红豆酥 Chinese Red Bean Pastry

We’re leaving Chicago! By the time this post is up, we will have moved out of our Chicago apartment with a view of the Navy Pier ferris wheel. Packing and moving is no fun, but I hope to enjoy the last two weeks of Chicago and make the most of the time left in our beloved city. Who knows what the future holds.

Part of me is excited to leave, especially the downtown area. The tourists are back, and with that comes a lot of shenanigans at night. Shootings, carjackings, stabbings, brawls on the street. My job makes me hyper aware of these things, but it’s important for me to not be blissfully ignorant of my surroundings.

During my last month, I did a lot of procrastibaking in an effort to “not waste food” from my fridge. The red bean in particular was from Chinese new year. I bought too much and decided to use an unopened package to make red bean pastries (hong dou su).

I am no expert in Chinese pastries, but I think it turned out well!

Half-way browned in the pan

A meat one

红豆酥 Hong Dou Su (Red Bean Pastries)

(And sweet Italian sausage pastries too)

The Dough

The dough technique reminds me of an egg tart - an oil dough wrapped inside a regular dough, then rolled out and folded to create flaky layers.

1. For the straight dough:

   • 300g AP flour

   • 120g boiling water

   • 80g room temperature water

   1. Put the flour in a bowl, and stir with chopsticks or a fork while drizzling the boiling water very slowly over the flour.

      • You’re gelatinizing some starch in advance so the dough is extensible (stretches easily and will not pull back on you when rolled out), but you don’t want big lumps of cooked starch.

   2. After adding all the boiling water, pour in the room temperature water and knead to make a shaggy dough.

   3. Cover the bowl and let the dough fully hydrate for 15 minutes. By then, the dough will look smooth and hydrated. Give it a few kneads to make it a smooth dough. Flour the dough as necessary.

   4. Divide into 16 pieces, about 30g each.

2. For the oil dough:

   • 160g AP flour

   • 1 tsp baking powder

   • 80g neutral oil

   1. Mix it all together in a bowl.

   2. Divide into 16 pieces, about 15g each, and roll them into balls.

3. Wrap the oil dough inside the regular dough.

   1. Roll the regular dough out to roughly the size of the palm of your hands.

   2. Stuff the oil ball inside.

   3. Pull the ends shut to create a ball.

   4. Flatten said ball.

4. Laminate the dough: Watch this vid for Sohla’s paratha method

   1. Roll the wrapped dough balls out into a flat and long circle/rectangle/blob.

   2. Roll the thin sheet up on itself tightly.

   3. Then, roll the coil back onto itself. Then flatten the coil.

5. Keep the pieces covered as you work with each to create laminated little coils.

Wrap the inside in the outside (is it good? darn tootin')

Rolled the wrapped ball into a thin round

I tried another method (but do not recommend)

Assembly

1. Roll the laminated coils out into a flat round, about 3-inches in diameter. Not too big. It will seem pretty thick.

   • Flour as needed, but try not to overflour so much that the dough doesn’t adhere to itself.

   • If the outer layer tears and exposes the oil dough underneath, it’s okay! Just try to tear it as little as possible.

   • Keep the unused pieces covered!

2. Add the filling. I used store-bought Chinese red bean paste (and sweet Italian sausage)

   • Each ball gets around 2 Tbsp of filling. I eye-balled it.

3. Gently coax the sides of the dough around the filling, and pinch to make a seam. You shouldn’t end up with too much overlap - that means you rolled it too big.

   • Since your filling is not watery, you don’t need a complete airtight seal. Just try to pinch it shut.

4. With the seam side facing down, squish the ball into a flat pancake. I used a dough scraper to help me apply even pressure.

Layers

Wrap the filling in the dough and pinch shut

Push it into a flat pancake

Cooking

I kept these covered in the fridge and cooked them the next day, and they turned out well this way. The sesame coating is absolutely necessary to add dimension to an otherwise plain snack.

1. Make a slurry:

   • 1 Tbsp flour

   • 1 Tbsp cold water

2. Brush a thin layer of slurry onto each flat side of the pancake, and turn that side into a thin layer of (unroasted) sesame seeds.

   • Try to keep one flat layer of sesame seeds in a sheet tray. It’s easy to pick up too many seeds with the slurry.

3. Repeat with the other side of the pancake.

4. In a nonstick skillet with a solid layer of oil, add the sesame-coated pastries while the oil is still cold, seam-side down.

5. Over medium-low heat, allow the first side to roast until it’s starting to brown.

6. Flip and brown the other side, still over medium-low heat.

   • Add more oil as necessary to maintain an even contact surface with every pancake

7. Keep flipping occasionally if necessary, until both sides have turned a deep golden brown.

8. At this point, if you have meat-filled pastries OR if you rolled the dough too thick or made the seam side too thick, you may still have undercooked filling OR layers of dough.

   • If so, finish them in the oven at 350 F for 10-15 minutes.

raw, coated with sesame

Cooked

Notes

• These are best enjoyed the same day, but they were good for at least 2 days kept covered at room temperature.

• For this dough, the filling cannot be too wet. It doesn’t form a perfect seal and can tend to tear - all of this is okay with low-moisture filling.

• This would go well with lots of other fillings, so try it out! Can crust with something other than sesame too.