Baby Chick-shaped Milky White Bean Cake, revisited

This was a baby chick-shaped milky white bean cake, again.

I haven't made this cute little puffy cake for a while. Since I had frozen white bean paste in the freezer, I thought I would meet chicks again. They were cute and tasty as always.

Baby Chick-shaped Milky White Bean Cake
Makes 12 chicks

for cake dough
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon water
150 g sweeten condensed milk
1 egg yolk
150 g cake flour

for filling
300 g white bean paste (see recipe below)
2 tablespoons sweeten condensed milk
2 tablespoons skim milk power
a few drops vanilla extra

1. To make cake dough, Dissolve baking soda with 1 teaspoon water in a bowl. Add condensed milk and egg yolk, stir with a rubber spatula, shift cake flour over the bowl, and mix all gently with a rubber spatula until incorporated.

2. Divide the dough in half and place each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Roll each half into a log. Refrigerate the dough for several hours or overnight, or until firm.

3. To make filling, whisk white bean paste, sweeten condensed milk, skim milk powder and vanilla extra in a bowl. If the paste mixture is too soft to hold its shape, microwave it without cover for one minute. Let it cool. Make 12 of even portions of the paste mixture (25 g each) on a plastic wrap on a plate. Refrigerate them until you are ready to use them. Chilling helps the filling firm-up.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees. To shape cake, cut the chilled dough into total 12 pieces equally. From one or two pieces of the dough, remove a very little amount of the dough and set it aside. This little dough will become little beaks. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap to keep them from drying. With lightly floured hands and a lightly floured roll pin, press each piece into a round, flattened dish about 10 cm (4 inches) in diameter. Place a pat of the paste mixture in the middle of a flatten dough and fold it into the dough, shaping like a chick. Using the saved little dough, make a very tiny ball and attach on the chick to make a little beak. Make 12 chicks.

5. Place 12 chicks on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Spray water over the cakes with a water or oil sprayer. Bake at the middle position in the oven about 15 minutes. 

6. Make tiny holes with a toothpick to make eyes.

Note: the dough is not friendly: sticky and kinda stiff. Yet keep putting flour on hands and a roll pin lightly makes the work easy. The difficult part is to fold the filling into the dough by pinching the edges of the dough to seal. This process will make a lot of creases. The messy sealed part will be the bottom of the chicks and luckily the dough is magically going to puff up when it is baked and all creases will disappear. Yes, the dough will puff up horizontally, so shape a chick as slim and tall as possible. Otherwise, the chick will be another creature. I am not good at shaping the dough; J never identify the cakes as chicks. No matter what they look like, the cakes are delightful!

White Bean Paste
Makes a lot

450 g (1 pound) dried large lima beans
150 g sugar (or more or less if you prefer sweeter or less)
a pinch salt

1. In a large bowl, soak dried beans in cold water, cover the bowl with a plastic wrap, place it in refrigerator overnight.
2. Discard soak water and remove skin and embryo of beans one by one.
3. Place the beans in a large pan, pour water over the beans to cover, heat until boil, removing scum with a spoon.
4. When boiled, drain the beans with a strainer or colander, rinse the beans with cold water, place the beans in a bowl, cover with cold water, let it sit about 5 mins.
5. Drain the beans with a strainer or colander, place the beans in a large pan, pour water over the beans to cover, heat until boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the beans become very tender and easily collapse.
6. Drain the beans with a strainer or colander, puree the beans in a food processor.
7. Place the bean puree in a large pan, add sugar, cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until thicken. Off the heat, stir in a pinch of salt. Let the paste cool.

Note: During cooking bean puree with sugar over heat, hot paste might jump out. Be careful and keep stirring over medium-low heat without burning. When the bean paste cools down, it becomes harder. So you don't need to cook it too thick. I tend to stop cooking the paste when it becomes like soft whipped cream. You can control the firmness anytime later to adjust to your recipe: if you like thicker paste, you can cook the paste more; if you like softer paste, you can mix the paste with a little of water.

This recipe makes a lot of white bean paste. I usually freeze the paste that I don't use immediately, dividing the paste by 200 g or 300 g for future purpose. To defrost, place the container in the refrigerator overnight or microwave it.