Chinese Flaky Pastry with Sweet Bean Filling ( Kue Pia )

In short we can call this Kue Pia , because that’s how i knew them ever since i was younger . Growing up in a small town in Malang , East Java , there was this home business that specially made Kue Pia . My mom would stop by after church usually to buy some fresh ones , it came in a package of 5 . We never made it ourselves though since it’s really easy to buy .

What is actually Kue Pia ? I’d say it’s a chinese flaky pastry that is filled with sweet beans filling , the filling can be red bean paste , which is really good too with bread or steamed bun . This one in particular , i use lima beans , i probably be able to use mung beans for this . The pastry , is more like laminated dough , you have to fold it couple times , certain way , roll it out , fold it again etc . And then add the filling and bake it .

Several years ago , i bought this chinese dim sum cook book , and when i looked through it , i found things that i thought it looked pretty familiar . One of them reminds me of kue pia , it didn’t have the same filling , but it is chinese flaky pastry which consists of 2 types of dough ,water dough , and shortening dough . The water dough as the name says , consists of water , flour and shortening . While the shortening dough consists only flour and shortening . And then you make the filling , the chinese dim sum cookbook would say to make red bean paste for its filling . Although i do have red beans on hand , i prefer the other sweet bean , probably should have used mung bean but lima beans worked just fine for now .

For the filling , i would soak lima beans overnight , or just soak it early in the morning . I happened to soak it about 7 am , and by 1-2 pm it was ready to be peeled , and cooked . And i would get the beans ready first before starting the pastry dough .

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Ingredients for sweet beans filling :

• 1 cup of lima beans , soak overnight , peeled when it’s ready
• 1/2 cup of sugar ( i actually used Swerve )
• about 1 cup of water to cook

After soaking overnight and peeled off , cook the beans in a small pot , with just little bit over 1 cup water , bring to boil , cover , takes about 20-30 minutes , the beans should be soft almost to the point of mushy . Take the lid off , cook out the water if there is any left , add the sugar , keep stirring until it’s all become smooth paste . If there are chunks still , you can throw it in food processor to make it smooth paste . Set aside to totally cool off .

Ingredients for water dough :

• 150 grams all purpose flour
• 75 grams of water
• 33 grams of shortening

Mix all these ingredients together either mix by hand of use hand mixer . Hand mixer would be fastest and less messy . Once it’s all combined , divide equally into 12 balls . Set aside

Ingredients for flaky / shortening dough :

• 55 grams shortening
• 112 grams all purpose flour

Mix all these ingredients together with hand or mixer , divide into 12 equal balls . Set aside

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Directions :

• Flatten the water dough and then wrap the shortening dough inside the water dough . And shape it into a ball . Do the same with the rest .
• Working one by one , flatten one ball , and roll it out using rolling pin , fold into thirds , do this 2 times . ( check video )
• Flatten the dough and add your filling , brush with water for edges to seal . Pinch , shape it into round or oval . Place on cookie sheet with parchment paper , seam side down . Brush with egg yolk mix with water .
• Bake at 400 F , 20 minutes .