Cinnamon cookies filled with bean paste

Today I’m going to show you a recipe I’ve been working on for a while: Gyepi-manju (계피만주), which are cinnamon cookies filled with bean paste. These cookies were created by Koreans to look and feel like western style cookies.

You can find these cookies at any Korean bakery these days, but when I was young these kinds of cookies were very special because there were not many bakeries in the city where I lived. We could get sugary treats anywhere, even stationary stores, but these cookies could only be bought at a special store or a bakery. I remember always wanting them and almost dreaming about their fluffy sweetness. Now you can make them at home and snack on them any time. They are very fluffy and soft, and go great with tea, coffee, or any kind of drink.

You might remember my earlier manju recipe from 2011 that I learned from my friend Jeongjin. This version is a little different: its shape and size are different, and each cookie is coated with cinnamon powder. Both are delicious!

These days I’m experimenting with natural, zero calorie sweeteners for my own health. I’ve tried this and that but so far Swerve is the best. I’m not working for that company, please let me know if you have a better option, but in this recipe you can substitute sugar for the same amount of Swerve, like I do in the video.

Ingredients

For filling:

• 7 ounces (about 200 grams) lima beans (a little more than 1 cup), soaked in cold water for 12 to 24 hours
• ⅓ cup (or ½ cup) white sugar or Swerve natural sweetener
• a pinch of kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

For dough:

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• a pinch of kosher salt
• a pinch of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
• ¾ cup plus 1 to 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon powder
• toasted sesame seeds

Directions

Make filling:

1. Pop the soaked beans out of the skins with your fingers. Discard the skins and rinse the beans. Drain and put them into a large heavy pot.
2. Add 2 cups water and cook for 20 minutes over medium high heat with the lid off. There will be a lot of foam floating on top while the beans are cooking. When that happens, stir with a wooden spoon until the foam goes down, and turn down the heat to medium and let it boil, stirring occasionally.
3. After 20 minutes, turn up the heat to medium high heat. Stir and mash the beans with your wooden spoon for about 5 minutes until the beans thicken and clump together loosely.
4. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the sugar, kosher salt, and vanilla extract (if used) until the sugar is well dissolved. Remove from the heat.
5. Let it cool down. When it’s cool, transfer the bean paste to a plastic bag or an airtight container and refrigerate it at least 1 hour and up to overnight.

Make dough:

1. Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat. Remove from the heat.
2. Add the condensed milk and stir well with a wooden spoon. Add egg, kosher salt, baking soda, and vanilla extract (if used). Stir well and add ¾ cup flour. Mix it well with a small wooden spoon until soft and sticky.
3. Cover and let it sit for at least 1 hour, or refrigerate it overnight.

Shaping gyepi-manju:

1. Put some flour (about 1 to 2 tablespoons) on the corner of a large cutting board. Sprinkle some of it over the board.
2. Divide the filling into 2 equal pieces and shape them into balls. Do the same with the dough.
3. Flatten one dough ball into a disc about 3 inches in diameter. Add a bean paste ball to the middle of the disc and work the dough up over the bean paste with your both hands, turning and pushing up the dough until it’s totally covered. If your hands get sticky, take some of the dusting flour.
4. Put the ball on the cutting board and turn it around, smooth it out, and cover it with a thin layer of flour.
5. Repeat with the other ball.
6. Roll the balls out into a 12 or 13 inch long rope.
7. Wet the rope with a bit of cold water on your fingertips or with a pastry brush, and then coat them with the cinnamon powder with your hands.
8. Cut the rope into approximately 1-inch bite size pieces. You will get about 24 to 26 pieces. Lay them down on the cutting board with the cut sides up.
9. Beat the egg yolk in a small bowl and brush it over each cookie. Put some sesame seeds on top of each and transfer them one by one to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Baking:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and bake the cookies for 20 minutes. Serve with tea or a drink. You can freeze the leftovers up to 1 month.

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