The bean to eat all summer — cooling, refreshing, and especially good if you run hot
By Vivian
Why You'll Love It
Sharing a Chinese pastry today — little squares, very cute, thin wrapper and a big filling that pulls into strands. It's simple to make: wrap them and fry them, that's it. Zero difficulty, and you'll get it immediately. Homemade means low in calories and fat while still being really filling. My family loves them. Come make them with me!
The filling is warm and stretchy — light, clean mung bean paste with rich, milky cheese, and it pulls when you bite. So good; it's my dream pastry. I'm in love.
It's simple enough that I think a grade-schooler could do it. Learn it and you never have to queue at a shop again. Making it yourself means you control the ingredients and the sweetness.
Skillet mung bean cakes — so easy!
No oven needed. Low oil, low sugar, homemade.
Add a pinch of salt to the bean paste and it goes sweet-and-savory.
Ingredients
| Wrapper | |
|---|---|
| 1 egg (about 2 oz / 55–60 g) | 2 tbsp + ½ tsp (30 g) butter |
| 1½ tbsp (20 g) sugar | ¾ cup + 2 tsp (105 g) cake flour |
| ¼ cup + 1 tsp (35 g) cornstarch | |
| Mung Bean Filling | |
|---|---|
| ¾ cup (150 g) dried hulled mung beans | 3 tbsp + 2 tsp (30 g) whole milk powder |
| 1½ tbsp (20 g) sugar | 1 tbsp + 1 tsp (24 g) condensed milk |
| Center | |
|---|---|
| 1¼ cups (120 g) shredded mozzarella | |
Ingredient Notes
- Soak the hulled mung beans overnight and steam them until they crush between your fingers.
- Stop cooking the paste as soon as it masses up — over-dried filling falls apart when you wrap it.
- Use mozzarella for the best pull.
- Use unsalted butter; salted butter makes the whole thing taste salty.
- Keep both the wrapper and the filling covered while you work, or they dry out and crack.
Instructions
-
1
Soak the dried hulled mung beans in cold water the night before and keep them in the fridge.
-
2
Tip the soaked beans into a rice cooker with some water and cook them until soft enough to crush between your fingers.
Put the cooked beans, milk powder, sugar, and condensed milk in a food processor and blend to a paste.
-
3
Scrape the paste into a nonstick skillet and cook over medium-low heat just until it masses together.
-
4
Melt the butter over a water bath, or microwave it 1 minute until liquid.
Put the melted butter, egg, and sugar in a bowl and whisk until emulsified.
-
5
Sift in the mixed cake flour and cornstarch, stir until shaggy, then knead into a smooth dough that doesn't stick. Wrap it and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
-
6
Divide the mung bean filling into 12 portions of about 1 oz (30 g), roll each into a ball, press ⅓ oz (10 g) of cheese into the middle, pinch closed, and roll into a ball again.
-
7
Divide the rested wrapper dough into 12 portions of about ¾ oz (20 g) and roll into balls.
-
8
Flatten and roll each into a round, add a filled ball, work the dough up around it with your thumb and fingers, and square it off with a bench scraper.
-
9
Heat a nonstick pan or griddle. No oil needed — put the cakes in seam-side down.
-
10
Fry over low heat until all six sides are golden and cooked through.
-
11
The outside is crisp, the filling is warm, sweet, and fine, and it pulls into strands.
-
12
A few notes:
1. Adjust the sugar and cheese to your taste; you can leave the cheese out entirely.
2. Keep the wrapper dough and the filling covered with plastic wrap while you work, so they don't dry out.
Recipe Notes
Mung Bean & Cheese Squares
thin wrapper, generous filling, molten and stretchy inside. No oil in the pan, fried until all six sides are golden. Low in fat and sugar, and cooling for hot weather.
Time Needed
Plus soaking the mung beans overnight.
Prep Ahead
- Soak the dried hulled mung beans in cold water the night before and keep them in the fridge — they cook to tenderness much better the next day.
- Melt the butter over a water bath or microwave it 1 minute until liquid.
- 【Yield】12 pieces: ¾ oz (20 g) wrapper, 1 oz (30 g) filling, ⅓ oz (10 g) cheese each.
- 【Key ratios】Wrapper: cake flour to cornstarch ≈ 3:1 (105:35), with 2 tbsp + ½ tsp (30 g) butter and 1 egg. Filling: use milk powder and condensed milk to bring it together.
- 【Heat】No oil in a nonstick pan, low heat, 1–2 minutes per side until all six sides are golden.
- 【Resting】Chill the wrapper dough 30 minutes before wrapping — more pliable and less likely to crack.
- 【Storage & reheating】Refrigerate 3 days; reheat in a skillet over low heat or 20 seconds in the microwave.
- 【Common problems】Cracked wrappers mean the dough is too dry — add a little beaten egg. Leaking means the wrapper was too thin or the seam wasn't pinched shut.
Nutrition (per 100 g, estimated)
| Calories | about 328 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | about 10 g |
| Fat | about 12 g |
| Carbohydrates | about 45 g |
| of which sugars | about 14 g |
| Fiber | about 3 g |
| Sodium | about 120 mg |
Estimated from the ingredient amounts, not lab tested. One piece is about 2 oz (60 g), roughly 197 kcal, calculated at 4 / 9 / 4 kcal per g of protein / fat / carbs.