Chinese Tea Bean Cake - Recipe

Chinese tea bean cake is a popular snack originated from Hong Kong and Taiwan.  It can be sweet or savoury, and are served during Chinese New Year, or any festival gatherings.  The way to distinguish sweet and savoury bean cakes, we use pink colouring in the sweet cake's dough, and savoury cakes are white.  It is a very traditional and popular snack in Chinese, therefore I would like to share the recipe with you.  Although this recipe does not contain Chinese tea as the ingredient, it is a common snack to be served with tea.  It goes well with Oolong tea!  This is how it is served in restaurants:

Chinese Tea Bean Cake Recipe

Ingredients:
Some black eye beans 1 pound
Vegetable oil for frying
Glutinous Rice Flour 1 pound
Hot water
Bamboo Leaves

Filling Ingredients:
Five Spice Powder to taste
Spring Onions to taste
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Pepper to taste
Chopped Dried Shrimps to taste

Chopped Peanuts to taste

Steps:

1. Soak your beans and cover in cold water and soak overnight.  The next day, take some time out and use your fingers to rub and remove all the skins.  The skin won't make it inedible or anything... however, it will look more attractive without the skin.
2. Boil Your Beans - Take your beans and cover in water, and simmer until soft.
3. Mash your beans - Once soft, you can drain the water, and mash up the beans. 
4. Fry the beans and make the filling - Dry-fry (no oil) the mashed beans in a non-stick pan to dehydrate the beans.  After about 10 minutes or so, you and add other filling ingredients to enhance the flavour and continue frying with added oil.
5. Make your dough - This recipe calls for glutinous rice flour. For the moment, put around 4/5 of the packet into a big bowl.  Gradually add hot (not boiling) water to the flour, mixing and kneading as you go until the flour becomes a soft doughy mixture. 
6. Fill your dough with the filling.  Cover your hands in flour, tear out a walnut sized piece of dough. Knead and roll in your hands until the dough becomes a smooth ball shape. Dip the ball in the flour to give a light coating of flour. Push a finder into the dough, making a hole, take a pinch of flour and place inside the hole.   Fill the hole with your filling about 1 tablespoon full. Take the mouth of the dough and turn whilst you squeeze and pleat, making the mouth smaller and smaller until you can twist the edges together. Tear off the little nub that's left at the end. Pat and Smooth the dough all over
7. Soak your Bamboo Leaves - Bamboo leaves are used as the lining for your bean cakes to sit on. Once steamed, the dough becomes incredibly sticky and gooey. Without the bamboo leaves, you simply wouldn't be able to remove the cakes from the plate. 
8. Cut your bamboo leaves into squares Make sure they're large enough to fit your cakes with a bit of extra space for them to spread.
9. Plop your cakes on top of the leaves
10. Steam your cakes - Place them on a plate or a wire rack and place inside a steamer.  They don't need to be steamed for long, about 10 minutes should do. Gran says that you shouldn't overcook them or they become sloppy, likewise, you shouldn't undercook them or they're not pliable and squishy enough.
11. Grease up your bean cakes - Once they are done, take them out of the steamer, and start spreading cold vegetable/sunflower oil over the surface. This is to give them a lovely sheen, and to stop them from sticking to each other.

Variations of Tea Bean Cakes, so cute!