Homemade White Bean Paste 白豆沙餡

Homemade, chinese, recipe, White Bean Paste, white bean filling, 白豆沙, 餡

Up until recently I had never heard of white bean paste 白豆沙. Red bean paste 紅豆沙, yes, and how I love the flavor of it. But never white bean paste. It turns out that white bean paste is really quite lovely, with the same fine creamy texture of red bean paste but having a milder sweet creamy flavor that’s perfect for stuffing a Chinese pastry.

In Japan white bean paste is used for many desserts and is known as ‘Shiro-an.’

We needed white bean paste to make chocolate paste filling for our raspberry chocolate tang yuan 覆盆子巧克力湯圓. So yummilicious! And even more exciting is that we realized that white bean paste, with its mild sweet flavor and light color, can be used as a base for all kinds of innovative fillings in Chinese pastries.

In other words: White bean paste + added flavor = exciting new flavor !

It turns out it’s a cinch to make white bean paste 白豆沙 at home. Super duper easy! Homemade White Bean Paste 白豆沙 is soft and creamy with a mildly sweet, slightly beany flavor. You can use the paste as is or go on to be crazy creative and experiment to discover new and exciting pastes to fill your pastries with!

There are different kinds of beans you can use. Any bean that is white and has a light taste will do the trick. In Taiwan they use the jack bean 白鳳豆 which is impossible to find in HK. Alternative beans to use are lima beans, butter beans, navy beans, white kidney beans or cannellini beans. I would recommend the larger beans as it will be easier to peel the skins.

If using dried beans, you will need to soak the beans overnight, pinch the skins off and then cook until tender before using in this recipe.

If you’re cheating like we did just get a can of beans. We had a can of butter beans on hand. It was so convenient to open the cans, pour out into a sieve and pinch off the skins. All ready to make paste!

Mashing time! Our canned beans were already soft so mashing was easy. I used one end of my rolling pin to mash right in the cooking pot.

The only other ingredients needed are sugar and the Chinese maltose syrup. You could use different kinds of sugars to influence the final flavor of this simple paste.

Cooking with low heat the sugar melts and the mixture will become quite liquid. Keep cooking and stirring until the mixture thickens and becomes a paste.

And that’s it. Simple and beautiful. Your white bean paste is done. Easy peasy, right?

Chinese White Bean Paste Recipe 白豆沙餡

(makes 7.8 oz/220g paste) Prep time: 5 mins Cook Time:15 mins

Directions:

If using dried beans, soak in cool water overnight. Remove from soaking water, then pinch off the skins. Add to a large pot of boiling water and simmer for 1 hour or until the beans are soft. When cool enough to handle, pinch the skins off.

If using canned beans pour beans out of can into a strainer to remove canning water. Remove skins from beans by pinching the edge of bean and pulling. The skins should come off quite easily.

Mash the beans in a small cooking pot. Add in sugar and maltose syrup. Cook over low heat. As the sugar melts the mixture will become quite liquid. Keep cooking, stirring often, for 15 mins or until the paste is thick and easily gathered into a ball with a spatula.

Remove from heat and let cool. When completely cooled it’s ready to use. If not using right away, wrapped in cling flim and store in the fridge for 3-4 days. If storing longer than that put in freezer. Enjoy!

Perfect Pastry Fillings at The Hong Kong Cookery:

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