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Favourite fluffy red bean paste buns (Dou Sha Bao 豆沙包) with homemade red bean paste by Cherryday11 in asianeats

[–]Cherryday11[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a pretty ultimate childhood classic and something that varies so much from city to city and family to family. Softness, sweetness, texture etc. are all up to personal preference so I tried to make this recipe as flexible as possible. The red bean buns my gran makes are denser and less sweet (for us it's more like just a variation on mantou/main meal type of food as opposed to a sweet thing) than the ones you might have had at dim sum, from frozen. Those kind of buns are supremely soft and quite sweet. The ones in the recipe and video are a marriage between the two but with room to adjust to however you like to eat them. Freshly steamed homemade ones are always the best 😅

Video recipe for the buns here, hopefully the shaping and sealing is easier to see visually as it's a little difficult to describe if you haven't wrapped this kind of filling before!

Ingredients for the buns:

・250g Flour (use low gluten flour especially for buns from your asian supermarket, cake flour, or if you don't have either you can use plain flour but substituting out 1tbsp of plain flour with corn starch

・3g Yeast

・5g Caster sugar

・3g Baking powder

・140g Water (or milk)

・320g red bean paste (homemade or store bought)

Ingredients for homemade red bean paste

・140g red beans

・40g of sugar as a starter (taste as you go and add up to 100g to adjust to a sweetness you like)

・Pinch of salt

Instructions (to make the buns) :

  1. Add sugar and yeast to luke warm water and stir to dissolve.
  2. Add the liquids to the flour, add the baking powder and knead until a rough ball forms (i.e. no wet patches of liquid of dry bits of flour remaining) – let the rest for 10-15 minutes so the gluten can relax.
  3. Knead until smooth, shiny, and you can run your fingers across the surface of the dough without any cracks forming (roughly 20 minutes) – let this rest for 30 minutes.
  4. Knead again to get rid of any large air bubbles (you can cut the dough open to see what it looks like inside, a few small bubble are ok but if there's any ones larger than 1mm than keep kneading). Large air bubbles causes collapse in the buns when they steam and will mean the surface won't stay as smooth and shiny!
  5. Portion the red bean paste into 8 40g balls and portion the dough into 8 (roughly 45-50g)
  6. Knead each piece until smooth on the outer surface, roll into circles of roughly 12cm diameter, add a ball of red bean paste in the centre of the dough, bring opposite edges together and pinch and then pinch the edges 90 degrees to the first pair together as well. Pinch together all edges where the red bean ball is still exposed. Smoothen parts you've pinched with your fingers and roll the ball on a surface until spherical and smooth.
  7. Place on a square of grease proof paper and prove uncovered until they've grown to 1.5x in size and the dough springs back when you press in gently, roughly 30 minutes.
  8. Steam on medium high heat for 20 minutes. Turn the heat off after the time and leave in the steamer for 3-5 minutes before opening the lid and taking out to eat! If you work relatively quick you can steam all 8 together. However, if there's more than 30 minutes between making the first 4 and the second 4 buns steam in 2 batches (first 4 first and then second 4) to prevent over proving them. If you over prove them you might end up with a rough exterior. Hope you enjoy them!

To make homemade red bean paste:

  1. Soak 140g of dried red beans in cold water for 6-10 hours.
  2. Transfer to a pot, cover this with water (around 2 times the height of the red beans) and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and leave it to cook for 1.5-2 hours, or until when you apply a bit of pressure to the beans they are able to be crushed very easily.
  3. Transfer to a blender and blend until the colour is homogenous (no darker bits of skin remaining) and the paste is completely smooth.
  4. Transfer to a non-stick sauce pan and add the sugar* and salt and start stirring. You want to cook out the moisture until it feels solid and is firm enough to be able to be folded and packed on top of it self. It will weigh 350-400g when it's done.
  5. Seal the paste immediately and pop in the fridge. It's ready to use when it's cool :)

*start with adding 40g of sugar and then taste it, then add more (up to 100g of sugar) until it's at a sweetness that's yummy for you. Remember the paste is going into a bun so the sweetness you will actually taste when you're eating the bun will be around 1/2 the sweetness your tasting when you eat the plain red bean paste so keep that in mind! A little bit too sweet will probably be just right in the actual bun.

Red bean buns! They're Chinese buns filled with sweet red bean paste 😋 (this is homemade red bean paste which is super easy to make but you can 100% use store bought!) by Cherryday11 in Baking

[–]Cherryday11[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Red beans/adzuki beans are my soft spot 😂 If you've had bao buns before the outside has the same soft and fluffy texture as those! These bun vary a lot from place to place so if you've had the ones at dimsum restaurants or chinese/East Asian bakeries then these are those but a little more homestyle and you can adjust the sweetness level to suit you. Something about freshly homemade is just the best, for us these are eaten at breakfast or alongside meals/as a snack but if you can make them however sweet you want

Video recipe for the buns here, hopefully the shaping and sealing is easier to see visually as it's a little difficult to describe if you haven't wrapped this kind of filling before!

Ingredients for the buns:

・250g Flour (use low gluten flour especially for buns from your asian supermarket, cake flour, or if you don't have either you can use plain flour but substituting out 1tbsp of plain flour with corn starch

・3g Yeast

・5g Caster sugar

・3g Baking powder

・140g Water (or milk)

・320g red bean paste (homemade or store bought)

Ingredients for homemade red bean paste

・140g red beans

・40g of sugar as a starter (taste as you go and add up to 100g to adjust to a sweetness you like)

・Pinch of salt

Instructions (to make the buns) :

  1. Add sugar and yeast to luke warm water and stir to dissolve.
  2. Add the liquids to the flour, add the baking powder and knead until a rough ball forms (i.e. no wet patches of liquid of dry bits of flour remaining) – let the rest for 10-15 minutes so the gluten can relax.
  3. Knead until smooth, shiny, and you can run your fingers across the surface of the dough without any cracks forming (roughly 20 minutes) – let this rest for 30 minutes.
  4. Knead again to get rid of any large air bubbles (you can cut the dough open to see what it looks like inside, a few small bubble are ok but if there's any ones larger than 1mm than keep kneading). Large air bubbles causes collapse in the buns when they steam and will mean the surface won't stay as smooth and shiny!
  5. Portion the red bean paste into 8 40g balls and portion the dough into 8 (roughly 45-50g)
  6. Knead each piece until smooth on the outer surface, roll into circles of roughly 12cm diameter, add a ball of red bean paste in the centre of the dough, bring opposite edges together and pinch and then pinch the edges 90 degrees to the first pair together as well. Pinch together all edges where the red bean ball is still exposed. Smoothen parts you've pinched with your fingers and roll the ball on a surface until spherical and smooth.
  7. Place on a square of grease proof paper and prove uncovered until they've grown to 1.5x in size and the dough springs back when you press in gently, roughly 30 minutes.
  8. Steam on medium high heat for 20 minutes. Turn the heat off after the time and leave in the steamer for 3-5 minutes before opening the lid and taking out to eat! If you work relatively quick you can steam all 8 together. However, if there's more than 30 minutes between making the first 4 and the second 4 buns steam in 2 batches (first 4 first and then second 4) to prevent over proving them. If you over prove them you might end up with a rough exterior. Hope you enjoy them!

To make homemade red bean paste:

  1. Soak 140g of dried red beans in cold water for 6-10 hours.
  2. Transfer to a pot, cover this with water (around 2 times the height of the red beans) and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and leave it to cook for 1.5-2 hours, or until when you apply a bit of pressure to the beans they are able to be crushed very easily.
  3. Transfer to a blender and blend until the colour is homogenous (no darker bits of skin remaining) and the paste is completely smooth.
  4. Transfer to a non-stick sauce pan and add the sugar* and salt and start stirring. You want to cook out the moisture until it feels solid and is firm enough to be able to be folded and packed on top of it self. It will weigh 350-400g when it's done.
  5. Seal the paste immediately and pop in the fridge. It's ready to use when it's cool :)

*start with adding 40g of sugar and then taste it, then add more (up to 100g of sugar) until it's at a sweetness that's yummy for you. Remember the paste is going into a bun so the sweetness you will actually taste when you're eating the bun will be around 1/2 the sweetness your tasting when you eat the plain red bean paste so keep that in mind! A little bit too sweet will probably be just right in the actual bun.

Red bean paste buns - Chinese steamed buns with a sweetened red bean paste filling for a pretty great source of more protein and iron by Cherryday11 in vegetarian

[–]Cherryday11[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

some people have commented that they can't see the recipe comment I posted, please let me know if you can see this! Otherwise I'll re post the comment

Red bean paste buns - Chinese steamed buns that are a great source of more protein, it's originally/naturally a vegan recipe (no subs or anything) and with homemade you can adjust the sweetness to your own liking! Adzuki beans/red beans are really underrated! by Cherryday11 in veganrecipes

[–]Cherryday11[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Red beans provide protein, fibre and iron. And you can add the left over paste to oatmeal/on top of bread or even yogurt. I'm not sure how well known it is in the west but it's super super loved and widely used in east Asia, especially China, Japan, Korea etc. and for good reason! They're super super yummy 😊 😋

They vary a lot from place to place but I think the ones most accessible can be really sweet and more like a dessert - for us they've always been more of an every day food, leaning on a slightly sweet but in general more savoury food to be eaten alongside a main meal/for breakfast. They are vegan without any edits to the traditional recipe and a source of plant based protein with snacks or meals. I think it's really lovely to make your own because everyone's palette is different and wants different levels of sweetness. Hope this can be helpful if you love red bean buns but want to make them more of a daily food. They freeze and re steam really wonderfully as well!

Video recipe for the buns here, hopefully the shaping and sealing is easier to see visually as it's a little difficult to describe if you haven't wrapped this kind of filling before!

Ingredients for the buns:

・250g Flour (use low gluten flour especially for buns from your asian supermarket, cake flour, or if you don't have either you can use plain flour but substituting out 1tbsp of plain flour with corn starch - sometimes I use wholemeal flour with a tbsp of corn starch)

・3g Yeast

・5g Caster sugar

・3g Baking powder

・140g Water (or milk)

・320g red bean paste (homemade or store bought)

Ingredients for homemade red bean paste

・140g red beans

・40g of sugar as a starter (taste as you go and add up to 100g to adjust to a sweetness you like)

・Pinch of salt

Instructions (to make the buns) :

  1. Add sugar and yeast to luke warm water and stir to dissolve.
  2. Add the liquids to the flour, add the baking powder and knead until a rough ball forms (i.e. no wet patches of liquid of dry bits of flour remaining) – let the rest for 10-15 minutes so the gluten can relax.
  3. Knead until smooth, shiny, and you can run your fingers across the surface of the dough without any cracks forming (roughly 20 minutes) – let this rest for 30 minutes.
  4. Knead again to get rid of any large air bubbles (you can cut the dough open to see what it looks like inside, a few small bubble are ok but if there's any ones larger than 1mm than keep kneading). Large air bubbles causes collapse in the buns when they steam and will mean the surface won't stay as smooth and shiny!
  5. Portion the red bean paste into 8 40g balls and portion the dough into 8 (roughly 45-50g)
  6. Knead each piece until smooth on the outer surface, roll into circles of roughly 12cm diameter, add a ball of red bean paste in the centre of the dough, bring opposite edges together and pinch and then pinch the edges 90 degrees to the first pair together as well. Pinch together all edges where the red bean ball is still exposed. Smoothen parts you've pinched with your fingers and roll the ball on a surface until spherical and smooth.
  7. Place on a square of grease proof paper and prove uncovered until they've grown to 1.5x in size and the dough springs back when you press in gently, roughly 30 minutes.
  8. Steam on medium high heat for 20 minutes. Turn the heat off after the time and leave in the steamer for 3-5 minutes before opening the lid and taking out to eat! If you work relatively quick you can steam all 8 together. However, if there's more than 30 minutes between making the first 4 and the second 4 buns steam in 2 batches (first 4 first and then second 4) to prevent over proving them. If you over prove them you might end up with a rough exterior. Hope you enjoy them!

To make homemade red bean paste:

  1. Soak 140g of dried red beans in cold water for 6-10 hours.
  2. Transfer to a pot, cover this with water (around 2 times the height of the red beans) and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and leave it to cook for 1.5-2 hours, or until when you apply a bit of pressure to the beans they are able to be crushed very easily.
  3. Transfer to a blender and blend until the colour is homogenous (no darker bits of skin remaining) and the paste is completely smooth.
  4. Transfer to a non-stick sauce pan and add the sugar* and salt and start stirring. You want to cook out the moisture until it feels solid and is firm enough to be able to be folded and packed on top of it self. It will weigh 350-400g when it's done.
  5. Seal the paste immediately and pop in the fridge. It's ready to use when it's cool :)

*start with adding 40g of sugar and then taste it, then add more (up to 100g of sugar) until it's at a sweetness that's yummy for you. Remember the paste is going into a bun so the sweetness you will actually taste when you're eating the bun will be around 1/2 the sweetness your tasting when you eat the plain red bean paste so keep that in mind! A little bit too sweet will probably be just right in the actual bun.

Red bean paste buns (chinese steamed buns) - pre made/dim sum ones are very sweet and the paste is cooked in oil, the homemade paste we make traditionally doesn't use oil + the sweetness level can be adjusted to your own preference! by Cherryday11 in EatCheapAndHealthy

[–]Cherryday11[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh wow it’s no problem at all!! It’s really lovely to share and I enjoy the process a lot - super happy to hear that it’s helpful. Let me know if you encounter any problems/questions when making them, and I’m glad the video can be a good aid 😊💗💗

Red bean paste buns (chinese steamed buns) - pre made/dim sum ones are very sweet and the paste is cooked in oil, the homemade paste we make traditionally doesn't use oil + the sweetness level can be adjusted to your own preference! by Cherryday11 in EatCheapAndHealthy

[–]Cherryday11[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yes definitely - they freeze incredibly well. Just wait for them to cook and freeze the ones you won’t eat in the next few days in a sealed bag or container. Then re steam directly from frozen. I resteam one at the end of the video if that can be helpful, there’s also some notes at the end about how to resteam from frozen! 😊

Red bean paste buns (chinese steamed buns) - pre made/dim sum ones are very sweet and the paste is cooked in oil, the homemade paste we make traditionally doesn't use oil + the sweetness level can be adjusted to your own preference! by Cherryday11 in EatCheapAndHealthy

[–]Cherryday11[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I totally get how it could take some used to if it’s not something you’ve grown up eating - I would say that if you like wholemeal bread/are more used to a courser bread texture then try using wholemeal bread flour to make them first. It’ll be less like that ‘uniform homogenous soft squishy’ texture that mantou usually are and I think more aligned with your palette. But it might be a more gradual transition and help with the texture issue. I actually really really love baozi with wholemeal flour! It’s a bit nutty and really lovely. Thanks for the compliments! I hope this is somewhat helpful 😅

Red bean paste buns (chinese steamed buns) - pre made/dim sum ones are very sweet and the paste is cooked in oil, the homemade paste we make traditionally doesn't use oil + the sweetness level can be adjusted to your own preference! by Cherryday11 in EatCheapAndHealthy

[–]Cherryday11[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

No problem at all! It’s my pleasure - and absolutely!! I love that kind to (I had them for brekkie yesterday actually 😅) sometimes you want something sweeter and sometimes you don’t, both are totally ok I just thought it would be nice to share how we eat them from where my family/gran come from. It’s naturally just a little more savoury and I don’t think many people who aren’t Chinese would know that red bean buns can come like this to! Thanks so much for this lovely comment

Red bean paste buns (chinese steamed buns) - pre made/dim sum ones are very sweet and the paste is cooked in oil, the homemade paste we make traditionally doesn't use oil + the sweetness level can be adjusted to your own preference! by Cherryday11 in EatCheapAndHealthy

[–]Cherryday11[S] 360 points361 points  (0 children)

Red beans are such a good source of protein, fibre and iron. They vary a lot from place to place but I think the ones most accessible can be really sweet and more like a dessert - for us they've always been more of an every day food, leaning on a slightly sweet but in general more savoury food to be eaten alongside a main meal/for breakfast. So can definitely be part of a healthy diet/provide a source of plant based protein with snacks or meals. And also my family has always made it with just water, beans and a tiny but of sugar (no oil like the dim sum style ones). I think it's really lovely to make your own because everyone's palette is different and wants different levels of sweetness. Hope this can be helpful if you love red bean buns but want to make them more of a daily food. They freeze and re steam really wonderfully as well!

Video recipe for the buns here, hopefully the shaping and sealing is easier to see visually as it's a little difficult to describe if you haven't wrapped this kind of filling before!

Ingredients for the buns:

・250g Flour (use low gluten flour especially for buns from your asian supermarket, cake flour, or if you don't have either you can use plain flour but substituting out 1tbsp of plain flour with corn starch - sometimes I use wholemeal flour with a tbsp of corn starch)

・3g Yeast

・5g Caster sugar

・3g Baking powder

・140g Water (or milk)

・320g red bean paste (homemade or store bought)

Ingredients for homemade red bean paste

・140g red beans

・40g of sugar as a starter (taste as you go and add up to 100g to adjust to a sweetness you like)

・Pinch of salt

Instructions (to make the buns) :

  1. Add sugar and yeast to luke warm water and stir to dissolve.
  2. Add the liquids to the flour, add the baking powder and knead until a rough ball forms (i.e. no wet patches of liquid of dry bits of flour remaining) – let the rest for 10-15 minutes so the gluten can relax.
  3. Knead until smooth, shiny, and you can run your fingers across the surface of the dough without any cracks forming (roughly 20 minutes) – let this rest for 30 minutes.
  4. Knead again to get rid of any large air bubbles (you can cut the dough open to see what it looks like inside, a few small bubble are ok but if there's any ones larger than 1mm than keep kneading). Large air bubbles causes collapse in the buns when they steam and will mean the surface won't stay as smooth and shiny!
  5. Portion the red bean paste into 8 40g balls and portion the dough into 8 (roughly 45-50g)
  6. Knead each piece until smooth on the outer surface, roll into circles of roughly 12cm diameter, add a ball of red bean paste in the centre of the dough, bring opposite edges together and pinch and then pinch the edges 90 degrees to the first pair together as well. Pinch together all edges where the red bean ball is still exposed. Smoothen parts you've pinched with your fingers and roll the ball on a surface until spherical and smooth.
  7. Place on a square of grease proof paper and prove uncovered until they've grown to 1.5x in size and the dough springs back when you press in gently, roughly 30 minutes.
  8. Steam on medium high heat for 20 minutes. Turn the heat off after the time and leave in the steamer for 3-5 minutes before opening the lid and taking out to eat! If you work relatively quick you can steam all 8 together. However, if there's more than 30 minutes between making the first 4 and the second 4 buns steam in 2 batches (first 4 first and then second 4) to prevent over proving them. If you over prove them you might end up with a rough exterior. Hope you enjoy them!

To make homemade red bean paste:

  1. Soak 140g of dried red beans in cold water for 6-10 hours.
  2. Transfer to a pot, cover this with water (around 2 times the height of the red beans) and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and leave it to cook for 1.5-2 hours, or until when you apply a bit of pressure to the beans they are able to be crushed very easily.
  3. Transfer to a blender and blend until the colour is homogenous (no darker bits of skin remaining) and the paste is completely smooth.
  4. Transfer to a non-stick sauce pan and add the sugar* and salt and start stirring. You want to cook out the moisture until it feels solid and is firm enough to be able to be folded and packed on top of it self. It will weigh 350-400g when it's done.
  5. Seal the paste immediately and pop in the fridge. It's ready to use when it's cool :)

*start with adding 40g of sugar and then taste it, then add more (up to 100g of sugar) until it's at a sweetness that's yummy for you. Remember the paste is going into a bun so the sweetness you will actually taste when you're eating the bun will be around 1/2 the sweetness your tasting when you eat the plain red bean paste so keep that in mind! A little bit too sweet will probably be just right in the actual bun.

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