Make your own local Hawaii style manju with this from-scratch recipe. Maui manju consists of a flaky, buttery crust that encapsulates a sweet filling, traditionally bean paste but also other popular island flavors. Don’t want to bake from scratch? Read on for some super easy recipe shortcuts! Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links.

What is Maui Manju?

Maui style manju is another local Hawaii food with Japanese origins. It’s round, similar in shape and size to daifuku or to the Chinese lor po beng, with a baked pastry crust and a sweet, soft filling. 

My recipe is adapted from an original in my old Japanese church cookbook, which called this specifically a “Maui manju” recipe. Maui has some beloved local manju shops such as Home Maid Bakery and Sam Sato’s. Their manju are flaky and crisp, like pie! I developed my manju recipe to highlight the flakiness of “Maui manju,” in contrast to the softer cookie-like crust of other baked manju in Hawaii.

But I also need to add a disclaimer: some of my Big Island friends claim that Maui people always call everything Maui style even though you can find the same thing on other islands. Then my Maui friends countered that the other island people are jealous because the Big Island’s only good local food is daifuku.

I am abstaining from this inter-island conflict. Please don’t come for me. I just want to eat good local food, okay?

Difference Between Japanese Manju and Hawaii Manju?

Manju is a Japanese food, which actually has origins from China, so you may see some similarities between manju and other baked goods throughout Asia.

In Japan, different regions have different varieties of manju. They can be made from various flour types such as glutinous rice, short grain rice, wheat, buckwheat, sweet potato, or a mixture of any of the above. Some are steamed (this seems to be the majority of manju), while some are baked. Sweet red bean paste is probably the most common filling, but chestnut or other sweet pastes are common as well.

In Hawaii, local style manju has a wheat flour crust and is baked (also called yaki manju). They can also have red bean paste fillings but you may also find local island flavors like haupia and pineapple.

Difference Between Manju and Daifuku Mochi?

Both manju and daifuku are traditional sweets with some sort of carb encasing a sweet soft filling, so they are very similar. The main difference I see between the two is that when you make daifuku, you typically steam a glutinous rice dough first and then wrap the filling inside. See my daifuku recipe for more detailed instructions! With manju, you take a raw dough which often includes wheat flour, fill it with bean paste, and then you steam (or bake) it.

strawberry mochi daifuku
Strawberry daifuku
Red bean manju

So essentially, it’s a difference in cooking technique and ingredients for the dough.

How to Make Flaky Maui Manju Crust

Now for Maui style manju crust you essentially make a pie dough! So if you have a pie crust recipe you love, feel free to go with that. For my recipe, you whisk flour with salt and sugar. Then add in cold, cubed butter. Incorporate butter into the flour. For this step, you can use a pastry cutter, food processor, or just squish by hand. What you want is for the flour to resemble crumbly sand. For a flaky dough, leave some squished lumps of butter remaining. 

Next, you add in 1/2 cup cold water and very gently mix by hand until the flour is fully hydrated. Now here’s the key: Different flours absorb liquid differently, so you may need to add more liquid. I cannot tell you exactly how much. I know some of you are really devoted recipe followers to the tenth of a gram, but you need to let go and cook by feel for this one. Sorry! If your dough still has lots of dry flour spots, add 1 tbsp of cold water at a time until your dough comes together in a ball, but is not gloppy and sticking to your hands.

After this, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge 15-20 minutes while you prep your fillings.

Different Filling Flavors for Manju

As I mentioned before, the most traditional filling is sweet red bean paste. There’s also a sweet white bean paste that I would also consider more a traditional Japanese filling.

However, in Hawaii culinary fusion fashion, you can find many other fruit or vegetable flavors like pineapple, apple, Okinawan sweet potato, and coconut filling! 

If you’d like to try the purple sweet potato filling, I highly recommend checking out my Okinawan sweet potato jam recipe. That’s what I used for the manju in these photos. It can be made ahead of time and saved a few days before using in this recipe. If you don’t want to make the jam, you can always used just some mashed, cooked purple sweet potato, although it might be a little dry.

I also have a haupia recipe that you can make ahead of time if you’d like to try a coconut manju.

But if you’re not into cooking from scratch, keep reading for some recipe hacks and shortcuts.

