Penang Tau Sar Pheah/Mung Bean Biscuits

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As a paradise of cuisine, Penang has indeed a whole range of delicious cuisine that attracts many visitors to the island. One such delicacy is the ubiquitous Penang Tau Sar Pheah. It is widely enjoyed by both locals and tourists. Penang tau sar pheah (豆沙饼) in Hokkien, is basically a baked biscuit with thin layers of flaky pastry and mung beans filling. There are many brands of this biscuit in Penang, but the most famous one will be the Ghee Hiang and the Him Heang brand. A trip to Penang will not be complete if you don’t buy a few boxes of this biscuits to take home with you to share it with family and friends.

I will always bring back a couple of boxes of this biscuits with me when I am back for vacation. This is one of the snacks I miss a lot since living here in the US. There was once I didn’t packed the biscuits well and once it reach the US custom, the immigration lady wanted to check one of my suitcase. She unzip the suitcase and some of the tau sar pheah fell out. It was all over the table. It was so embarrassing ha ha… and she said this must be something good as you carried it all the way from back here. Thanks God she was not upset with me and didn’t confiscate the biscuits. So each time I eat this biscuits I will think of the incident.

In conjunction of Malaysia Independence Day on the 31st of August, as usual Babe in the City-KL will be hosting a virtual Merdeka Day open house and this year theme is Makan (means Eat) Through Malaysia which we are to prepare a dish famously linked to a place in Malaysia. Actually it is a pretty tough theme for me as I have been away from Malaysia for so long and hardly have a chance to try out all the great food in Malaysia. After giving it some thought, I decided to make this famous biscuits. This was in my to-do list for a few years now and finally I can strike it off the list.

I prepared the filling a day earlier and the traditional Chinese pastries the next day. There is a lot of wrapping, rolling and rolling and by the time I finish the 65 pieces I was death tired but it is all worth it. The biscuits tasted really good with flaky pastries and very nice and fragrant filling.

Dough A
Recipe source: My Kitchen Snippets


175 gram Flour
100 ml vegetable oil

Dough B

345 gram Flour
180 ml vegetable oil
135 ml water
¾ tsp vinegar

Filling:

50 ml vegetable oil
2 shallots - thinly sliced
150 gram sugar (if you like it sweeter you can add more to it)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp white pepper
400 gram dried mung beans

Prepare the filling:

1. Soak the beans for at least 4 hours, steamed for 30 minutes or until soft. Put it in a food processor and give it a few pulses (not too smooth). Add In the sugar, salt and pepper and mix well.
2. Heat up the oil and fry the shallots until lightly brown and fragrant. Add in the bean mixture. Stir and fry until the mixture is slightly dry and you are able to form it into a ball with it.
3. Remove and divide the filling into 65 small balls. Set it aside.

Prepare the dough:

1. Mix ingredients for dough A until it form into a smooth dough. If the dough is too dry add a bit more oil. Wrap dough with cling wrap and set it aside to rest for 30mins. Divide into 65 pieces.
2. Mix Ingredients for dough B together until it form into a smooth dough. Wrap dough with cling wrap and set it aside for 30mins. Divide into 65 pieces

To assemble the biscuits:

I am using the same pictures on how to roll out the pastry from my previous posting of Wife Biscuit/Lao Por Peng .

1. Take a piece of dough B and wrap it around dough A. Be sure to wrap tightly and eliminate any air pocket. Flatten the dough with your palm then roll it out into long oval thin dough using a rolling pin (pix A). Roll the dough up like a Swiss roll (Pix B and C).

(pix A)

(Pix B)

(Pix C)

2. Turn the dough 90° (pix D), flatten it and roll it out thin (pix E). Then roll it up like a Swiss roll (pix F) Repeat step 1 and 2 with the remaining dough.

(Pix D)

(Pix E)

(Pix F)

3. Take 1 piece of pastry dough, press down the center of the dough (Pix G)and pinch both ends (Pix H)together then flatten it so the dough is roughly round shape. Roll the dough out to a circle

(Pix G)

(Pix H)

4. Wrap it with filling. Brush with egg wash and bake it in a pre-heated 375 degree F oven until golden brown.

I am entering this post too to Muhibbah Malaysian Monday, created and hosted by Sharon of Test with a Skewer and Suresh of 3 Hungry Tummies.