AMALENA

It’s Purim! I made hamantaschen aka oznei haman and decided I needed a cool Korean inspired filling. I got some red beans (also called adzuki beans, they are NOT kidney beans that happen to be red), made a nice paste, and decided I should write up the recipe for you too.

I picked red bean filling because this is a common dessert filling for many Asian foods. You’ll find it in buns, rice cakes, and as a topping. It’s got a mildly nutty flavor and is sweet, but not too sweet (unless you make it too sweet, then that’s on you). Since it’s commonly used as a filling, it’s easily adaptable to hamantaschens.

So, here’s my recipe for red-bean hamantaschen! Good for Purim and all year round.

You’ll need:

Red Bean Paste Filling

• Red beans (my bag said it was 12 oz)
• 1 cup sugar
• A tablespoon or two of honey
• 1/4 cup of butter
• A good blender

Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups of flour
• 3/4 cups of room temperature/soft butter
• 2/3 cups of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Optional: 1 Tablespoon of roasted soybean powder

Optional:

• Sesame seeds

You’re supposed to soak your red beans in water overnight. But if you’re like me, you forgot to do this. If you did, congrats, you’re amazing. Just cook the beans until soft on your stove. But if you didn’t, start by setting up your red beans in a rice cooker (wash them first) with about 4-5 cups of water. Just… fill it not quite to the top, you don’t want it bubbling out and making a mess. I cooked mine for about an hour in the rice cooker, maybe a little longer, and that worked nicely. Most of the water was gone, the beans were soft and squishable.

If you don’t have a rice cooker… I guess use your stove. Or an instant pot? I think I read that pressure cookers are good for this. Go buy a rice cooker, I love my rice cooker.

While your beans are cooking, make your cookie dough.

Get the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream them together. I used a fork, but I’m told that mechanical kitchen devices are better. I just used a fork because it’s easier to clean. You can mash the butter against the side of the bowl to break it up and get it all mixed very nicely.

Add your vanilla, salt, and 1 egg, mix until well blended.

Next add your flour and (optional) roasted soybean powder. Knead it until you get a nice, smooth ball of dough. If it’s falling apart and just not working, add a little bit of water. Like a half teaspoon at a time until you fix it. I didn’t need to this time.

Supposedly you should wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in your fridge for 3-4 hours. I was told to do this but it made the thing hard as a rock. So maybe skip this step. I had to microwave it in blasts of 10 seconds for 30 seconds to make it malleable again.

Go back to your beans. When they’re done cooking, put them all in a food processor/blender. A really good, capable one, not a small cheaply made one that heats up if you run it for more than ten seconds. Blend the absolute [____] out of those beans until they’re nice and smooth. You may want to open the blender on occasion to use a spoon to scoop any that get stuck to the side toward the middle.

Add 1/4 cup of butter, 1 cup of sugar, and honey, blend again so that it all gets mixed nicely.

Get a nice big pan and a spatula and cook your paste on your stove, mixing it a bit so that the bottom doesn’t burn. You want it to turn a rich, purplish color.

Put the finished red bean paste aside in a bowl to cool in the fridge while you wait on your cookie dough. Or time it so that your cookie dough is done before you start making your paste.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Roll your cookie dough flat and thin and cut out circles. If you don’t have a cookie cutter, use a flipped over cup.

Put the paste in the middle of your circles and fold the edges over into triangles to hold the filling, pinching the ends. Optional: sprinkle a few sesame seeds on top of the filling cause it looks pretty.

Use your second egg to do a light egg wash on the cookie dough (not the middle filling), it helps the cookies stick together and not split or crack as much.

Cook your cookies for about 20-25 minutes in the oven, then set aside to cool.

EAT.