Hawaii Manju Recipe Hacks!

While you certainly can make your red bean paste from scratch using dry Japanese red beans, also called azuki beans, which is really really delicious, you can also make life a little easier by using store bought azuki bean paste. The same goes for white bean paste.

This is filled with store bought white bean paste!

If you want to try fruity flavors, you can also use store bought apple pie filling or other canned pie filling. Sometimes I do find canned pie fillings can be a little liquidy and might leak from your manju, so experiment at your own risk.

And for a manju crust hack, use a store bought pie crust!

So really if you use store bought pie dough and store bought filling… this recipe is as easy as assembling your manju and baking.

More Local Hawaii-Japanese Fusion Foods

Looking for more local Asian foods from Hawaii? Check these out:

Hawaii manju with white sesame seeds
5 from 1 review

Maui Manju Recipe (Flaky Baked Pastry with Sweet Filling)

Mochi Mommy
This local Hawaii style manju recipe uses a crispy, flaky pie crust dough to encase sweet filling of your choice – similar to the flaky manju you find in Maui.
Servings: 16 manju
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Chill Time: 20 minutes
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Ingredients
  

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 300g
  • 1/4 cup sugar, 50g
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, 227g
  • 1/2 cup ice cold water
  • 2 cups filling of choice, red bean paste, white bean paste, Okinawan sweet potato jam, etc.
  • 1 egg
  • sesame seeds for sprinkling, optional

Instructions
 

  • Cut butter into small cubes and set aside. If your kitchen is very warm, I recommend putting it into the freezer while you prep your next steps.
  • In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour with salt and sugar.
  • Add in the cubed butter and work the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter or by hand, until the flour resembles coarse sand with some squished lumps of butter remaining. This step can also be done in a food processor.
  • Add in the cold water and very gently mix by hand until the flour is fully hydrated. Different flours absorb liquid differently, so you may need to add more liquid. If your dough still has some dry flour spots, add 1 tablespoon of cold water at a time until your dough comes together in a ball (but is not wet and sticking to your hands).
  • Shape dough into a round disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Let chill in the refrigerator 15-20 minutes while you prep your fillings.
  • Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
  • To prepare your filling, scoop 16 portions of roughly 2 tbsp each, or the size of a golf ball. A medium cookie scoop works great for this. Roll into balls and set aside.
  • Take your pastry dough out of the fridge and cut into 16 equal pieces. Roll each into a ball and gently flatten into a 3-4 inch circle, trying to get the edges thinner than the center. If your dough is sticking to your hands, you can dust with additional flour.
  • Place one ball of filling in the center of the dough. Wrap your dough around the filling, pinching the edges to seal. Repeat for the remaining 15 portions. Note: Wrapping the filling may take some practice, but you want to handle the dough as little as possible to avoid melting the butter. If you feel that you've made the dough too warm, stick the wrapped manju back in the fridge to chill for another 5-10 minutes before baking. Place manju on your baking sheet.
  • Whisk egg in a small bowl and brush the egg wash onto the tops of the manju. Optional: If you are using a variety of fillings on one tray, you may want to use different colored sesame seeds or other types of sprinkles to mark which manju has which filling.
  • Bake at 425 degrees F for 25-30 minutes, or until pastry has turned golden brown. Let cool and enjoy! Leftovers can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge.

Notes

  • The pastry recipe is exactly the same as the recipe I use for two 9″ pie crusts with the exception of added sugar. If you have a pie crust recipe you already love, feel free to use that instead.
  • If making your own dough sounds like too much work, you can substitute a store bought pie crust instead! Two 9″ round pie crusts will make roughly 16 manju.
  • I use store bought red bean paste and white bean paste in these photos, which made prepping the fillings easy, but homemade works well and is even more delicious. For bean paste, each manju center contains about 25-30g.
  • The purple sweet potato filling you see in the photos is my homemade Okinawan sweet potato jam! It’s so good! It tastes like an Okinawan sweet potato haupia pie in a manju. However, if you really don’t want to make the jam, you could fill it just with mashed, cooked Okinawan sweet potato and a little sugar.
  • Different baking sheets will result in different baking times, even in the same oven! Start checking for done-ness around the 20 minute mark.
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