Mung bean cake (lvdougao) is a traditional and popular Chinese dessert in summer. The main ingredient, mung beans or sometimes called as green mung bean is a common and daily ingredient in Chinese cooking. In traditional Chinese medicine, those little green beans have a cold property, which can further help to protect our body from hot temperature in summer.Personally, I love various recipes made with mung beans or related ingredients. For example, in Sichuan province, there is famous Liangfen made with Mung bean starch. And there is a national glass noodle—mung bean noodles. I have made two versions this time. One batch of the cakes are custard yellow while the other batch is matcha green( reproduce the green color of the cake).
Many varieties of mung bean cake are available in China from taste, from color to shape. But in general, they are shaped by different cake moulds like mooncake moulds. For a smoother and fine taste, it is important to use unshelled green beans. Unshelled green beans are easy to find in baking ingredient store in China. You may try to search it in Asian stores, sometimes they are named as yellow mung beans (spilt mung beans). Another option is to pre-soak the green mung beans and peel by hand. But it is a really hard task requires patience and time. I have tried one time and do not recommend you doing this.
Pre-soak the yellow mung beans overnight. Rinse and dry.
In a high pressure cooker, add clean water to slightly cover (3-4 cm higher) the beans and cook for a bean (or meat) procedure until the mung beans are easy to smash.
Then smash the mung bean until fine and smooth. It is quite easy when they are well cooked.
Transfer the mung bean into a pan, add butter and vegetable oil and keep frying over medium slow fire.
Add sugar when the oil is well absorbed.
Continue frying over slow fire until the mixture can be easily shaped into a paste. Divide the mixture into two equal portions and transfer one portion out.
Add around 5-8g matcha powder for coloring.
Mix well.
Transfer the mixture into a strainer and then press with a spatula. You may ask help in this step or consider this as a way of body exercise. This will give your mung bean cake a super smooth taste.
And then divide the mixture into small portions around 30g-40g. If you want them to share similar size, use a kitchen scale to weight each portion or resort to a scoop. I wrap some of them with 10g red bean paste. But this step is optional.
Then shape it with a mooncake mould. I am using this one :New Moon Cake Decoration Mold mould 50g & flowers Round 4 stamps DIY Tool
. For tips about how to use this tool, you can check the video in snow skin mooncakes.
All the mung bean cakes need to be kept in small air-tight packages after cool down completely. They can be kept for around 1 week.
Mung Bean Cake
Ingredients
- 250 g yellow mung beans ,unshelled mung beans
- 40 g butter
- 50 g vegetable oil
- 110 g sugar or more if needed ,you can slightly adjust this amount
- a small pinch of salt
Coloring
- 5-8 g matcha powder I use 5g
Instructions
- Pre-soak the yellow mung beans overnight. Rinse and dry in the next day.
- In a high pressure cooker, add clean water to slightly cover the mung beans and cook with a bean procedure until the beans are soft and easy to smash. Then smash them with a spatula until a smooth and fine mixture. Transfer it to a non-stick pan.
- Add pinch of salt, butter and vegetable oil to the mung bean mixture. Heat over medium slow fine and keep stirring in the process. Add sugar when the oil is well absorbed. Keep stirring until they can sticky together easily. Turn off the fire.
Optional for coloring
- Divide the dough into two equal portions and then transfer one portion out. Add around 5-8g matcha powder to the another portion and mix well.
Straining and Shaping
- Then transfer the mixture to a strain and press them with a spatula. You will see then come out from the small holes. This step can provide a super smooth and fine texture.
- Divide the mixture into smaller doughs around 30g to 40g and then wrap 10 filling if you prefer to have some. Shape with a mooncake mould or any other mould you prefer. You need to operate this step when the mixture is not hot but still warm.
Notes
Nutrition
For all sweet teeth!
Hi, can i use normal pot to cook instead of high pressure cooker?
Yes, but you need more water since longer time needed and more water evaporation.
I bought green mung beans and tried to shell them by hand. It took almost 2 hours. Never again.?
My issue with the recipe is not knowing the exact amount of water. I thought I had it correct last night but it turned into a thick mung bean soup. I seasoned it to make it savory and it was delicious but…no mooncakes. ?
Curious how many mooncakes this comes out to?
Thank you
It should be around 20 ones depending on your mooncake mold size.
Hi,
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First time making this and it turned out so well! For next time, I’m thinking about not including any sugar at all and replacing the butter for more oil for a healthier option. Would this cause any issues for the mung bean cake?
Hi，Jingyi
It’s totally fine to skip the sugar, but the final taste will be a little bland. Butter can be replaced with other oils that you think are healthy. This will not affect the final result.