These adorable Japanese pumpkin bread rolls are made from kabocha squash and sweet potato paste wrapped with soft and fluffy Japanese milk bread. They’re shaped like a little pumpkin making them a perfect snack for the autumn season or a platter food for a Halloween party.
Table of contents
Kabocha Japanese pumpkin
Kabocha pumpkin is the best type of pumpkin because of its chestnut like flavor and ability to keep a firm and moist texture without becoming soggy or watery like other pumpkins. In Japan, all pumpkins are referred to as kabocha; however, outside of Japan, “kabocha” refers specifically to this Japanese variety of winter squash. Sometimes in Australia, there are pumpkins called “Japanese pumpkin” but in my experience, it is not exactly kabocha. Kent pumpkin may also look like kabocha but again, it is not the same. It’s best to always get pumpkins clearly labelled as “kabocha pumpkin” or “kabocha squash”.
It is easily identifiable by its darker deep green skin and orangey coloured flesh. This versatile vegetable has many uses in Japanese cuisine and is most often served as a side dish. The way it is usually used is to slice it in small pieces then boil and simmer it in a pot with soy sauce, sake, and mirin. This delicious simmered kabocha is my favorite way to use the vegetable but it can also be fried in tempura batter, used for soups and stews, and put in a steamer or in an oven to roast. It works perfectly in desserts too like muffins and this kabocha recipe which bakes it into a sweet bread.
Can I use different pumpkins?
You can use different types of pumpkin. However, the reason Japanese kabocha works best is because it has more of a sweet potato like taste, which means the filling paste has a sweet pumpkin flavor with no bitterness at all. If you can’t access kabocha then the pumpkin and sweet potato paste can be replaced with just sweet potato. But it needs to be purple sweet potato with white/beige coloured flesh. For the bread, you can use butternut squash instead or find frozen kabocha pumpkin at your local Japanese supermarket.
Where to buy Kabocha Japanese pumpkins?
In Australia, if I am lucky I can purchase fresh kabocha pumpkins from the grocery store or farmers market. However, it’s rare and they’re not easy to find here. Try searching for local growers in your area and always check the markets and grocery stores. Alternatively, you can buy frozen kabocha from Japanese grocery stores if you have one near you. Although it’s not easy to find, it’s worth the effort to locate authentic kabocha squash if you can. It’s season runs from late summer to early fall which is when you’ll have the best luck finding it.
How to shape like real kabocha pumpkins?
After the first rise, tie twine (strings) around the dough LOOSELY. You need to do 80cm (about 31 inches) twine (strings). Tie it around the round bread dough gently and loosely. If it is too tight, during the second rise, the bread may rip apart.
2 Tips to tie up the bread dough
- LOOSELY tie around the twine.
- Soak the twine in oil (I used olive oil) in order to remove the twine easily.
Japanese people celebrate Halloween?
In Japan, we did not really celebrate Halloween and it was not a big seasonal event when I was young. Many Japanese people still don’t follow the Halloween traditions. However cute Halloween Jack o lantern pumpkins and pumpkin themed Halloween goods are gradually gaining popularity in Japan. Japanese people started to celebrate Halloween without knowing the real meaning of it in the same way as Japanese people celebrate Christmas in Japan. If you do celebrate Halloween or just like the fall season, then these cute kabocha pumpkin breads are a great little treat to make for a party or snack.
Here is my instruction for Kabocha pumpkin bread and If you liked it, please rate it and leave a comment below. Also, don’t forget to follow me on Youtube, Pinterest, Facebook , Twitter and Instagram to keep up to date with all the latest happenings on Chopstick Chronicles. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #ChopstickChronicles so I can see your wonderful creations!
Japanese Kabocha Bread カボチャパン
Ingredients
- 250 g Baker’s flour
- 30 g mashed Kabocha pumpkin
- 15 g sugar
- 1 tsp yeast
- 1 egg yolk
- 150 ml milk
- 20 g butter
- 2 g salt
- 8 80cm kitchen twine cotton string
- 8 pumpkin seeds used for the stems
For Kabocha anko paste
- 50 g mashed pumpkin
- 50 g mashed purple sweet potato
- 30 g sugar
Instructions
Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Paste
- Peel the kabocha and sweet potato. Cook the peeled kabocha and sweet potato and mash them.
- Put mashed kabocha pumpkin and sweet potato in a small saucepan, add sugar and stir constantly on low heat for about 5 minutes. When the water evaporates a little and the paste thickens, turn the heat off and cool it down completely.
- Make it into small balls (about 2 tbsp each) and set aside.
Pumpkin Bread
- Place bakers flour, salt in a large bowl and make a well in the middle.
- Combine 1 egg yolk, 150ml milk (to make 160ml all together, so you may need a bit more than 150ml milk), 30g mashed Kabocha pumpkin, sugar, and melted butter and dry yeast.
- Pour the liquid ingredients into the well in the flour bowl and mix.
- Knead the bread dough for about 20 minutes.
- Spray the surface of the bowl and place the kneaded dough and wrap with cling wrap. Leave it for 40 minutes to rise.
- Soak the twine (strings) in 1 tbsp of oil (any type of oil is fine, I used olive oil)
- When it becomes twice in size, take the dough out of the bowl and divide it into 8 round balls.
- Flatten the dough ball out and place pumpkin anko paste on the centre and wrap it.
