I’ve never had this before but I can tell that it is delicious! In Malaysia we have something similar call curry puffs with curry filling in a pastry outer layer. Just to die for. Love anything curry anyway! Yum.
Hi AiPing, yes it is yummy! Try it when you get back 😀
Oooooh!!! Yes!!!
Bread is one of my favourite foods but stuff it full of curry and I am in heaven.
This looks sensational!!!! I can just imagine the smell as you break one open! YUM!
Thank you, Claire 😀 You will love this if baking is the thing you like 😀