CNY 2021-MELT IN MOUTH MUNG BEAN [LEK TAU PAENG] COOKIES

This 'Mung Bean Biscuits' aka 'Lek Tau Paeng' is one biscuit that I wanted to try making for a long, long time. I have been looking for store bought Mung Bean Flour but doesn't seem to be able to get them in my area. Finally, I decided to make home-made mung bean flour by preparing it myself. Thanks to this Site for sharing the recipe which I followed.

I am happy with the result in this first attempt, though it may not be perfect. But I would definitely be making them often as I like the melt in-mouth texture, the aroma and taste. Not exactly difficult, only a bit tedious to get ready the mung bean flour. But it is alright as these are not overly sweet like store bought where the texture is not as good as home-made.  

Ingredients

[makes 65 pieces with my mung bean plastic mould]

300 gm mung beans/green beans

75 gm plain flour

70 gm icing sugar

1/8 tsp salt  

70 gm lard [room temperature] Refer this site to prepare Lard in your own kitchen

3 tsp vegetable oil

1. Rinse mung beans several times under running tap water, then drain in a colander.
2. Heat a wok to stir-fry beans in dry pan over medium heat until the water dries up.  It takes about 4 minutes until the water has dried up.  Lower heat to medium-low and continue to cook for another 6-7 minutes until fragrant.  Stirring constantly.   Set aside to cool completely.
3. When cooled, grind the fried beans in a dry mill grinder, in batches.  Sift the grinded mung beans to obtain the flour.  Repeat grinding and sifting the coarse  leftovers until it yields about 270 gm mung bean flour.  Discard the coarse leftovers.
4. Sift together plain flour, icing sugar and salt into a big bowl.  Then sift again mung bean flour into the flour.   Can mill grind again the coarse mung bean before adding the remaining to the flour mixture. Then mix well and evenly until it resembles bread crumbs.
5. Add in the lard, mix until well combined.  Add in adequate vegetable oil.
6. Add in lard, mix until well combined. Add in adequate vegetable oil (about 3 teaspoons) depending on the wetness of the dough. 
7. Lightly dust plastic moulds with some plain flour.  Take out about 1/2 tablespoon of dough, press with fingers and palm of your hand until firm.  Press dough into mould lightly, remove excess dough by sliding dough scraper close to the mould.  Tap the mould lightly on table top to unmould the cookie.
8. Arrange cookie dough on a lined baking tray with some space in between.
9. Bake in a preheated oven at 150 degrees C for 15-20 minutes.  Remove from oven to cool before storing in airtight containers.

Notes:

1]    You may use store-bought mung bean flour/green bean flour; 

2]    Pressing the dough until firm before shaping with mould will make it easier to unmould.

3]     If the dough is too dry to handle, add a tiny bit of cooking oil. 

4]   May not need to flour the moulds. 5] They do keep well in an airtight container.