Red bean paste – yet another leftover from making the Chinese rice dumplings. Since the Mooncake Festival is still a couple of months away, I figured the best way to use up this ingredient is to stuff them into piping hot Chinese buns and serve them as a treat for breakfasts in the mornings.
Ingredients (Dough):
- Hong Kong flour: 600g
- Wheat starch: 200g
- Icing sugar: 180g
- Lukewarm water: 340ml
- White vinegar: 1 tsp
- Instant yeast: 14g
- Shortening: 60g
- Baking powder: 20g, dissolved in 1 tbsp cold water
- Cochineal food colouring: 3 drops
- Red bean paste: 600g
Method:
- Sift Hong Kong flour, wheat starch & icing sugar into mixing bowl.
- Make a well in the middle of flour mixture. Fill with water, vinegar & yeast.
- Stir to dissolve yeast in water first. Then slowly mix in flour mixture.
- Add shortening and knead till soft dough is formed.
- Cover dough with damp cloth. Leave to rise for 30 min.
- Sprinkle dissolved baking powder over dough. Knead to combine.
- Divide into 32 portions. Mix in red food colouring into 2 portions to make one pink dough.
- Flatten 1 portion of dough with rolling pin to make a 3″ circle.
- Place 1 heaped tbsp red bean paste in middle of circle. Wrap and pinch dough in the middle to seal.
- Place dough onto greased parchment paper, sealed side down.
- Roll out ears, eyes and nose from pink dough. Stick them securely onto bun.
- Repeat steps 8 to 11 for the rest of the buns.
- Steam buns on high heat for 10 min.
- Leave to cool on rack before serving.
Tricks:
- The process of flattening, sealing and decorating the buns should be completed as quickly as possible before steaming to ensure the buns have a smooth texture.
- Add 1 tbsp white vinegar into the water for steaming the buns to enhance their whiteness.
- If, like me, you can’t make nice pinches on top of the buns, steam them with the sealed sides down to create plain round buns, just like the ones in the picture above.
Disclaimer:
- This recipe was kindly adapted from My Kitchen.
Serving:
30 small buns
