Soft and chewy crinkle cookies are infused with the flavor and sweetness of sweet red bean paste is amazingly good. The recipe can be made with egg or without egg.
I always have sweet red bean paste in stock. I usually make a large batch and then portion it out into smaller portions and freeze. So I was craving for crinkle cookies and I want to use up my red bean paste stash and that’s how these sweet red bean paste crinkle cookies are created 🙂
I also like to use it as a filling for steamed buns like dou sha bao, a pastry such as Shanghai mooncake, a dessert such as mochi rolls with red bean paste, a dumpling such as sago crystal dumpling, breakfast waffles like sweet red bean mochi waffles. The possibilities are pretty endless actually!
Ingredients
1. All-purpose flour
I use unbleached all-purpose flour. You can use regular bleached all-purpose flour too. Try not to substitute with cake flour or pastry flour as the texture will be too crumbly
2. Sweet red bean paste
I use my homemade sweet red bean paste
3. Butter
Use softened unsalted butter
4. Egg
Egg adds richness, moisture, and a chewy texture to a cookie. The eggless version will use plain yogurt instead
5. Sugar
I use regular granulated sugar. You can also use monk fruit sweetener or allulose or other Keto-friendly sweeteners
6. Baking powder
I decided to use baking powder instead of baking soda. After a few rounds of retesting, baking powder gives a nice puff so the cookies won’t be as flat, but not too puffy that it makes the cookies too “cakey”
How to make sweet red bean paste crinkle cookies
1. Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk to mix. Set aside.
2. Use a rubber spatula to mash the softened butter.
3. Then add sugar and mix until combined
4. Add room temperature egg (for egg version) or yogurt (for eggless version) and mix until combined
5. Add red bean paste and mix to combine
6. Add the dry ingredients and food coloring (if using). Use a spatula to fold to combine. Don’t overwork the dough, just mix until you don’t see any more loose flour. The dough will be very sticky at this point. Do not be tempted to add more flour
7. Cover the cookie dough and let it chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight is best if you have the time
8. Preheat oven at 325 F. Scoop about 1 Tbsp of the cookie dough out. Roll it into a ball and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, about 2 inches apart. Spray your palms with some cooking spray if the dough gets a bit sticky
9. Roll each one in granulated sugar first and then generously roll them in icing sugar. This step prevents the icing sugar from being absorbed by the dough and you won’t get the crinkle effect. Roll them several times to make sure each ball is well-coated or the confectioners’ sugar will not show much after baking
9. Put the baking sheet into the oven, 3rd rack from the top. Let them bake for 9-11 minutes for the edge that just started to get crisp and the center is still really soft. It may seem really underbaked when it comes out, but that’s how we want it so it’s chewier and fudgier once they cool down completely. Let them cool down completely on the baking sheet. They will firm up once they have cooled down. Don’t try to move them when they are still very soft
These cookies are not overly sweetened and you can taste that hint of red bean paste in there.
Tips
1. Make sure you coat the cookies in granulated sugar first and then heavily coat with icing sugar/powdered sugar
2. Cookies appear to be very very soft when they are first out from the oven. Let them cool down completely on the baking sheet. They will firm up further as they cool down, so keep that in mind. Don’t try to move them when they are still very soft and warm
3. For a vegan version, simply replace butter with margarine, coconut oil, or vegan butter
How to store baked crinkle cookies
1. Let the crinkle cookies cool down completely and then transfer to an air-tight container
2. You can also freeze them by putting them in a freezer bag. Simply thaw in the fridge before serving
How to store unbaked crinkle cookies dough
1. Shape the dough into a disc. Wrap tightly in a cling wrap and then put inside a freezer bag.
2. Simply thaw in the fridge and then proceed to shape the cookies and coat in granulated sugar and then icing sugar and bake according to the instruction
Did you make this anko/sweet red bean paste crinkle cookies recipe?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
The recipe has been retested and updated on 12/31/2021. The previous recipe yields more light, airy, and “cakey” crinkle cookies. This latest version has that slight crisp on the edge, soft and chewy center.
