This is the 3rd recipe which I tried. Mung Bean Biscuits could be addictive and does not yield much for the portion as the cookies are compact. All the recipes are workable. Maybe this is the third time I am making them, it seems much easier. The kneading needs much hand and finger strength. The moulding should not be a problem. Just remember to press hard otherwise the dough will break away. But, my opinion is, it is worth all the trouble. These are really good biscuits to snack with a hot brew of Chinese tea.
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| Mung Bean Biscuits aka 'Lek Tau Ko' in Chinese Hokkien dialect |
These biscuits melts in the mouth but the nibbed almonds are crunchy. Lovely biscuits. In future, I would try with split green beans to make these biscuits. The biscuits will be pale, yellow golden colour.
Ingredients
[makes 80 pieces]
300 gm green beans - to be fried and mill grind to get mung bean flour*
30 gm rice flour
60 gm plain flour
120 gm icing sugar
100 gm nibbed almonds
130 gm shortening
Add a bit of cooking oil if dough is too dry
* if store bought mung bean flour is unavailable
- Rinse mung beans several times under running tap water, then drain in a colander.
- 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.
- 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. [Can prepare this earlier before baking day]. Refer to this post for pictures of the process.
- Lightly heat up rice flour and mungbean flour. Set aside.
- Sift plain flour and icing sugar into a big bowl. Add in [4] and nibbed almonds. Then mix well and evenly.
- Add in the shortening mix until it resembles bread crumbs. Add in adequate vegetable oil if dough is too dry.
- Lightly dust plastic moulds with some plain flour. Take a bit of the dough, knead with your fingers and hand, press with fingers and palm of your hand until firm. Press dough hard into mould. Clear excess dough at the side of the mould. Tap the mould lightly on table top to unmould the cookie.
- Arrange cookie dough on a lined baking tray near each other [biscuits hardly expand].
- Bake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees C for 20-25 minutes. Before the 20th minute, do keep an eye on the biscuits that are baking as some oven could be hot and the cookies maybe burnt with prolong baking.
- Remove from oven to cool before storing in airtight containers.
