Andersen Bakery – Japanese Danish in Copenhagen

Andersen Bakery is something as unusual as a Japanese bakery chain specializing in Danish pastry. Previously, I’ve only seen Andersen branches in Tokyo, so I was quite surprised to find the bakery in the middle of Copenhagen. The logo is a bit different and the pastries and cakes somewhat bigger, but otherwise it is exactly like the Andersen bakeries in Japan.

Shunsuke Takaki traveled to Copenhagen back in 1959 and became a huge fan of the Danish way of baking. After returning to Japan, he therefore founded Andersen and since then the bakery chain has successfully provided Japanese consumers with bread made according to Danish baking traditions.

The whole idea of a Japanese bakery making Danish pastries might sound a bit strange, but the combination of traditional Danish recipes and Japanese attention to detail has turned out to be a really good idea, and today Andersen is among the most popular bakeries/cafes in Japan.

On weekends, Andersen Bakery sells Japanese specialties such as melon-pan, matcha-buns and An-Pans. Melon-pan and An-pan I was already familiar with from Japan. Melon-pan is a bun with a crunchy layer of sugar and baked cookie dough on top. Despite its name, Melon-pan rarely contains melon.

An-pan is a red bean paste-filled bun. It may not sound particularly delicious (any chili con carne associations??) and it might take a while to get used to the taste and texture. Personally, I have become quite fond of the Japanese way of using the beans (first boil, then mash and then add a lot of sugar) and I think the bean paste tastes a bit like marzipan. The matcha-bun (green tea bun) had a nice green color and some delicious almond cream filling tucked between the braids. All the pastries were very tasty, but if I were to pick only one favorite, it would probably be An-pan.

Please note that the Tivoli branch of Andersen Bakery is now closed

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