My mom used to make this chunky anko, but before I knew it I started making it on my own, and now it's become one of my standard homemade dishes.Adding water once or twice during simmering makes the adzuki fluffy and soft. Once you add sugar, you need to keep stirring with a wooden spatula or else it'll burn, so be careful. Please adjust the amount of sugar and salt to your taste. Recipe by Pront18

Anko is beans paste. My husband loves to spread it on a toast. Discover your own use.#basic

Sweet red bean paste is used in a lot of Japanese sweets. It’s commonly found stuffed inside sweet buns, Mochi and pancakes. It has a sweet nutty flavour.

I wanted to eat macrobiotic sweets.The raisins blend in easier with the adzuki if you mince them. Be sure to add salt, as it will help bring out the sweetness of the beans.Adding dried persimmons takes away the acidity for a more natural flavor; but since dried persimmons aren't always available, raisins may be best. Recipe by Ruruko

When I made coarsely mashed sweet bean paste at home, I decided to use it up by making it into Japanese sweets.I referred to the way my mother-in-law makes yokan, and made a few changes.I didn't add sugar or salt, because the bean paste was already sweetened.You can make mizu-yokan (yokan jelly) using 200g of an (sweet bean paste) and 200 ml of water in summer. Recipe by Momopanda

We use matcha powder for tea ceremony or to add to porridge. Since it was hot today, I made matcha tea sweetened with honey.Make sure to dissolve well until there are no lumps. For serving. Recipe by ohaginehan

I added salt preserved cherry blossoms and dyed the rice pink with red food coloring to the usual ohagi. The fragrance of the cherry blossoms makes them delicious, and they were a hit!This is my own way of making ohagi, but feel free to use this recipe as reference and the ohagi the way you're used to. By the way, my kids like ohagi more than sakura mochi (since ohagi has more bean paste). The cherry blossoms make these feel very elegant, so they'll be happily received as a gift. Recipe by miyuki12

My mother-in-law is great at making red bean paste.When you mash the red beans, it's easier to use a blender to blend half of them.If you blend everything in the blender, it will become smooth red bean paste. Recipe by Match

I was busy and didn't have a lot of time.After the beans have been cooked, make sure to drain them off.The mixture burns easily after the sugar is added, so keep stirring.Even if the bean paste is still soft, it will firm up when it has cooled down.It also becomes less sweet-tasting when it's cold, so I recommend making it pretty sweet. Recipe by Yoshimorisanchi

If you make your own anko, you can adjust the sweetness to your taste. It's also preservative-free, so I like it.There's no need to cook the beans for 1 to 2 hours. Just repeat the boil-simmer and cool steps, and you'll end up with tender and plump cooked beans. Use a pan with a thick bottom.If you use the same amount of sugar as the beans, the anko will be not that sweet. Please adjust the amount of sugar to taste. Recipe by umemodoki