What kind of magic happens when you put Japanese combini pastries into a hot sandwich maker?

Melon bread and more goes into the hot sandwich maker for our kashipan taste-test experiment.

Japanese convenience stores are a constant source of joy in our lives, and a lot of that happiness radiates out from the bread aisle. That’s where you’ll find the class of Japanese baked goods called kashipan or “confectionary breads,” sweet light pastry snacks that always put a smile on our faces and a rumble in our stomachs when we set eyes upon them.

So, naturally, when our Japanese-language reporter MG Ogawa came back from his shopping run at 7-Eleven, he had no fewer than five kinds of sweet bread.

▼ 7-Eleven’s Butterscotch Bread, Melon Bread, Chocolate Cream Chigiri Bread, Sugar Flat Bread, and Petit Maple Bread

Now MG could have given in to his immediate impulse to dive face first into this cornucopia of kashipan, but he showed admirable resolve by holding off just long enough for an idea to pop into his head. As loyal SoraNews24 readers know, we’ve been finding more and more uses for our hot sandwich maker beyond just making hot sandwiches. Now MG wondered what would happen if he gave his kashipan collection the sandwich-press-treatment, and he decided to find out by grilling each for three minutes and taste-testing them.

● Melon Bread

Let’s start off with Melon Bread, the king of kashipan. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of eating it, Melon Bread has a cookie-like top crust with a hint of crispness to it, so MG had high hopes that some extra grilling would make it even better. After three minutes in the hot sandwich maker, it actually looked a lot like a waffle.

● Butterscotch Bread

A relative newcomer to the kashipan scene, 7-Eleven’s Butterscotch Bread is a new Danish-like entry vector for a flavor largely unfamiliar to foodies in Japan. The sweet, buttery aroma that wafted up when MG opened the sandwich maker’s lid, though, had him very eager to experience this cross-cultural culinary treat.

● Chocolate Cream Chigiri Bread

Within kashipan, chigiri bread is a subset of spherically segmented sweet breads (chigiri comes from the Japanese word chigiru, meaning “to tear off,” since you can easily tear one segment off from the others). Since 7-Eleven’s Chocolate Cream Chigiri Bread is too long to fit in the sandwich maker, MG cut it in half.

While the top half came out looking sort of smushed, the underside had a nice, golden-brown color.

● Sugar Flat Bread

This one needed to be cut in half as well. The top of the bread is sprinkled with coarse sugar, and during cooking the Sugar Flat Bread made enticing popping noises, almost like a stew on low boil.

● Petit Maple Bread

And last, true to its name, the Petit Maple Bread was compact enough to fit two pieces in the sandwich maker, which came out looking kind of like fancy cookies.

And now, on to the tasting!

● Melon Bread

Since it looked so much like a waffle, MG decided to eat this with a fork. Really, though, the more accurate food analogy is senbei, or Japanese rice crackers. Again, the top crust of melon bread is already a little crunchy, and that aspect got greatly enhanced during its time in the sandwich maker. The end result reminded MG of kawara senbei, a particularly crispy class of rice cracker, but with the sweet, ever so slightly fruity flavor of melon bread, resulting in what felt like a very sophisticated snack.

● Butterscotch Bread

Just as MG had hoped, the sensation of hot buttery goodness that hit his taste buds was tremendously satisfying. Unfortunately, there was something else that was also tremendous: how heavy this felt. 7-Eleven’s Butterscotch Bread is pretty tall, so compressing it in the sandwich press means that every bite of is delivering a lot of bread to your stomach. Granted, it’s still the same amount of bread overall, but the bread-per-bite increase made this one startling for the stomach.

● Chocolate Cream Chigiri Bread

This, on the other hand, was everything that MG could have hoped for: a crisp but light crust with a warm, melty chocolate center. Honestly, if 7-Eleven sold bread like this in its hot food case, MG would buy it all the time.

● Sugar Flat Bread

This one turned out pretty similar to the Melon Bread, which makes sense since they both have cookie-like sugar-sprinkled top crusts. The sandwich-pressed Sugar Flat Bread was crunchy and tasty, but not quite as good as the Melon Bread.

● Petit Maple Bread

And finally, the Petit Maple Bread was great too, adding a crisp quality to a flavor most commonly associated with soft, fluffy pancakes. As an added bonus, since you get several pieces of Petit Maple Bread in each bag, you can eat some as-is and sandwich-press the others, letting you enjoy both textures in the same snack session.

Out of the bunch, MG’s favorite was the sandwich-pressed Chocolate Cream Chigiri Bread, and since you can find chigiri bread with other fillings too, MG just might have to try sandwich-pressing them as well.

Photos © SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Credit: