Short Pastry with Red Bean (红豆酥 Hong2 Dou4 Su1) is a very popular Chinese pastry. You can also use purple potato paste or coconut shreds as fillings. The traditional way is just using sugar or some nuts.
This recipe calls for red bean paste as fillings. If you don’t feel like making it from scratch as described in the recipe, you can just look for Red Bean Paste or Fine Sweeted Red Bean Paste in your local store or on Amazon.
The key to making this pastry crumbly short is the step 3 and 4 in the “Final” instruction. Make sure you let the dough rest and repeat 1-2 times. The more you repeat, the more layers you will get in your pastry. The process for this recipe might be messy when you work on it, but the result might surprise you. So, don’t give up!
You can use black or white sesame for the topping.
You can shape it your way at Step 6.
Let me know if you make it round, flower, or any creative shape!
Short Pastry with Red Bean (红豆酥)
Ingredients
Ingredients for the Filling
- 250 g small red beans
- 500 g water
- 100 g sugar
Ingredients for the Skin
- 130 g all purpose flour
- 40 g sugar powder
- 40 g butter
- 30 ml water
- 1 Egg
Ingredients for the Short
- 90 g self-rising flour
- 45 g butter
Instructions
Red bean filling:
- Soak the red bean in the water for 2 hours or overnight. Please make sure the water covers all the beans.
- Clean and drain the red bean and put them into a pot, add water and braise for 1-1.5 hours until the beans are soft and can be easily mashed.
- Transfer the cooked beans into a large bowl, add sugar and mix well. Set aside until cool down.
- Make 12 balls with red bean paste after it cools down.
Skin Wrapper
- Mix all the skin ingredients in a bowl; knead until the surface is smooth and it won’t easily break when you pull the dough. You can also use the mixer to do it.
- Seal the opening of the bowl with food plastic wrap, set aside for 1 hour.
- Remove the plastic wrap, divide dough into 12 portions (smaller portions to your preference).
- For each portion of the dough, roll out thin sheet with a rolling pin. Please make sure the edge is thinner than the center. A better way to do it is using your hand press down the dough portion first, then use your thumb and index finger hold the center of the dough portion from each side of the sheet, then use the rolling pin to roll out from the center to the edge, then rotate the sheet from center and roll out again, repeat this until you roll out the whole piece.
Short
- Melt the butter, and mix it with self-rising flour in a bowl, knead until the surface is smooth.
- Seal the opening of the bowl with food plastic wrap, set aside for 1 hour.
- Remove the plastic wrap, divide dough into 12 portions (smaller portions to your preference).
Final
- Put one portion of the short dough in the center of the thin skin wrapper, lift the wrapper edge and seal the opening tightly.
- Repeat this to finish the rest of the dough portions. Now we all 12 small dough in total.
- Roll out the small dough from the top to the bottom with a rolling pin, the length of the sheet will be about 3-4 inches. Starting from the bottom, roll up the sheet like a cigar. Finish the rest. Cover all the dough with food plastic wrap.
- Repeat the last step after 20 minutes. Cover all the dough with food plastic wrap and set aside for another 20 minutes.
- On the long side, fold the small dough into half, then press down into a thin sheet. Roll out thin sheet with a rolling pin. Please make sure the edge is thinner than the center.
- Put the ball shape red bean filling in the center of the wrapper. Lift the wrapper edge and seal the opening tightly. Shape it round. The rest is the same.
- Put all the red bean dough on a baking sheet. Brush on egg liquid and sprinkle some sesame on top.
- Heat up the oven to 370°F, bake for 30 minutes. Done!