Sweet Red Bean Paste/ Anko Crinkle Cookies (with Egg or Eggless)
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 225 gr all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt omit salt if using margarine
Optional (to add red color) - use either one:
- 1 tsp red yeast rice powder for coloring
- Tiny drop of red food gel
Wet ingredients:
- 113 gr red bean paste you can use store-bought too
- 113 gr butter softened
- 150 gr sugar
- 50 gr egg 1 large egg without the shell
For eggless crinkle cookies:
- 50 gr plain yogurt
To coat the cookies:
- 100 gr granulated sugar
- 120 gr icing sugar
Instructions
Prepare cookie dough:
- Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk to mix. Set aside. I suggest not using an electric mixer. Use a rubber spatula to mash the softened butter. Then add sugar and mix until combined. Add room temperature egg (for egg version) or yogurt (for eggless version) and mix until combined. Add red bean paste and mix to combine
- Add the dry ingredients and food coloring (if using). Use a spatula to fold to combine. Don't overwork the dough, just mix until you don't see any more loose flour. The dough will be very sticky at this point. Do not be tempted to add more flour
- Cover the cookie dough and let it chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight is best if you have the time
Shape the cookies:
- Preheat oven to 325 F (165 C) for conventional oven, 310 F (155 C) for convection oven . When the oven is done preheating, scoop about 1 1/2 Tbsp (30 grams) of the cookie dough out. The dough is still sticky but easier to handle because it's cold. Spray your palms with some non-stick cooking spray or coat lightly with a bit of oil. Roll it into a round ball and place them on a lined cookie sheet
- Roll each one in granulated sugar first and then generously roll them in icing sugar. This step prevents the icing sugar from being absorbed by the dough and you won't get the crinkle effect. Roll them 2 more times in icing sugar to make sure each ball is well-coated or the confectioners' sugar will not show much after baking
Baking:
- Put the baking sheet into the oven, 3rd rack from the top. Let them bake for 9-11 minutes for the edge that just started to get crisp and the center is still really soft. It may seem really underbaked when it comes out, but that's how we want it so it's chewier and fudgier once they cool down completely. Let them cool down completely on the baking sheet. They will firm up once they have cooled down. Don't try to move them when they are still very soft
26 comments
Are you supposed to use a whole egg or an egg yolk? In the ingredients it says one egg but in the text above you describe an egg yolk. I also think in the ingredients you should say use room temp egg vs in the instructions.
Sorry for the confusion. It should be whole egg. The egg yolk version was from my older recipe, which I forgot to update in the step-by-step for some reasons.
What an interesting use of red bean paste! I associate red bean paste as a very East Asian-exclusive flavor; I don’t really experiment with it in fusion recipes, and it’s not something I’d be able to impress a less-Asian crowd with. But these could easily slip past anyone’s “weird new food radar”, so to speak. Personally, I love a good crinkle cookie, though these aren’t quite as fudge-y as their chocolate-brethren, they’re like tiny cakes with gentle red bean flavor that slowly builds.
I used the egg-version with butter, left the dough in the fridge for a day, and made the paste from the IP recipe here as well, which I haven’t reviewed yet because I haven’t tasted it! I just plopped it right into this lol A little bit of my powdered sugar faded, but not much. Overall, I think these are fantastic.
Thank you for your feedback again! I like chewy fudgier crinkle cookies too. There are still some room for improvements on this for sure. I still have some anko paste left and I do plan to experiment on this again and see if I can get it chewier 🙂
I tried another batch using half-brown/half-white sugar to see if that changed the texture much, but though they were a bit more moist, it didn’t add chewy-ness. Well, I still had more bean paste and they were good enough to eat again ahahha
Thanks for the updates! I wonder if using oil instead of butter would help to make it chewier. This is something for me to experiment as well.
