Fruit-shaped Mung Bean Cakes - Bánh đậu xanh trái cây (Luk Chup) _ Helen's Recipes

Hi everyone, it's Helen here. Today I will make a very cute little sweet treat with colorful and attractive appearance that every kid will love. It's a mung bean cake shaped in miniature size of various kinds of fruits. The taste is slightly sweet and it smells fragrant. It's also a popular dessert in Thailand where it's called Luk Chup. It means lovely. As a finishing touch, a jelly is applied to coat the mung bean sweets to create this plastic look and texture. In the old days, this dessert is made for the king after the meals in the palace. But now you can make this imperial dessert and enjoy them at home too. I bet your little ones gonna love it. So let's begin. The ingredients you're gonna need. First of all, you need to soak 1 cup of peeled, slick mung bean in water for at least 2 hours. This is enough to make about 50 mini fruits. Then drain and cook in a saucepan with 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil and cook over medium-high. Remove the foam and stir occasionally so the mung bean won't stick to the base of the pan. You can add a pinch of salt. Cook until most of the water is evaporated. And then you cover the lid and keep the heat to very low. Cook for about 15 minutes until the beans are soft and mashable. And then you can take off the heat. Keep the lid still covered and leave for about 5 more minutes. So it's really soft and easy to mash. Then transfer to a food processor and add 80g of sugar, about 100ml of coconut milk. And process well into a smooth paste. Next, transfer this mung bean paste into a non-stick pan and cook over low heat for about 8-10 minutes, constantly stirring and fold up so it will not stick to the base of the pan. And this method is called xinh in Vietnamese. It helps to release the water in the fillings and also helps the sugar to incorporate well into the mung beans. Next, you add 30ml of vegetable oil, not at one time but gradually, into the mung beans and keep mixing. When the mung bean thickens, it forms into a dough and it's dry to the touch and no longer stick to the pan. That's when it's good enough, you can take off the heat and let it cool slightly and wrap it in a piece of saran wrap so it won't dry out. And now comes the fun part! Dinge about half a thumb-sized piece of mung bean paste and shape into a ball. And then skillfully shape each into your favorite fruit or vegetable. This one I will shape it into mango. It's also helpful if you have one of these fondant shaping tools. If you want to shape mango steam, you can pinch a few more tiny balls and put on top of the fruit to resemble the petals. Let's make rose apple, my favorite. Then you stick a skewer or a toothpick into where the stem is supposed to be and mix some food coloring with water. This is where an egg tray comes in handy. Slowly you paint each fruit with this color. For the coating, you dissolve agar powder in water and bring to a boil and then add sugar and reduce the heat to simmer for about 5 minutes and then take off the heat. When it's not too hot but still warm, dip the fruit shapes in the liquid and then leave to dry for a few minutes and then repeat for a couple more times to get a really shiny and thick coating. Add the mung bean paste, dry out pretty fast and it will cause cracks on the surface and you don't want that so it might be helpful if you have a team for this job. One do the shaping, one does the painting and one does the dipping. It's also a great project to get your kids excited. Finally, just pull out the skewer or the toothpick and stick a few small leaves into the fruit to make them look real and enjoy. They are seriously too cute to eat. The flavor is unlike any other. It's smooth, rich and creamy as the mung bean paste are. It has a rubbery, crunchy outer layer. Really really good. So let's give it a try and please share with me your photos on Instagram with hashtag HelenRecipes. I'm always looking forward to seeing them. Also give this video a good thumbs up and subscribe to my channel for more amazing Asian desserts like this. I will see you then next time. Bye bye.