So, after a long weekend of sampling various cultural foods around the city with a friend who was visiting from out of town, I decided it was finally time to try my hand at making these delicious buns. And while mine didn't turn out exactly like the bakery buns, they were about as close as I could hope for on a first try. I used roughly this bean paste recipe & this bun recipe, and I ended up with 27 buns.
Bean Paste
1 cup dry adzuki beans (available at your local Asian grocery story)
1 heaping cup sugar (I used a mix of about 2/3 white & 1/3 brown, and it turned out well)
Rinse & sort beans. Put in a pot with water; bring to a boil; boil for about 5 minutes. Strain & rinse beans, replace water, simmer for about 1.5-2 hours, or until the beans are squishy. Strain beans again, put 2/3-3/4 of the beans into a food processor & pulse a few times, return all beans to the pot & add sugar. Stir regularly over heat until almost all of the water evaporates. Let cool & put into a container (if making beforehand) or set aside (if making buns right now).
This made a bit more paste than I actually needed; it'd probably be enough to use 3/4 cup beans & about 1 cup sugar. It doesn't taste terribly good on its own -- it tastes a bit like dirt, with a slightly grainy texture -- but it gets a bit better once it's in the buns.
Buns
3 3/4 cups bread flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 tbsp yeast
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs (I used egg substitute with no ill effects)
2/3 cup milk (I used almond milk)
2/3 cup water
Something to brush over the buns -- eggs or egg yolks will give you that bakery sheen, but if you don't have them around, you can use some milk + honey
Sesame seeds (if you have them around)
Combine dry ingredients. In a microwave safe bowl, combine butter, milk, & water. Microwave, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is warm & the butter is soft (it needs to be warm for the yeast). Add add liquids, including eggs, to the dry ingredients; knead until thoroughly combined, then knead some more. Set aside for at least 45 minutes (I left mine for almost 2 hours with no ill effects). Punch down the dough. Split into 2 inch balls. Let rest for 15 minutes; while it's resting, make small balls of the bean paste, a little less than an inch in diameter. On a floured surface, flatten out the dough balls one at a time, put a bean paste ball in the middle, then roll up like a burrito, making sure the bean paste is totally enclosed. Place seam-side down on your silpat-lined baking sheet -- I didn't have enough mats or sheets to put them all on at once, and they were a little hard to move later, but any flat surface should be okay. Let rest for 15 minutes; it took me about 15 minutes to get through all of them, so once I was done balling I was ready for the next step. Make a thumbprint in the top of the buns & brush with egg or milk. Cover with plastic wrap & let rest for 45 minutes or so. Remove plastic wrap, preheat oven to 375, brush with more egg/milk, sprinkle with sesame seeds if you want to be fancy, and bake for 12-25 minutes or until golden brown on top & bottom.
You could probably just make these buns on their own, or fill them with something else (jam? raisins? chocolate? almonds?). They're very tasty.
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| The finished buns are about 3-4 inches in diameter -- smaller than the bakery version, but still tasty. Because I didn't use an egg wash, they aren't glossy. |
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| Filled with delicious beans! |
