Bean Paste Recipe

Learn how to make this highly sought-after recipe! Guest instructor Shruti Archit Saxena teaches us her bean paste recipe for making flexible sugar flowers that stay pliable long after typical gumpaste flowers become brittle and break.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 16

Cook Time 1 20

Total Time 17 20

Calories 737kcal

Author Elizabeth Marek

Ingredients

100 g White/Lima beans
85 g Granulated sugar
10 g Vegetable oil
10 g Vegetable shortening
25 g AP flour
20 g Tapioca flour
20 g Corn flour
18 g Liquid glucose
4 g Glycerin

Instructions

Soak lima beans for a minimum 16-17 hours in water. Beans will get bigger in size.
Peel lima bean skin of each bean by pinching beans together.
Place beans in a heavy-bottom pot with 4 cups of water. Start cooking beans over high heat until boiling, then reduce heat to medium, regularly stirring beans for 35-40 minutes until beans break down and get mushy.
If you use up the water and beans are still not cooked, you can add more water.
Let beans cool. Then grind into a fine paste using a food processor or blender. Pass bean mixture through a fine sieve to remove any lumps.
Add bean mixture to a heavy-bottom pot. Start cooking at medium-low heat. Once bean mixture start bubbling, add granulated sugar, stirring constantly until mixture starts to thicken up and leaves the sides of the pan, about 10-20 minutes.
Remove bean paste from pan.
While bean paste is still hot, add AP flour, tapioca starch, corn starch, oil, liquid glucose and vegetable shortening to paste and mix together, being careful not to create any lumps when mixing.
Place bean paste onto a sheet of foil in the center. Fold up all sides towards the center, then steam paste in a stovetop steamer on medium heat for 20 minutes.
If bean paste is sticking to the sides of the foil, it needs to be steamed longer for another 3-4 minutes, then check again to see if the paste is ready.
After bean paste has cooled, but not completely cold, take out of foil and add glycerin. Begin to knead until glycerin is fully incorporated.
Let bean paste rest for 2-3 hours. Knead paste and add color as you would to gumpaste or fondant.

Notes

This bean paste will keep in the refrigerator for about a week and in a freezer for about 3 months.

When taking the bean paste out from the freezer, you must let it defrost first, then microwave the bean paste for 10-15 seconds at a time and knead it again to get it back to the correct consistency.

Bean paste that has been in the fridge needs to be microwaved in 2-4 second intervals and kneaded to get it back to the correct consistency.

Bean paste can be cooked for 10-12 minutes in pressure cooker or instant pot.

Nutrition