After a hot, dry summer, I’m excited for the coming fall season. In New York, we’ve had some very cool breezes and the weather has been so comfortable. And it’s so nice to see fall produce starting to pile up at our local grocery store and farmers market. Today I want to share this classic dim sum – Chinese pumpkin cake, for the upcoming season.
What is Chinese pumpkin cake
Chinese pumpkin cake (南瓜饼, Nan Gua Bing) is a very popular dessert and snack. Back in China, it was one of those desserts you’d see on restaurant menus quite often. The pumpkin cake is similar to mochi, which has a gooey texture, but the surface is crunchy and crispy. The skin has a beautiful orange color from the pumpkin puree. It is sometimes filled with a sweet filling such as red bean paste. Sometimes it is simply fried until crispy and served with a sprinkle of sugar.
Ingredients for making Chinese pumpkin cake
Making Chinese pumpkin cake is very easy and requires just four ingredients.
Glutinous rice flour (糯米)
Glutinous rice flour, also known as sweet rice flour or sticky rice flour, is a gluten-free flour that is commonly used to make Chinese dim sum and Japanese mochi. When mixed with liquid, the flour will start to become sticky like clay and can be easily shaped. If you’ve never worked with glutinous rice flour before, no worries! It is so much easier to work with than regular flour and it is very forgiving.
Pumpkin or pumpkin puree
In China, it is very common to make pumpkin puree from scratch to make this dish. But to make cooking easier, I opted to use canned pumpkin puree. It saves a lot of time and the result is excellent. If you prefer to cook from a raw pumpkin, the best one is red kuri pumpkin. It is a type of pumpkin you can usually find at Asian markets. It has a very sweet taste and bright orange flesh. It works perfectly for this dish. Alternatively, you can also use regular pumpkin or kabocha for this dish. If you cook from raw pumpkin, do note that the flour ratio can change dramatically depending on the pumpkin texture. I will explain more in the recipe below.
Red bean paste (红豆沙)
Sometimes Chinese pumpkin cakes are served plain without any filling. But I found the red bean filled ones to be extra delicious.
How to make Chinese pumpkin cake
Making Chinese pumpkin cakes is super fun and easy. Definitely let your kids help you with it because the recipe is forgiving and it feels like you’re playing with clay. NOTE:
If you cook the pumpkin from scratch, the amount of glutinous rice flour you will use can vary a lot, depending on the texture of the squash. If you use canned pumpkin puree, you might still need to make small adjustments depending on the brand you use.Make sure you cover the dough and the assembled buns with plastic wrap. The dough will be harder to work with if it starts to dry out.
How to cook Chinese pumpkin cake
Traditionally, Chinese pumpkin cakes are deep fried until golden crispy. To simplify the process, here I want to introduce how to shallow fry them, and how to make them in an air fryer.
The shallow fry method
The shallow fry method is quite easy. You should use a pan or pot on the smaller side if you do not want to use too much oil, but you will need to cook in batches. Make sure to fill the pan with enough oil to cover the pancakes at least halfway up. The frying temperature shouldn’t be too high – the oil should have small to medium bubbles when you add the pumpkin cakes. If the pumpkin turns golden too fast, you should turn off the heat to let the oil temperature drop a bit. Otherwise the pumpkin cake surface will char too much while the inside is still raw.
The air fryer method
The air fryer method is a bit easier than the pan fry method and it uses less oil. Simply spray the pumpkin cakes with oil spray and air fry. The pumpkin cakes will turn golden crispy in no time.
Which method is better?
I do like the results for the shallow fry a bit better because:
The fried pumpkin cakes have a more even colorThe mouth feel is a bit more oily but the cakes more fragrantThe texture is slightly more moist
However, I do think the air fry method is a great alternative if you want to make the cooking easier and use less oil.
How to serve and store Chinese pumpkin cakes
Chinese pumpkin cakes taste the best when they’re still hot. The surface will be super crispy, and the dough gooey and sticky like mochi. The red bean paste is also more moist and soft at this point. When the pumpkin cakes cool off, they will start to feel more chewy and less moist, but will still be delicious. Store the leftover pumpkin cakes in the fridge or freezer. I highly recommend reheating them before eating, to crisp up the surface again. You can easily reheat them in an air fryer, an oven or on stove top (see the methods in the recipe below). Chinese pumpkin cakes are a perfect dessert to serve at the end of a meal. And it’s a healthy snack to munch on at any time of the day. I hope you enjoy this one and happy cooking!
Other delicious Chinese sweets
Black Sesame Sweet Rice Balls (黑芝麻汤圆, Tang Yuan)Red Bean Soup (红豆汤)Eight Treasure Rice (八宝饭, Chinese Rice Pudding)Easy Candied Walnuts with SpiceMango Sago (杨枝甘露)
