Snowman Bun (dumpling)

Snowman Bun (dumpling)

Recipe source : Doris Choo


When I was young, I used to join in the Christmas revelry because one my friends, HS, was the grand daughter of a family which built and managed the only church in town. I used to joined her and other church members when they went Christmas carolling. I, too, joined in the fun and festivities when she and her family decorated their Christmas tree. Thinking of this brought back happy memories of my childhood and Christmas! Well, those were the days!

"Christmas" brings images of Santa Claus, reindeer, pine trees, the colours red and green, mistletoe, white snow, snowflakes and of course, the inevitable snowman! I remember seeing a picture of "snowman buns" somewhere. It was cute and like I said, somehow the snowman brings me connotations of Christmas cheer!

So, wanting to join in the Christmas festivity, I set out to make some snowman buns today. 

Here is my humble attempt at making snowman buns.

Ingredients for basic bun - makes 15 buns

500g pau flour
11g instant yeast
100g sugar
50g corn oil
250ml water ( add more if necessary )
2 3/4  tsp double action baking powder

Other ingredients

500g red bean paste
red food colouring
pieces of carrot for the snowman's nose (The carrot is to be stuck to the nose area when the buns are ready and is for decorative purposes only)
black beans ( for snowman's eyes. An alternative is to use red bean paste to make the eyes )
plain flour dough, stained pink for the snowman's scarf (The scarf is to be wrapped around the snowman's neck after the buns are ready and again is for decoration only)
15 pieces of grease-proof paper ( 12cm x 6 cm )

 Instructions

1.  Mix pau flour and yeast together.
2.  Dissolve sugar in the hot water.
3.  Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and knead dough with hands for 10 to 15            minutes or by electric mixer until it becomes smooth and extensible.
4.  Leave the dough in the bowl for about 1 hour to allow the dough to develop and rise. 
5.  Cover the bowl with cling film or a towel.
6.  After an hour, punch down the dough and divide it into 15 portions of 40g each and another 15 portions of 20g each.  
7.  Divide the red bean paste into 15 portions of 10g each and another 15 portions of 30g each.
8.  The 40g dough is for the snowman's body while the 20g dough is for the snowman's head.
9.  Roll out the 40g dough and wrap 30g of red bean paste to form an oval shape for the snowman's body. 
10.  Roll out the 20g dough and wrap 10g red bean paste to form a ball for the snowman's head.
11.  Stick the two pieces of wrapped dough together and place onto a piece of grease-proof paper.
12. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.
13. Let it proof again for about 30 minutes. 
14. Place the buns into a steamer and steam for 15 minutes.
15. Decorate the steamed buns with eyes, nose, mouth and scarf to make the buns look like snowmen. 

The snowmen before steaming

I am submitting this to Baby Sumo's Christmas Recipes Collection 2013 event which is hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out

Purple Sweet Potato Dumpling With Red Bean Paste 紫红豆沙粿

Purple Sweet Potato Dumpling With Red Bean Paste 紫红豆沙粿

Recipe source :  Adapted from - Authentic Chinese Dumpling cookbook


Again, I was in a bind while making this purple dumpling, the recipe calls for a turtle-shaped mould which I do not have but since I have others I resorted to improvise and used a square one instead. As a result I have to make changes to the Chinese name as well.

 

Ingredients for dough

250g glutinous rice flour
1 tbsp wheat starch
1 tbsp castor sugar
3 tbsp cooking oil
300g purple sweet potato
150 ml boiling water                  
80 ml water                                

Filling 

300g  red bean paste

 

Red bean paste

Instructions to make the dumpling

1.  Peel the sweet potato and cut into pieces, steam over boiling water until the sweet potatoes are soft. Dish up and mash them into a smooth paste.
2.  In a mixer, add the glutinous rice flour, sweet potato paste, sugar, cooking oil. Remember to add in boiling water and the extra water at room temperature.
3.  Knead until a soft dough is formed.
4.  Divide the purple dough into small portions, depending on the size of your mould. Cover them with  a wet cloth.
5.  Divide the red bean paste into same equal number of portions as the dough. Roll the red bean paste into small round balls. Set aside for later use.
6.  Roll out a portion of the purple dough and flatten to make a small circle. Wrap a ball of red bean paste. Seal the edges. 
7.  Press the small dumpling into a mould which has been sprinkled with flour.
8.  Press gently to make the impression and then knock out the imprinted dumpling.
9.  Place onto a greased steaming tray.
10.  Repeat process until all dough and red bean paste are used up.
11.  Steam over high heat for about 7 minutes.
12.  Brush with oil immediately upon removing from the steamer.

