RED BEAN HAND PIES

We are so excited to be welcoming the new month with a delicious recipe from Alex, our house recipe contributor!

In August, the nation will be celebrating its 53rd birthday, and we thought it would be fun to have recipes that feature the famous local dishes and in this case, our childhood favourite - Redbean!

Alex brought a twist to traditional pies and combined both sweet and savoury into this recipe, and she completely nailed it on this one! The pies would be great for parties or even that weekend picnic you will be having down by the beach.

Red Bean Hand Pies (makes 10-12 little hand pies)

Ingredients:

For the red bean paste:
200g adzuki beans
240ml water
200g granulated sugar
pinch of salt

For the puff pastry:
280g plain flour (set aside extra flour for sprinkling later on) (sub: half white and half whole-wheat, or use a gluten-free flour such as coconut or rice)
120ml (1/2 cup) vegan butter (sub: coconut oil)
120ml (1/2 cup) cold water
pinch of salt
1 tbsp sugar

Method:
1. The night before you make the pies, soak the adzuki beans in water. In the morning, drain the beans and place them into a saucepan.

2. Add fresh water to the saucepan until there is about an inch of water covering the beans. Turn on the heat and let the beans come to a boil.

3. Once at a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook the beans for about 45 minutes. During this time, start making the pastry. You could use a food processor, but I prefer using my hands in a bowl to get a good feel for the dough.

4. In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the butter/coconut oil and squeeze it into the flour until you get floury clumps. You don’t have to make sure everything comes into clumps, you should just have a relatively dry and crumbly mixture.

5. Add a quarter cup of water to start, then add the rest slowly until the dough just comes together in a large clump. The mixture will be quite dry. Add more or less water until you get to this point.

6. Put the dough in a bowl and place this in the fridge.

7. After 45 minutes of cooking the beans (give them a stir every once in a while), add half of the sugar and salt. Continue cooking for 15 minutes. Squeeze one of the beans– if it breaks easily, then you’re on the right track. If not, just continue cooking until most of the beans are easily smushed (I LOVE that word). Continue cooking until most water is evaporated.

8. Add the rest of the sugar and cook for another 5 minutes before taking the pan off the heat. Use a fork to smush the beans more into a paste. Leave the beans to cool in the fridge; this is also when the paste (termed anko in Japanese) will thicken.

9. Preheat your oven to 190C. Lightly flour a work surface and, using a rolling pin, roll out your dough until about half a centimetre thick. Using the edges of a glass cup, cutters or a measuring cup, cut 5-inch circles in the dough, starting from the edges to save space.

10. Take your bean paste from the fridge and place a heaped teaspoon of the paste in the center of one circle.

11. Wet your finger to draw a thin layer of water along the borders of the circle surrounding the paste, then place another circle of dough on top. Pinch the pie along its sides to seal the pie. Using a fork, make little fork marks (or claw marks, as I like to call them) around the edges, then flip the pie and do the same on the other side. Repeat until dough is finished.

12. And now for the important part!! Brush the tops of the pies with water– this will make the tops super crisp once out of the oven. Then sprinkle some sugar on the tops, and place the pies in the preheated oven. Bake them for at least half an hour. Check on them at 25 minutes– if they are already golden-brown take them out, but mine took 30 or so minutes.

If you give this a try, be sure to let us know in the comment section below, and let us know what other recipes you wish to see. Don’t forget to snap a picture of your epic red bean hand pie for Instagram, tag Alex at @alexcrumb, and us at @souleygreen with the hashtag #souleygreen if you do - we love seeing your recreations!