Categories: Food & Drink

Crispy Snack You Must Try: Shanghai Pancakes

Honestly, I fell in love with these Shanghai pancakes when I first tasted them at the roadside stall, sold near the local banks.

Yes, in Malaysia , you can find these tasty, ready to go, hot pipping snacks sold by the roadside mobile stall or mini vans that sell assorted pancakes at a very cheap price.

Lately, Taiwan Street Snacks had hit the market where crispy delicious snacks are cooked or baked on the spot, slip into paper bag where consumers can order and wait for 5-10 minutes , a very fast and cheap take-away snack idea during rush hour or when your hunger pangs couldn’t wait any longer.

One of the latest snack is Shangai Pancakes.

It is almost similar with the American pancakes except it is not thick, not soft or fluffy at all.

Shanghai pancakes are made with cooked red bean paste with sugar and pancake batter without any baking powder.

These pancake batter is made as thinly as possible to turn them crispy and crunchy alike crepes.

Then, red bean paste is spread on top, fold into halves and baked or pan fried again to make them crispier and to reduce the excess oil

How to make Red Bean Paste

There are 3 ways to make a batch of red bean paste:

Ready-made red bean paste ( sold in bakery shops)
Boil red bean sweet soup dessert
Boil red beans in pressure cooker

If you are looking for an easy way out, go ahead to the bakery shop, buy a ready made red bean paste sold in tubs or cups.

Alternatively, you can reuse the red beans cooked in sweet dessert by boiling a pot of water, add in screwpine leaves, brown sugar or rock sugar and 1 bowl of raw red beans, preferably soaked overnight.

However, in this post, I had used the pressure cooker to cook the red bean in 30 min and sieve them into fine paste.

Choose whichever method that is convenient to you.

Shanghai Pancakes

Ingredients

-300g red beans

-180g sugar

-4 tbsp sunflower oil

Batter:

-1 cup flour

-1 egg

-1 cup water

-pinch of salt

-3 tbsp sunflower oil

Method of making :

To make the red bean paste

Soak the red beans in a large bowl of water overnight. This method helps to soften the red beans faster.
Drain the red beans in the morning. Wash themm and cook in a presuure cooker with water for 30min.
Remove the soften, cooked red beans.
Pass through the beans in a sieve to remove the husk ( skin)
Use a muslin bag to put in the sieved red bean paste.
Hang it up so that the excess water drips off.
Turn out the paste into a frying pan and cook over low heat with mixture of sugar and oil.
The red bean paste mixture should be glossy and smooth.

How to make the pancake batter

Sieve the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre, out in the cracked egg and 1/2 cup of water into the well.
Use a fork to mix the batter until well combined, producing a smooth batter
Beat the batter for 10min and then add the remainder water.
Let the batter stand for 15min.
Heat up a frying pan butter
Pour 2-3 ladle of batter into the pan and swirl in a circular motion to allow the batter to cover the whole surface.
When the sides started to turn brownish and crisp, flip the pancake over.
When both sides are brownish and crisp, transfer it to a plate.
Spread the cooked red bean paste onto the pancake.
Fold the pancake into half. Cut the pancake into rectangular shapes.
Heat up pancake in the pan again to warm up.
Serve hot with cold or hot beverage.