 Raw purple sweet potato

 The skin remained soft and tasty even after several hours 

Sweet Red Bean Paste Bread 豆沙饼

Sweet Red Bean Paste Bread 豆沙饼

Recipe source : Video from Aeri's Kitchen

I made a large batch of red bean paste and I needed to find some recipes which use red bean paste as fillings. I found this step-by-step video on making sweet red bean paste bread at  Aeri's Kitchen.
This sweet bread is tasty. My family loves it.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups red bean paste
2/3 cup lukewarm water
2/3 cup lukewarm milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tsp dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
some melted butter for brushing
some black sesame seeds for garnishing

Instructions

1.  Pour the flour into the bowl of a cake mixer. 
2.  Make three holes in the flour and pour in the salt, sugar and yeast into one hole for each ingredient
3.  Cover up with the flour and pour in the lukewarm water and lukewarm milk.
4.  Use the dough hook and mix until all the ingredients are well blended.
5.  Add in the melted butter and mix until a smooth dough is formed.
6.  Cover the dough with cling film and set aside to rise until double in size, about 45 minutes to one hour.
7.  Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Divide the bean paste into 12 balls.
8.  Roll out one piece of dough into a round circle and wrap it around one ball of bean paste. 
9.  Press down to form a flat round pancake. 
10. Using a knife or a pair of scissors, make 8 cuts round the pancake ( see picture below )
11.  Place some sesame seeds onto the centre of the pancake and place it on a greased baking tray. ( See picture below ).
12.  Repeat until all the 12 pieces are completed.
13.  Set aside to allow them to rise for about 15 minutes.
14.  Bake in preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20 minutes.
15.  Brush with melted butter while the bread is still very hot.

Cut 8 slits round the flatten round dough. 

Put some black sesame seeds onto the centre

Pan-Fried Glutinous Rice cake 煎糯米豆沙糕

Pan-Fried Glutinous Rice cake 煎糯米豆沙糕

Recipe source : Adapted from the video food4444lyfe


The original recipe from the video used peanut butter as filling. I substituted the peanut butter with red bean paste. I doubled the quantity of ingredients used in the original recipe. The skin is crispy and fragrant when eaten while they were still warm. The rice cakes  were sweet and chewy when cooled down totally.  

I will definitely make them again as both SK and I like them very much.  We like the chewy texture and find them very delicious.

Ingredients

80g water
50g coconut milk or santan
2 tbsp sugar
40g hot water
200g glutinous rice flour
2 tbsp oil ( optional )
8 tsp red bean paste
some cooking oil for pan-frying 

Instructions

1.  Mix 80g of water with coconut milk and set the mixture aside.
2.  In a big bowl, dissolve 2 tbsp sugar in 40g of water.
3.  Add in the glutinous rice flour and the coconut milk mixture. 
4.  Add in 2 tbsp cooking oil (optional ).
5.  Mix all the ingredients together and knead into a smooth dough.
6.  Divide the dough into 8 equal portions.
7.  Roll out one portion of dough and flatten to form a small circle.
8.  Place one tsp of red bean paste onto the centre of the dough.
9.  Wrap up the red bean paste and roll between both hands to form a ball. Flatten the ball to form a small disc.
10.  Repeat the steps to complete making 8 pancakes.
11.  Add some oil to a frying pan and pan-fry the rice cakes on both sides until done.

