Purple Spiral Bun with Red Beans

Made with flipped dough

I first saw spiral buns on a Chinese website quite long ago. It was a plain mantou wrapped with a spiral dough skin. They looked very pretty.

I decided to borrow that idea and play with my own recipe. I want to fill the buns with red beans to match the spirals, LOL. I tried wrapping the dough with 2 methods, that is with the rolled side and the flipped side. Both sides yield buns that look different.



Made with non-flipped dough

After making cinnamon rolls, I do find a cold dough rolls out pretty well, and cuts even better. So, the dough is proofed in the fridge, don't be surprised.

The filling used for this is homemade. That is, I boiled a lot of beans for red bean soup and then scooped some out, cooked with sugar and a little bit of oil and tadah! My filling is done. Don't skip the oil, if not your filling will turn dry after the bun is kept for 1-2 days.




Made with flipped dough

Purple Spiral Buns with Red Bean Filling
Recipe source: WendyinKK

White Dough
7gm instant yeast (1 ¾ tsp)
150gm water
Small pinch of sugar
300gm pau flour
1tsp baking powder
30gm sugar
15gm shortening


Purple dough
3gm instant yeast (3/4 tsp)
1 Tbsp water
100gm steamed purple sweet potato
100-120gm pau flour
½ tsp baking powder
7gm shortening

480gm red bean filling.

1. Prepare white dough. Proof yeast with water and pinch of sugar until frothy. Mix everything together and knead until a smooth dough forms. Cover and put it into the fridge.
2. Prepare purple dough. Mix yeast with water until dissolved. Grate purple SP and mill with 100gm flour and baking powder until fine. Mix everything together (add more flour as needed) and knead until a smooth dough forms. Cover and put it into the fridge too.
3. While both dough are chilling, roll filling into 30gm balls. You will need 16 pcs.
4. Remove white dough from fridge and roll it into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Set aside.
5. Remove purple dough from fridge and roll it into a rectangle the same size as the white dough.
6. Place purple dough on top of the white dough and roll up along the long side.
7. Divide dough into 16 pieces.
8. Roll each piece of dough flat and wrap with a piece of red bean filling.
9. Let it proof for 45 minutes .
10. Steam on high heat for 12 minutes.

Here's how they look inside