Hello! Hi everyone. Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to foods from TV and film with a shot at the red bean buns from Spirited Away. Let’s acknowledge that there are SO so. many. foods from Spirited Away (and Studio Ghibili in general) that are worth making, so, be patient, and i promise we’ll get to all of them in time. For now though, let’s start off with these red bean steamed buns, which have been incorrectly translated as “dumplings” here. On closer review though, we can see that not only is the outside made of a yeasted and risen dough, but the inside of the bun has a redish-brown paste inside as well.
A steamed red bean bun comes from Chinese and Japanese cuisine, and most prominently features the use of a red bean paste made from adzuki beans. Though the beans themselves don’t particularly have a LOT of flavor to them, you will almost always find this paste sweetened with honey and/or sugar, giving it more of a jam-like flavor and consistency, and also making these one of my absolute favorite sweet buns from my childhood, too. For our version today we’ll be using a pantry stable canned version of this red bean paste, although we will absolutely touch on how to make this stuff from scratch too. As many of you will know though, I am always a sucker for shortcuts, and personally for me I think the best part about this one is that if you use the canned stuff, you can make these buns in maybe 25 minutes of cooking time, which is very cool. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS (dough)
1 tbsp dry active yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups AP flour (approx)
INGREDIENTS (filling)
12 oz red bean paste
red food coloring
PREP
COMBINE all dough ingredients except the AP flour and let proof for 10 minutes until bubbles form (if no bubbles form, start over with fresh dry active yeast)
ADD the AP flour a 1/4 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and a cohesive dough forms
DIVIDE the dough into 8 equal pieces and form into a coin shape with your hands
ROLL the dough 4-5 inches in diameter
ADD 1 1/2 tbsp red bean paste to the dough, then fold shut with pleats
REMOVE the folded top of the dough, then flip over and form into a ball
ADD a dot of food coloring to the top of the bao (optional)
ON THE STOVE
SIMMER a pot of water, then add a parchment lined steam basket on top
ADD the buns with at least 1 inch space between each other and steam for 15 minutes
TURN OFF the heat and let the steamer rest for 10 minutes before removing