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STEAMED CAKES WITH RED BEANS (FUKASHI MANJU)

From: Peepuff <peepuff@lava.net>
From Favorite Island Cookery, Book V, March 1989

1/4 cup margarine 1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg 1 cup milk
3 cup flour pinch salt
5 tsp baking powder
sweet red bean paste (anko) shaped into walnut-sized balls*

Mix margarine & sugar. Blend well. Add egg and milk. Mix well. Combine flour, salt and baking powder. Add to above mixture. Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Lightly roll out on floured board and shape into 1 1/4 inch balls. Flatten dough in palm of hand, forming small well in center. Place
sweet red bean paste (anko) ball in center and shape into round cakes pinching dough to seal. Place each cake on a 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch square piece of white paper, place in steamer; steam about 12-15 minutes. Serve.

*Sweet red bean paste can be found canned in Oriental/Asian markets.

SWEET RICE CAKE WITH RED BEANS (DAIFUKU)

From: Peepuff <peepuff@lava.net>
From Favorite Island Cookery, Book V, March 1989

1 cup sweet rice flour (mochiko)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup boiling water
sweet red bean paste (anko) shaped into walnut-sized balls*
potato starch (katakuriko)

Combine mochiko and sugar. Add boiling water; mix well with wooden spoon. Line prepared steamer with clean, damp dish cloth. Place mixture into steamer. Steam for 25 minutes. Remove from steamer onto board sprinkled with potato starch, break off into golf-ball sized pieces and flatten in
palm of hand leaving a shallow well in center. Put sweet red bean paste (anko) ball in center of dough and bring edges of dough up and around the anko. Pinch tightly to close. Serve.

*Sweet red bean paste can be found canned in Oriental/Asian markets as is sweet rice flour and potato starch.

Red Bean Paste Buns

From: eep@nospammadriver.com (Rachael Burke)
from Chinese Snacks Revised by Huang Su-Huei a Wei-Chuan Cookbook
Makes 2 1/4 lbs. red bean paste.

To make the red bean paste:
1 lb. red beans
water to soak the beans
8 cups water
3/4 C lard or oil
1 3/4 C sugar

Soak the beans for 2 hours; make sure the water covers the beans. Drain and discard the water. Add 8 cups water to the beans and bring the water to a coil; cook the beans over low heat for 1 1/2 hours until soft. Strain the beans and discard any skins. Put the beans and the oil and the sugar in a pan and cook until the water has
evaporated. You may want to mush the beans a bit. You basically are just trying to get a very thick goop. It gets a lot more stiff after chilling. It may be easier to go ahead and chill it at this point like we did. We found it very easy to roll into balls and use as stuffing. Can be chilled overnight.

To make the skin:
6 cups flour
1/4 C. sugar
1 3/4 C warm water
1 T. yeast
1 T. baking powder
2 T. shortening

Dissolve sugar in warm water and add yeast and let foam. Sift flour into a separate bowl and add the shortening, sugar, baking powder, and yeast mixture. Mix well and add water/flour as necessary. You want a soft, smooth dough. Knead until elastic. Let dough rise until tripled in bulk. They say it takes 2 hours. It only took us a little
over an hour. I guess the weather was just right.

The Sweet Buns:
We divided the dough into 32 portions and put about a tsp worth of paste in. I divided the dough into 4 pieces and cut each of those into 8 pieces. I flattened each piece in the palm of my hand and rolled the dough around the paste, making as smooth a ball as possible. When making the buns, keep them and dough to be flattened
covered under plastic as you don't want them to dry out. Let the buns rise for 10 to 30 mins. They say to steam for 10 mins; it took us 20 mins.

Oh, when you're steaming, do be sure to put a bit of paper under each roll or put a light cloth between the steamer and the buns. They *do* stick.