Bamboo Leaf Alkaline Dumpling With Red Bean Paste 豆沙碱水粽子

Bamboo Leaf Alkaline Dumpling With Red Bean Paste 豆沙碱水粽子

The dumpling festival is just round the corner and falls on June 12th this year. So instead of making the traditional dumplings with only alkaline water we decided to add red bean paste to it. My late mother-in-law used to make alkaline dumplings and dipped them into sugar. I didn't like it and here is the new improved version. I am planning to make two more varieties. The traditional 'bak chang' (or pork dumpling) and the home-grown Malaysian 'sambal belacan chang'

 

 Yum-yum!

The alkaline glutinous rice filled with red bean paste

Ingredients

500g glutinous rice, soak overnight and drain
35ml lye water or kan sooi in Cantonese
35ml oil
1/2 tsp salt
600g red bean paste  ( You can refer to my previous post on how to make red bean paste )
130g dried bamboo leaves, soaked overnight to soften the leaves before cleaning them.
Strings to tie the dumplings 

 Glutinous rice which has been soaked overnight, well drained and mixed with lye water, oil and salt. Ready for wrapping

Red bean paste

Refer to the above link to read up my previous post on how to make red bean paste

  Strings to tie up the dumplings

 

Step-by-step instructions on how to wrap the bamboo leaf dumpling

Some called this "Hong Kong" style wrapping, while others called this "nasi lemak" style. 

My family call this method of wrapping the dumplings the "pillow" style! 

Wipe clean 2 pieces of bamboo leaves and place them parallel to each other. 

Let the two pieces of leaves over-lap slightly as seen in the picture.

Cut off the stems and the ends of the bamboo leaves. 

 Place one tbsp of glutinous rice on the bamboo leaves

 Add in about 50g of red bean paste

 Top up with another tbsp of glutinous rice

 Cover the glutinous rice with another piece of bamboo leaf

Using both hands, press down on the top piece of  bamboo leaf to cover the glutinous rice before wrapping it up

 Fold in one side of the bamboo leaves to wrap it up  like a parcel or like wrapping up a packet of "nasi lemak"

Fold in the other side of the bamboo leaves to complete the wrapping

 Using both hands, hold the parcel and turn one end of the edges to place it under the parcel

Bring the other end of the edges and place it under the parcel to form a neat packet

 Secure the parcel by tying it up with a string

 Circle the string around the parcel and tie a knot at the top

 Using the top as the pivot point, circle the string another round on the other side of the parcel like a "V"-shape

 Tie a knot to secure it

 It looks like a "pillow"

Snip off the odd ends of the bamboo leaves

Boiling the dumplings

1.  Bring a large pot of water to the boil.
2.  Place all the wrapped dumplings into the boiling water. Ensure that all the dumplings are submerged in the boiling water.
3.  Boil over high heat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If the water level is below the dumplings, add boiling water to top up. Do not add cold water.
4.  Unwrap one dumpling to check that is is truly cook before switching off the flame.
5.  Remove the dumplings and drain well.
6.  Allow to cool.
7.  The dumplings taste better when they are cooled down.

Steamed Pau With Red Bean Paste 豆沙包

Steamed Pau With Red Bean Paste 豆沙包

 Recipe source : Adapted from a booklet distributed by The Federal Flour Mills

 

 

Basic Dumpling (Pau) Recipe

 

500g pau flour
11g ( 1 tbsp ) yeast
100g sugar
50g corn oil
250g hot water
2 3/4 tsp double action baking powder
500g  red bean paste 
12 pieces of grease proof paper cut into 6 cm square 

 Read up on my post on how to make red bean paste

 Instructions

1.  Mix pau flour and yeast together.
2.  Dissolve sugar in the hot water.
3.  Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and knead dough with hands for 10 to 15 minutes or by electric mixer until it becomes smooth and extensible.
4.  Leave the dough in the bowl for about 1 hour to allow the dough to develop and rise. 
5.  Cover the bowl with cling film or a towel.
6.  After one hour, punch down the dough and divide it into 12 equal portions. 
7.  Divide the red bean paste into 12 equal portions and roll them into 12 round balls.
8.  Take a portion of the dough and roll into round circle.
9.  Place one ball of red bean paste onto the circle of round dough and wrap it up.
10.  Secure the edges and place pau onto a piece of cut grease proof paper. Place  the end with secured edges facing down.
11. Place the pau into a steamer and steam for 15 minutes at high flame.

