How to Make Sweet Red Bean Pastry with Egg Yolk

Learn how to make this soft and flaky Chinese Red Bean Pastry with egg yolk. It is a tasty treat with a flaky crust and a sweet red bean paste filling. The pastry is golden brown on the outside and soft on the inside, making it a perfect snack or dessert.

Chinese pastry typically consists of three main components: the flaky crust, the filling, and the salted egg yolk. The salted egg yolk is optional, but I find it is a perfect balance between sweet and savory taste. It is there to add value to the pastry.

Variations

I grew up in Indonesia, where the influence of Chinese culture is evident in the variety of pies and pastries similar to Chinese ones. These treats often have a soft, flaky crust with delicious fillings. One example is the Indonesian Bolen Pisang, or banana pastry.

Chinese pastries vary in their fillings, shapes, and skins, with popular choices including red bean, mung bean, ube purple yam, and lotus paste. While making your own fillings is not difficult, it can be quite time-consuming, so just get the store-bought fillings.

Traditional mooncake, Snow skin mooncake, Thousand layer pie, Wife Cake, Pineapple Cake are the popular Chinese pastries that have gone popular worldwide.

Recipe Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

Icing sugar – Use powdered sugar if you can. Or you can just grind regular sugar. This will make the dough smooth.

Shortening / Lard – Either shortening (vegetable) or lard can be used for mixing the dough.

Red bean paste – Get a store-bought red bean paste for filling. It is more convenient and fast.

Salted egg yolk – These are usually sold in Asian grocery store.

Egg yolk and condensed milk – Mix this two to create a shiny eggwash on top of the pastry.

Sesame seeds (white or black) – for decoration.

How to Make

1. Prepare the fillings. Cut the salted egg yolks into halves. Weigh the red bean paste at 25 gr each. This recipe makes for 12 pieces.
2. Wrap the salted egg yolk with the red bean paste. Round it and set aside. (image 1, 2, 3)
3. Let’s mix the inner skin first. Sieve the flour into a bowl. Put in the shortening or lard and mix it well. You can use spatula to mix the ingredients. Once mixed into a dough, set aside. (image 4)
4. Now continue to the outer skin. Sieve in the flour, icing sugar into a bowl. Put in shortening or lard and pour in the water. Mix all together with a spatula. Set aside. (image 5)
5. Divide each of the dough (inner skin and outer skin) into 12 pieces evenly. The outer skin should be around 16 gr each and the inner skin at 11 gr each. (image 6)

1. Wrap the inner skin with the outer skin and round it into a ball. Do this until the rest of the dough is finished. (image 7)
2. Take one of the rounded dough, press gently with your palm. (image 8) Roll flat using a rolling pin. Fold to one side. Roll flat again and fold one more time. (image 9)
3. Roll the folded dough flat and wide. (image 10) Put the rounded filling in the center. (image 11)
4. Wrap it with the dough and pinch and seal the dough. Shape it round and put on a baking pan. Continue until finish.

1. Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle some black sesame on top. (image 12, 13)
2. Bake in a preheated oven 170°-180°C until golden brown (image 14). It should be around 30 minutes.
3. Take out from the oven. Let it cool completely on a cooling rack.
4. Cut through the pastry to check the flaky texture (image 15). Enjoy!

FAQs

What kind of salted egg yolk should I get?

Salted egg yolks come from duck eggs or chicken eggs. They are salted for quite some time and baked or steamed to cook the eggs. If yours come raw, steam for 15 minutes.

How do I make the layered skin?

By wrapping the the inner skin with the outer skin. Press and fold two to three times with a rolling pin, you will have a beautiful layers of pastry.

What if I don’t want to add salted egg yolk?

You can just use red bean paste for the filling without the egg yolk. Add the red bean paste to a total of 40 gr each.

Storage

• Let the red bean pastry cool completely before putting them in an airtight container. Keep in the chiller for up to one week.
• If you want to keep them longer, put them in the freezer.  It can stay for up to one month.
• Simply thaw them in room temperature or chiller. Reheat in the oven for 5 minutes. Cool before serving.

Red Bean Pastry

Learn how to make Chinese Red Bean Pastry with egg yolk and how to create perfect layers on the skin the easy way!

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese

Keyword: red bean pastry, red bean pie

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Servings: 12 pcs

Calories: 173kcal

Author: Claudia

Equipment

• 1 Rolling Pin
• 1 baking pan

Ingredients

Outer Skin

• 15 gr icing sugar
• 40 gr shortening /lard
• 48 gr water
• 100 gr flour

Inner Skin

• 80 gr flour
• 48 gr shortening/lard

Fillings

• 300 gr red bean paste
• 12 pcs salted egg yolk cut in half

Eggwash

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp condensed milk
• 10 gr black sesame seeds

Instructions

• Prepare the fillings. Cut the salted egg yolks into halves. Weigh the red bean paste at 25 gr each. This recipe makes for 12 pieces.
• Wrap the salted egg yolk with the red bean paste. Round it and set aside.
• Let’s mix the inner skin first. Sieve the flour into a bowl. Put in the shortening or lard and mix it well. You can use spatula to mix the ingredients. Once mixed into a dough, set aside.
• Now continue to the outer skin. Sieve in the flour, icing sugar into a bowl. Put in shortening or lard and pour in the water. Mix all together with a spatula. Set aside.
• Divide each of the dough (inner skin and outer skin) into 12 pieces evenly. The outer skin should be around 16 gr each and the inner skin at 11 gr each.
• Wrap the inner skin with the outer skin and round it into a ball. Do this until the rest of the dough is finished.

Folding the skin:

• Take one of the rounded dough, press gently with your palm. Roll flat using a rolling pin. Fold to one side. Roll flat again and fold one more time.
• Roll the folded dough flat and wide. Put the rounded filling in the center.
• Wrap it with the dough and pinch and seal the dough. Shape it round and put on a baking pan. Continue until finish.
• Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle some black sesame on top.
• Bake in a preheated oven 170°-180°C until golden brown. It should be around 30 minutes.
• Take out from the oven. Let it cool completely on a cooling rack.
• Take out from the oven. Let it cool completely on a cooling rack.
• Cut through the pastry to check the flaky texture. Enjoy!

Video

Notes

• • You can use other filling like white lotus, green tea, or mung bean paste.
  • If you don’t want to use egg yolk in the fillings, you can just omit it. You may want to add the weight of the red bean paste to 40 gr each.
  • Wrap the pastry individually in a nice packaging. Put them in a beautiful box as a gift.

Nutrition

Serving: 1piece | Calories: 173kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 4mg | Potassium: 28mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 26IU | Vitamin C: 0.04mg | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 1mg