Red bean bao

With an accidental tilt of the wrist and the entire pack of red beans fell straight into the pot of hot water. And boy ! So am I ! With 1 kg of beans in a tiny crock pot, I foresee red bean related dishes and desserts in the following days. Normally I will rejoice at the prospect of this delectable filling but with a recent overload of yam moon cake, I am now not so sure.

I hatched a wonderful plan to use my red bean paste : red bean bao for breakfast for H, late night red bean soup dessert for the hubby and  red bean pancake snacks for our neighbour. That's bao(er)for all occasion.

Rustle through the pantry, what have I got ? Sugar, check. HK bao flour, check. Yeast , check.  Now, it's all systems go. I must do this before the desire to slack overcomes!

So here it goes. 10 little baos for the sharing.  The problem of the extra red bean paste is on the way to being solved.

Ingredients :

Red bean paste from previous recipe, snow skin moon cake, minus the chopped candied winter melon, 10 tablespoons.

200g Hong Kong Pao flour, sifted

2 g instant yeast

40 g fine sugar

16 g shortening

100g warm water

Mix sugar ,water, yeast. Let stand till bubbly.

Mix flour, shortening until crumbly.

Add liquid. Mix with a fork.

Knead until elastic, about 4 minutes.

Proof until dough doubles, about 10 minutes.

Divide dough to 10 portions.

Flatten dough to disc, put 1 big tablespoon of red bean paste in the middle.

Fold edges together to seal paste.

Proof another 20 minutes.

Steam for 15 minutes. Take care not to let baos touch the sides of the steamer or any water dripping on it.