An (sweet bean paste)

There are ready-made bean pastes in cans or they can be bought in powdered form to be reconstituted, but making fresh an from scratch is a far superior and easy option. This recipe makes tsubushi-an (crushed paste) and is used for making o’hagi (sweet, paste-wrapped, glutinous rice balls) and for stuffing mochi cakes. It is also very good spread on toast.