Thanks so much for this recipe and thanks for putting it in metric! I reduced the sugar by 50g and used half brown. They turned out amazing!
I’m so glad you like it! Great idea by using half brown sugar!
Hi Marvellina,
How much regular and brown sugar is needed for this recipe? I can’t seem to find that information in the recipe. I just see 150 grams of sugar. Thank you again.
Hi Connie, sorry for the confusion. It’s only regular sugar. The brown sugar was from the old recipe. I have updated it accordingly.
I really like ‘dorayaki’ so was happy to see this recipe using sweet red bean paste. My favorite way to use the red bean paste is using it in the center of ‘ebelskivers’. I followed the recipe but used margarine instead of butter. They tasted great but came out flat (about 1/4 inch thick).
I think margarine will make the cookies spread more and crispier compared to using butter
Why won’t this recipe print on one page, even when I reduce the information to print it then enlarges everything to force it to two pages. This is infuriating.
Can you try to scale it down? Under more setting, I choose “scale” and then “Custom” and scaled it down to 80% and it fits into one page and let me print all in one page. I hope that helps.
I tried the updated version, and they taste great! I do think there is not enough Anko; you can barely taste any red bean flavor. My powdered sugar did get absorbed by the cookie, despite the granulated sugar tip, so they don’t look like traditional crinkle cookies. Overall, however, these still look good and are very chewy and delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for letting me know. I’ll look into trying to “amp” up that red bean flavor 😉 in regards to the powdered sugar, you want to make sure that you REALLY coat the powdered sugar 2-3 times after coating with granulated sugar.
Thanks, I’ll give it a try because I am definitely making these again! Do you think I could maybe replace a tablespoon or so of butter with red bean paste, and reduce the sugar a bit (on account of the sugar in the red bean paste)?
Hi Jo, I think that substitution may work. I haven’t tried it myself, but it’s something I would do too to include more red bean paste. Let me know how it turned out if you give it a try again 🙂 maybe this weekend I can play around with the recipe too!
I really really wanted this recipe to work, but alas.
I followed it to a T, no changes, tripling because of how much red bean paste i made.
this dough is impossible. even after being refrigerated for 4ish hours, then frozen for one, it was still just barely shapeable. On my test batch, every single cookie spread about 4 inches resulting in one super soft, mostly raw mega cookie. for the second test batch i froze for another half hour, made the cookies even smaller, less than a tbs, and then baked. same thing happened, and for some reason the texture was more cakey than cookie.
i had to give up, despite the fact that i had made a massive batch of this dough. i added flour and tossed into mini loaf pans and i’m praying some sort of red bean cake emerges from my oven.
giving 2 stars because it tastes delicious even though the actual product is not servable 🙁
Hi Echo, sorry that the recipe didn’t work for you. I had just made this myself today and I didn’t have the spreading issue, in fact, mine didn’t spread as much as I wish because I accidentally use baking powder instead of baking soda. May I know if you use homemade red bean paste ?
I don’t know what happened but my dough was SUPER gooey that I could not roll them! I followed the metric measurements to a T. The only things different I did were using softened butter instead of coconut oil, using canned anko bean paste (which made my dough pinkish instead of brown like the picture), using all granulated sugar instead of 1/2 white 1/2 brown, and not weighing my 4 large eggs. I ended up adding more flour, but it didn’t help. I ended up test baking them and they tasted good but ended up more cake-like.
Hi Cece, the recipe calls for 2 large eggs instead of 4 (unless you doubled the recipe). Adding more eggs will make them more cake-like in texture. Actually, it’s easier to work with that you use softened butter instead of coconut oil. Coconut oil gets melty so quickly. So that shouldn’t affect the texture.
how long those cookies last
You can keep them at room temperature in an air-tight container for about 3 days
Thanks for this recipe! The family loved it and I plan on making some to give away for Christmas.
Great! I’m glad you like!