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A Creative Quarantine Recipe!

Emily Huang
May 5, 2020

In quarantine, we’re clearly placed under a lot of restrictions. Socialization. Transportation and mobility. Fresh air and sun. While concocting fancy and unique meals might be low on your priority list during this time, a lack of creativity in your meal plans can accumulate in its impact on your overall quarantine experience, which is no doubt already weighing heavy on you. So, I’m here today to bring you all a fun little recipe for red bean bread that you can try out at home, for both the refreshing activity and the yummy reward for your culinary work at the end!

In Chinese (and I think general East Asian) culture, a lot of wheat-based snacks have red bean filling. Red bean bread is my family’s quarantine spin-off of such Chinese snacks. The recipe for simple and classic red bean bread doesn’t require any fancy ingredients or equipment, and if you don’t have red bean paste or would prefer something else, you have the freedom to replace the filling with something else! Below is the recipe. Hope you give it a try and enjoy the results!

Ingredients:

  1. 2 eggs
  2. 300 g flour
  3. 20 g yeast
  4. 5 g salt
  5. 50 g sugar
  6. 200 g milk
  7. 60 g butter
  8. Red bean paste (or your filling of choice!)

Recipe: 

  1. Mix the flour with 1 egg, salt, sugar, milk, and yeast, and knead into a big ball of dough.
  2. Knead the dough with butter until it isn’t sticky.
  3. Cover the mixed flour with saran wrap and wait for it to ferment.   
  4. After it ferments, knead the dough for 10 minutes, then cut it into 8 pieces.
  5. Roll each piece into a round and flat piece of dough. Put the red bean filling into each piece, then shape the dough into a round ball around the filling. (Make sure it’s secure so no filling leaks out!)
  6. Cover the bread and wait for 30 minutes to ferment again. 
  7. Beat the other egg and brush the egg mixture on the top of each piece of bread.
  8. Bake at 375F for 20 minutes.
  9. Enjoy!