Red Bean Buns

I found a recipe for red bean buns over at reicpezaar.com. Having a bunch of red bean paste left over from my previous mochi experiment, I gave it a whack. Well, I suppose I should have read the recipe first. I think I might have found more concise directions on the back of a box, or maybe the side of a Jell-O box. Ahh, you know, looking at the recipe, I don't think the person is trying to make Chinese red bean buns in the 'bao' sense at all. Just a bunch of beans mixed up in a bun.

Okay, fine. I improvised. Forget adding a can of beans into the flour, that's crazy talk. I added in warm milk to get the dough mixed, hit it with the ol' KitchenAid dough hook, parked it for a half-hour. Oh yeah, I didn't have proper bread yeast so I used champagne yeast, the stuff you use for brewing instead. Worked fine. So, after the half-hour, another spin with the dough hook and off to the gym I went while the dough rose. Figure I needed to hit the elliptical for an hour to burn off what I was about to take in.

The recipe calls for 12 buns, but I'll tell you what, the eight I managed were dinky. Probably should have made four decent sized one. Ahh, whatever. I was wondering if I should have steamed some, too.

Well, the pic looks okay, but there really isn't enough bread on 'em. Also, I forgot to add any sugar, but that seemed to not be too big an issue as the red bean paste is plenty sweet enough. Baked 'em for 30 minutes at 350°f. Probably should have gone for 20 minutes, as they were a bit too hard. Overall, much like a biscuit actually. Not bad, but certainly not the sort of fantastic-but-taken-for-granted buns I'd have picked up at Charlies Bakery, or any decent dim sum house for that matter. But for home? Using up what I had on hand? Yeah, the're not bad actually. Not bad at all. Next time, though, I'll dig up a closer recipe, though.