How to make Shanghainese red bean pancakes, a sweet and chewy treat

Red bean pancakes are a popular dessert, served primarily at restaurants specialising in Shanghainese cuisine. The pancake is like a thin crêpe, but it is made with glutinous rice flour (and a little wheat flour), which makes the texture slightly stretchy.

Red bean pancakes

Red bean paste is sold in cans, but it is usually too sweet so I prefer to make my own. I like to flavour it with dried tangerine peel, which comes in segments, often joined at the base. For this recipe, you need just one or two individual segments.

For the red bean paste, you can use lard instead of oil, but only if it’s of a good quality and made without additives.

Any excess pancake batter and red bean paste can be kept in the fridge for about a week, or frozen for longer storage. For the pancakes:
150 grams glutinous rice flour
50 grams plain (all-purpose) flour
¼ tsp fine sea salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
30ml cooking oil, plus extra for frying the pancakes
Icing sugar, for dusting

For the red bean paste:
250 grams azuki beans
About 100 grams granulated sugar
1 or 2 segments dried tangerine peel
150ml cooking oil (or lard)

1 Make the pancake batter. Put the glutinous rice flour and plain flour in a bowl, add the salt and whisk to combine. In another bowl, whisk the eggs with 300ml of cool water and 30ml of cooking oil. Add about a quarter of the liquid ingre­dients to the bowl holding the flours and whisk until smooth. Add the remaining liquid ingredients and whisk until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate for several hours, or overnight.

2 Make the red bean paste. Rinse the azuki beans in a colander, then put them in a bowl with enough water to cover by about 3cm. Soak for several hours, or overnight. Drain the beans and rinse them, then put them in a saucepan with enough water to cover by about 2cm. Bring to the boil, then drain the beans and rinse with cool running water.

Put the beans back in the pan and add 750ml of fresh water. Rinse the dried tangerine peel segments, then place them in the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer, partially covered, until the beans are tender (about 45 minutes). Remove the pieces of tangerine peel and when cool enough to handle, cut them into very fine slivers.