Pastries · FFET10302
Lu dou gao (mung bean cake)
Mung bean pressed in a mold into a cake, in a Beijing-Tianjin style without added fat and a softer Suzhou and Yangzhou style with fat.
A white porcelain plate holds pale yellow mung bean and butter cakes with molded patterns and grooved sides, with broken pieces in front exposing crumbly interiors, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the plate.
Cakes and pastries of every kind, baked, steamed or fried.
Lu dou gao is a cake made mainly from mung bean and pressed into a wooden mold, also called gan dou gao. The Beijing-Tianjin style has no added fat, while the Suzhou and Yangzhou styles add fat and come out softer; variants include osmanthus and glutinous rice. Two recipes use different methods: one steams mung bean powder and cake flour, presses the mixture in a mold and steams it briefly again, while the other cooks mung beans soft, mashes them and fries the paste until it holds together before pressing it in a mold. No dated record was found.
What
Lu dou gao is a cake made mainly from mung bean flour pressed into wooden molds, also called gan dou gao.1
When
The cake is traditionally said to come from ancient China, but no dated record was found and this claim lacks supporting sources.1
Where
The Beijing-Tianjin style has no added fat, while the Suzhou and Yangzhou styles add fat and have a softer texture. The available material identifies no single place of origin.1
How
The two recipes use different methods. The steamed-flour method steams mung bean powder and cake flour for about 20 minutes, breaks it up, mixes it with sugar and coconut oil, presses it in a mold, steams it about 5 minutes more and brushes it with sesame oil; the cake is less chewy than shop versions. The mashed-bean method soaks mung beans overnight, cooks them soft, mashes them, fries the paste with butter, vegetable oil and sugar until it holds together, and presses it in a mooncake mold while warm.2,3
Why
Dragon Boat Festival customs include eating zongzi, drinking realgar wine and eating mung bean cake. These are called “cooling” foods, traditionally believed to prevent seasonal illness around the summer solstice, but this claim lacks supporting sources.1
Impact and influence
Home cooks make this cake in two ways, steamed flour pressed in a mold and fried mashed beans pressed in a mold, with osmanthus and glutinous rice variants also available.1,2,3
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
I found two ways of making this cake in the recipes I read. One steams mung bean powder and cake flour, breaks it up, mixes it with sugar and coconut oil, presses it in a mold, steams it briefly again and brushes it with sesame oil. The other cooks soaked mung beans soft, mashes them, and fries the paste with butter, vegetable oil and sugar until it holds together, then presses it in a mold while warm. At home I make the second one, with the amounts following a signed recipe on a food blog, and I leave out the matcha and the red bean filling that recipe offers as options. How soft I cook the beans is my own judgment. I did not make the steamed-flour method and mention it here just for comparison.
Ingredients
- Mung beans 250 g, soaked overnight, rinsed and drained
- Butter 40 g
- Vegetable oil 50 g
- Sugar 110 g
- Salt a small pinch
Steps
- Soak the mung beans overnight, then rinse and drain them the next day.
- Put the beans in a pot (a pressure cooker or an ordinary pot both work) and add water to 3 to 4 cm above the beans. Cook until they are soft. I pinch one bean, and it is done when it crushes at a press with no hard center.
- Mash the cooked beans until smooth and move them to a nonstick pan.
- Add the salt, butter and vegetable oil and stir over medium-low heat.
- When the oil has been absorbed, add the sugar and keep stirring until the whole mass holds together, then turn off the heat.
- Press the paste through a strainer with the back of a spoon, then divide it into portions of 30 to 40 g, about 20 cakes in all.
- While the paste is still warm, press each portion in a mooncake mold.
- Let the cakes cool completely, then wrap them and keep them in the refrigerator.
Tips
- I keep stirring while the paste fries because it sticks easily to the bottom of the pan; this is my own habit.
- That recipe says the cooled cakes keep for up to one week, wrapped, in the refrigerator.
Allergens: milk