Chinese or Taiwanese Pastry: What I'm Making

[gfron1]

I started THIS topic because I've been making more and more pastries since we only have one Chinese bakery in St Louis and I'm tired of running up to Chicago just for my fix. I've been building my cookbook collection, but mostly I'm still using YouTube channels - especially Daddy's Cooking Career which is heavy on pastry. I thought I'd share what I'm making to see who else might be baking or making pastries. There seems to be a lot of nuance as to what is from mainland China, Taiwan, and surrounding countries, so I'll do my best to be accurate in my attributions. 

 

Anyway, today I made this peanut pastry.

Barely sweet, fried and crushed peanuts with peanut/sesame paste, wrapped in a traditional water and oil dough. Not sure what this one is called, if anything specific at all, but very nice with my morning tea. ETA: a friend just told me this is 花生酥餅 and likely inspired by a Shanghia-ese red bean pancake 豆沙窩餅.

 

FWIW, here is St Louis we have:

Wei Hong (Cantonese bakery and restaurant)

Foundry Bakery (Taiwanese bakery)

 

And up in Chicago there are many but I typically go to:

Chiu Quon (Oldest Chinese bakery in the city)

Sweet Bean Bakery and Coffee Shop (Taiwanese...my absolute favorite! Worth the 5 hour drive each way)

Edited January 21 by gfron1 (log)

[liuzhou]

7 hours ago, gfron1 said:

a friend just told me this is 花生酥餅 and likely inspired by a Shanghia-ese red bean pancake 豆沙窩餅.

 

花生酥餅 translates as 'peanut shortcake' and 豆沙窩餅 as 'red bean nest cake', if that helps.

 

[gfron1]

Last fall for Mid-Autumn Festival I made these mooncakes. One is very traditional wu ren (5 nut) and the other was my bastardized St Louis style which was gooey butter cake filling. I was playing with colored doughs on this set.

[gfron1]

Here are a couple of classics I've done recently. 

Pineapple buns. I was playing with patterns on these.

And sesame balls - mine are filled with sweet Missouri black turtle bean - my localization of red bean filling.

[gfron1]

Today I played with sesame cakes - shāobîng (烧饼）

Quick flaky pastry filled with Chinese sesmae paste and crushed toasted peanuts.

[gfron1]

And I was hungry for something sweeter so I made the traditional Taiwanese pineapple cookie/finger. My crust was too short, but the filling is so much better than store bought.

[Beebs]

On 2/6/2024 at 11:16 AM, gfron1 said:

Today I played with sesame cakes - shāobîng (烧饼）

Quick flaky pastry filled with Chinese sesmae paste and crushed toasted peanuts.

 

 

Shaobing with a fried cruller tucked in and hot soy milk is hands down my favourite breakfast in the world. 🥰

 

What fat did you use for your roux?

[gfron1]

5 hours ago, Beebs said:

What fat did you use for your roux?

We just slaughtered a pig for the restaurant so lard it was

[liuzhou]

48 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

We just slaughtered a pig for the restaurant so lard it was

 

Lard is often used in Chinese baking. Not always appropriately. I remember one particularly disgusting birthday cake which smelled of farmyard.

 

Just recently they have discovered butter. Don't know if it'll catch on, though.

[gfron1]

9 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Lard is often used in Chinese baking. Not always appropriately. I remember one particularly disgusting birthday cake which smelled of farmyard.

 

Just recently they have discovered butter. Don't know if it'll catch on, though.

I've noticed butter making an impact lately as well. And which pig and which level of refinement certainly makes a difference. Ours didn't have that smell or flavor at all, but I know in the past we've had some strong flavored lard. Since these were just for me it didn't really matter.

[curls]

On 2/6/2024 at 2:16 PM, gfron1 said:

Today I played with sesame cakes - shāobîng (烧饼）

Quick flaky pastry filled with Chinese sesmae paste and crushed toasted peanuts.

Looks delicious! Please share the recipe.

[gfron1]

12 hours ago, curls said:

Looks delicious! Please share the recipe.

HERE you go