Vegan Sweet Bean Buns

Hey friends,

Today’s recipe is going to be the desert version of the Vegan Baozi. Simple, sweet and creamy! The traditional Chinese Recipe calls for red beans and lard, be we are going to make it healthy and plant-based. So no lard or butter. And if you have red beans, go for it. But if it is an ingredient you can’t easily get your hands on or if you’re too lazy to cook the red beans, I’ve got you.

We are going to use kidney beans instead. Works just as well and tastes just as good. Just faster 😉 For all us lazy (or some might call it efficient) people out there.

So here it goes:

Makes about 12 buns

Ingredients

For the bun

100g all purpose flour
100g whole wheat flour
4g yeast
1 tsp sugar
120ml warm water

For the Filling

240g drained canned kidney beans
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp coconut oil

Instructions

Add the slightly warm water and the yeast to a bowl. Mix to combine. Then add the sugar and mix well. Lastly add the flour little by little and mix until a shaggy dough has formed. Continue working the dough for 5min or so, until a smooth dough has formed. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it rise for 1-2 hours in a warm place.
Mix the drained kidney beans, sugar and coconut oil in a mixer. Pulse until you get the desired consistency (chunky or smooth).
Heat a pan on medium heat and fry the kidney paste until fragrant. About 5min.
Once the dough has doubled in size, take it out of the bowl and kneed on a floured surface to work out the bubbles. When the dough becomes to sticky feel free to add more flour to kneed.
Cut off a quarter of the dough and set the rest aside under a towel (so the dough doesn’t dry out). Work the dough into a one inch wide sausage and then cut into one inch pieces. Roll the pieces into a ball and flatten it with the palm of your hand. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough starting at the centre and rolling outward. The centre should be thicker than the edges. (However the edges shouldn’t be too thin, 1/8th of an inch). Place a spoon full of the filling onto the middle of the rolled out dough. To seal the bean buns, fold them as you would Bao Zi. Basically you fold the edges like a pleated skirt until it closes on top. Place the Bun with the fold facing down on top of 8cmx8cm cut out square baking paper and set aside under a tea towel while working on the next bun. Once the bun is folded, let it rise for another 30min-1hour. Place the bun into the steamer with the baking paper and turn on the stove to steam the bun for 15min. Once the 15min are over don’t open the lid of the pot straight away. Tilt it to open a slight crack to let out the steam slowly. After 3min or so, open the pot and enjoy the bun hot while steaming the next batch.