Low GI Mooncake with White Bean Paste

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Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, my dear friends! It’s the time of the year when we usually gather with beloved families and friends to enjoy mooncakes, tea and appreciate the bright round moon. Kids will play with lanterns in the good old days, these days, the kids in my family will glare into their phones or iPads and play online games together. Mooncakes are typically made with ingredients that are not exactly healthy — the golden syrup, the amount of sugar added to the thick paste fillings, and etc. In this recipe, I made Low GI Mooncake completely with only low GI ingredients — both the inside paste filling and the outside crust.

I’ve made a few mooncake alternatives that are gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, such as my Osmanthus Goji Jelly Mooncake and my Mango Coconut Jelly Mooncake. This low GI mooncake is gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free and grain-free. It’s also yummilicious, and a much healthier version than the traditional mooncake. I find it amazingly easy and quick to make. The white bean paste is made within 30 minutes, using canned cannellini beans (a great life hack!), AND it tastes sooooo gooooood! The crust using almond flour, stevia sweetener, salt, coconut oil and egg, is very easy to work with. Since the crust is made with gluten-free almond flour, it’s a lot more flaky and not flexible, but man! The natural flavours of almond shines in this healthy mooncake.

Tips on making Low GI Mooncake

• The white bean paste is actually shiro-an in Japanese. It’s a very common bean paste filling used in Japanese cakes such as the beautiful wagashi.
• Many recipes recommend using the butter beans, and if it’s not available, substitute with lima beans or cannellini beans. I can’t find the former two in the supermarkets in Singapore. Note: I eventually found canned butter beans in Marks & Spencer.
• Make the white bean paste in advance (up to 10 days) and chill it in the fridge. Unlike pastes such as sweet potato paste or mung bean paste, the white bean paste actually stay moist and non-flaky after 1 week in the fridge.
• Since the almond flour does not contain any gluten, it cannot be rolled and shaped like how you would a traditional pastry made of plain flour. That said, when I pressed the almond dough into shapes, some fine patterns still stay intact after baking, though not as sharp as using a traditional flour pastry dough. The almond crust will also be more crumbly than normal plain flour. 
• The almond crust might ‘crack’ when wrapped with the paste filling, that’s normal, simply press the crust back to close the crack. 
• The almond crust has a slightly sweeter taste than normal plain flour. The amount of stevia sweetener I used in this recipe is already reduced, I would recommend you either keep it the same amount or increase it if you prefer a more sweeter profile. 
• The coconut oil can be replaced with unsalted butter if you prefer a more buttery flavour for the crust. Of course, using butter will make it non dairy-free.
• You can use other types of paste filling, such as red bean paste, mung bean paste, lotus seed paste, or any other paste you desire.

Watch how to make low GI mooncake on YouTube

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Low GI Mooncake with White Bean Paste

These gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, refined sugar-free Low GI Mooncakes not only taste yummilicious, it’s also a much healthier version than the traditional mooncake. It's filled with low GI white bean paste which I made very quickly within 30 minutes. This is the healthiest and fastest mooncake I've ever made!

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Chilling time for the paste and dough 1 hour hr

Total Time 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course Snack

Cuisine asian, Chinese

Servings 10 mooncakes

Calories 260 kcal

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

Crust

• ▢ 180 g almond flour extra fine
• ▢ ⅛ tsp fine salt
• ▢ 45 g stevia sweetener
• ▢ 1 tbsp unrefined cold pressed coconut oil
• ▢ 1 small egg 45g without shell
• ▢ 1 egg white for egg wash, can also use egg yolk

Filling

• ▢ 2 cans cannellini beans 400g per can, can also use butter beans
• ▢ ¼ cup stevia sweetener

Instructions

 

Make the white bean paste filling (yields 340g paste)

• ▢
  Drain water from 2 cans cannellini beans in a colander. Then rinse the beans under cool running water for 10 seconds.
  2 cans cannellini beans
  
• ▢
  Blend the beans in a food processor into a smooth purée.
  
• ▢
  Transfer the bean purée into a non-stick pan. Add 1/4 cup stevia sweetener. Fry over medium heat.
  1/4 cup stevia sweetener
  
• ▢
  Fry for about 15 minutes until the purée and stevia sweetener is well-incorporated. It will turn drier and thicker.

  Then remove from the heat and let it cool completely.

  Cool in the fridge for at least an hour.

  Note: you can also make the paste a day before.
  

Make the crust (yields 280g dough)

• ▢
  Pre-heat oven to 170C / 338F, upper and lower heat without fan.
• ▢
  Mix the dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl – 180 g almond flour, 1/8 tsp fine salt, 45 g stevia sweetener.

  Then add in 1 tbsp unrefined cold pressed coconut oil and 1 small egg. Mix with a spatula into a rough dough.
  180 g almond flour, 1/8 tsp fine salt, 45 g stevia sweetener, 1 tbsp unrefined cold pressed coconut oil, 1 small egg
  
• ▢
  Then use your hand to brief mix into a smooth dough.
  
• ▢
  Cover the dough with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  

Assemble and bake the mooncakes

• ▢
  Roll the dough into 30g balls. Roll the white bean paste into 20g balls.

  Note: I'm using a 50g mould, ratio of dough to paste is 60% to 40%.
  
• ▢
  Flatten the dough and place a white bean paste filling ball on it. Wrap the paste filling with the dough and roll into a ball.
  
• ▢
  Use a mooncake press mould and press it into shape.
  
• ▢
  Place the mooncakes onto a lightly greased baking paper on a baking tray.

  Lightly brush the egg white wash over the mooncakes.
  1 egg white
  
• ▢
  Bake in the pre-heat oven for 15 minutes until the mooncakes turn golden brown.

  Note: place the baking tray in the middle rack.
  
• ▢
  Let the flavour develop over 1-2 days before serving.
  

Video

Notes

Since the almond flour does not contain any gluten, it cannot be rolled and shaped like how you would a traditional pastry made of plain flour. The almond crust will also be more crumbly than normal plain flour. 

The almond crust might ‘crack’ when wrapped with the paste filling, that’s normal, simply press the crust back to close the crack. 

The almond crust has a slightly sweeter taste than normal plain flour. The amount of stevia sweetener I used in this recipe is already reduced, I would recommend you either keep it the same amount or increase it if you prefer a more sweeter profile. 

The coconut oil can be replaced with unsalted butter if you prefer a more buttery flavour for the crust. However using butter will make it non dairy-free.

 

Nutrition

Calories: 260kcal

Keyword chinese, dairy free, gluten-free, mooncake, refined sugar free

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