A cross section of a pau showing the red bean paste filling

 

Chinese New Year Greetings Dessert 美点贺新年

Chinese New Year Greetings Dessert 美点贺新年

 

 Mei dim hor sun nin

Recipe source : Adapted from an old newspaper cutting ( The Star )


The article in the old "The Star" newspaper featured a few dishes for the Chinese New Year. This sweet dim sum dessert dish caught my eye and it has a happy sounding name in Chinese, "Mei Dim Hor Sun Nin" which means "beautiful dim sum greetings to usher in the new year". This is a wonderful dessert to wrap up the reunion dinner !

Ingredients

500g glutinous rice flour
460ml hot boiling water
a few drops of red colouring

 

Filling For The Red Glutinous Balls

80g red bean paste or tau sar in Cantonese

Divide  the red bean paste into 10 equal portions and roll them into 10 balls.

  Red bean paste. The Cantonese call this tau sar

Please refer to my post on how to make red bean paste

 

Coating For the Red Glutinous Balls

20g chopped peanuts, roasted     
20g sesame seeds, roasted              


Mix them together

 

Coat the red glutinous balls with the chopped peanut and sesame seed mixture

 

Coating For the White Dough

10g chopped roasted peanuts,         
10g white sesame seeds, roasted     
10g black sesame seeds, roasted   
25g sugar                                        


Mix all the ingredients together evenly.

 

Instructions

 

1.  Divide the glutinous rice flour into two portions. Add a few drops of red colouring to half the amount of boiling water. Add this coloured boiling water to one portion of the glutinous rice flour and mix until a soft dough is formed.
2.  Divide the red dough into 10 equal portions. Roll into round balls. Push a hole into the balls with your thumb and fill the holes with red bean paste. Place them on a greased metal plate.
3.  Steam  the red balls for 10 minutes and when cooked, roll the red balls with the chopped peanuts and sesame seeds mixture to coat the surfaces. Place them into the centre of a large plate.
4.  Next, add the other portion of boiling water to the remaining glutinous rice flour and mix and knead well to form a soft white dough.
5.  Divide the white dough into 8 equal portions and form 8 round patties. Place these patties on greased metal plate and steam for 10 minutes.
6.  When cooked coat  the white round patties with the chopped nuts and sesame seeds mixture. Place them around the red glutinous balls.
7.  Serve immediately. 

I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 

hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover

How To Make Red Bean Paste 红豆沙的做法

How To Make Red Bean Paste 红豆沙的做法

Red bean paste

 

Red bean paste （tau sar in Cantonese） is a sweet filling commonly found in buns, dumplings, moon cakes and a host of other local delicacies. When you make your own bean paste you can adjust the sugar and oil levels to your own individual preference.

 

Ingredients

200g red bean

1/2 tbsp lye water (kan sui in Cantonese)

120g cooking oil

150g sugar

1/2 tbsp maltose ( optional )

Note: Lye water helps to hasten the softening of the red beans

 

Instructions

1.  Wash the red beans. Place them into a pot and add water to about 5 cm above the red beans.

2.  Bring to the boil. Add lye water and continue boiling until the water has dried up considerably and the red beans turned soft and slightly mushy. If the water dries up before the red beans turn soft just add water accordingly.

3.  Place the contents into a blender and blend into a fine watery paste. Make sure there is enough water to blend thoroughly otherwise add water accordingly.

4.  Pour the finely blended red bean paste into a wok. Add sugar and over medium fire keep stirring until almost dry. Then add in the cooking oil and over low fire continue to stir and allow the oil to blend well into the paste.

5.  Keep stirring and cooking until the paste is almost dry and look like bean paste. 

6.  Let it cool completely before using. 

7.  It can be kept in a covered container and placed in the refrigerator for about a week.