- Take the excess oil off the string and place it on the kitchen bench. Place one dough on the centre. Take two ends of the string and cross it in the centre, and flip the dough around and cross the string, and flip the dough with the string again and repeat. Try not to tie the twine too tight. Make the knot and place the knot side down on the baking paper.
- Repeat the step for each.
- Place a moist tea towel over the bread and leave it in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and bake them for 12-15 minutes.
- Cool the bread down and cut the twine at a few places then remove the twine carefully.
I attempted this recipe, but it seems the amounts of pumpkin and sweet potato are insignificantly low. For example, 30g is 2 1-inch cubes. And the 50g of pumpkin and 50g of sweet potato yield 1/2 cup paste. If I divide it into 2 Tbsp balls, I could only make enough for 4 pumpkin rolls. It seems like a lot of work to go through for 4 rolls. Am I missing something?
Hi Tara, that was the measurements I used. I weighed using scale, but if it wasn’t enough, may be the type of sweet potato or pumpkin was different? I will update the recipe when I can. Thank you for letting me know.
I was wondering if I could use a mix of chestnut purée and sweet potato for the filling?
Absolutely Andy 😀
Would it be ok to use an egg wash before baking these? Thanks for a great recipe!
Yes of course Sahar 😀
I omitted the paste and added in a few pieces of candy corn. The bread turned out so soft and lovely! I’m planning to use this recipe often in the future.
Interesting, I like!
It was a bit too sweet so next time adding less sugar.
Thanks for sharing ^_^
I made it with regular pumpkin I find in my country’s grocery store😅 steamed it and cooked it on the stove to get rid of excess water. It turned out GREAT, the inside is really soft and buttery, the crusts not too hard. The shape was really cute🥰
But I can’t really taste the pumpkin hahaha but I guess you can’t have everything hehe I will definitely make this again.
I can’t wait to try making this. Question, when you boil the kabocha pumpkin with the japanese sweet potato, do you pull out some of the pumpkin for the dough before you start mashing it with the potato? Or is the 30g of pumpkin that you add to the dough a mixture of the mashed pumpkin and potato? Thanks!
Hi Rigo, They are two separate ingredients 😀
This looks adorable! Is baker’s flour the same as bread flour or all purpose flour?
Hi Aly Thank you. Baker’s flour is equivalent to bread flour 😀
Hi! This is a beautiful recipe and I can’t wait to try it, thank you for sharing. I am wondering if you can freeze the assembled bread prebake, or post bake? Or do neither yield desirable results?
Thank you!
Hi Ali, I would post bake. Individually wrap with cling wrap and place them in a ziplock bag to freeze. Defrost in microwave or naturally and bake to warm up. It should keep about a month.
Hi! If I want this bread to be without the filling paste,
Do I increase the amount of pumpkin for the dough?
I’d like to make this a pumpkin dinner roll instead.
Hi NJ, no you don’t need to increase the amount of pumpkin. You just need to make it without fillings 😀
Hello! I was a bit confused, Do I put the 30g of Kabocha purée into the dough with the rest of the liquid ingredients? I don’t see the purée mentioned in the instructions! Thanks
Hi Yuri, yes. Thank you for pointing it out, I will fix the recipe 😀
Can you store the pumpkin and potato paste to use later? If so for how long? I can’t wait to try this recipe 😊
Hi Emi, Yes you can. Wrap the paste with cling wrap and put it in a ziplock freezer bag. It will store about a month.
Love this recipe, can’t wait to try it! I managed to find the Japanese pumpkin but can’t get purple sweet potato locally, can I just replace with pumpkin? Thanks!
Hi Laura, Thank you. Yes you can replace with kabocha pumpkin 😀
Hi! I would like to make this for a school fundraising event. Is it possible to prepare and freeze the dough in advance and bake on the day of event for freshness? If so, how should I store dough to retain texture and such? Thank you so much for sharing this adorable recipe. You are super talented!
Hi Judy, I have never tried to freeze so not sure but in theory, yes you can. If you are going to freeze it, freeze after the first rise before the bread shaped. So as cookie dough too. On the day you are going to bake, thawed in room temperature and wrap and shape with cookie dough 😀
hello, did you use the purple sweet potato with purple flesh, or the Japanese purple skinned yam with the yellow flesh? I may have bought the wrong potato, as I bought the purple fleshed one, but I wanted to ask to be sure. This recipe looks very cute and I cannot wait to try it out for Halloween! I bought many Kabocha to cook with!
Konnichiwa Andy 😀 I use Japanese purple skinned potato with yellow flesh. I am going to update this recipe very soon. So stay tuned.
Thank you so much for the reply! I will buy the right potato now 🙂 Looking forward to the update also!
I love it amazing!
thank you very much!
I want to make this for a holiday party — can I make these the day before? How long do they store for and what’s the best way to serve (do I need to warm them up again?)?
Thanks!
Hi yes you can. If you want to have it warm, preheat the oven to 180 place the bread into the oven and turn the heat off to allowing the remaining heat to warm up the bread 😀 The bread will store for a few day.
The Kabocha Bread are very cute (可愛い) !!
What did you use for the kaboch “stem”
Thank you Doug :D, Kabocha stem is pumpkin seeds! so this bread is everything about pumpkin 😀
I am so in love with this Kabocha recipes! This looks devine! Perfect tastes for autumn.
Hi Alma, Thank you 😀 Look great and taste delicious! absolutely my favourite!