Beh Teh Soh/Heong Peng (Chinese Horse Shoe Biscuits/Maltose Pastry)
Course: Pastry
Cuisine: Chinese
Prep Time: 2 hourshours30 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 30 minutesminutes
Total Time: 3 hourshours
Servings: 10pieces
Calories: 534kcal
Author: Marvellina
Old-school Chinese flaky pastry filled with gooey sweet and savory maltose filling with a hint of sesame seeds. They are so good and perfect with that cup of coffee or tea!
Combine flour, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Add the oil and rub the flour mixture with the oil to form coarse-crumb texture. Add 80 g warm water. I like to reserve some in case the dough might get too wet because different flour has different water absorption. Knead into a smooth dough. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes
Prepare the oil dough:
Combine the flour with oil. Knead into a soft dough. Round it up into a dough ball. Let it rest together with the water dough
Combine both doughs:
Divide the water dough and oil dough into 20 pieces each. So you have a total of 40 pieces (20 water doughs and 20 oil doughs). Round them up into balls and cover tightly with a plastic wrap to prevent them from drying
Take one water dough and one oil dough. Flatten the water dough and then put the oil dough inside and wrap the water dough around it. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes to relax the gluten for easier rolling later. So you have a total of 20 doughs now
Prepare the filling while waiting:
Maltose is very sticky and hard to scoop at room temperature (and it's winter here so that makes it even harder). I spray my fingers with some non-stick spray and take out the amount I need and put it in a bowl. I sit this bowl on another bowl filled with hot water. This helps to soften the maltose before you mix it with other ingredients. You can also microwave it in a 10 seconds increment until soften. Add the rest of the ingredients. It will be a sticky paste but pliable. I have to keep it warm because it turns hard due to the weather here. If you leave at a warm place, this shouldn't be a problem
Continue with shaping and filling:
We will use only 10 doughs at this step. Take one dough and keep the rest covered tightly. Roll it out into an oval shape, about 2 inches wide and about 4 inches long. Then roll it up like a Swiss roll. Do this to the rest of the dough
Then go back to the first one you roll and put it vertically and roll it out again into an oval and then roll it up into a Swiss roll again. If it's difficult to roll, rest it a bit longer and then try to roll it again. Repeat with the rest of the dough and keep them covered tightly. Rest them for 30 minutes
Wrap the filling with the dough:
Preheat the oven to 400 F (205 C) for conventional oven, 190 C (375 F) for convection oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper
Prepare the flour paste by combining the flour with water
The rest of the 10 doughs are used to wrap the filling. This is to prevent the filling from leaking out during baking. We don't need to Swiss roll these doughs like we did earlier. Take one dough and roll into about 3-4 inch round. Put the filling in the middle, about 40-45 grams. Apply the flour paste around the edge and gather the edge towards the center and pinch to seal the seam. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling
Double wrap the filling:
Now let's go back to the first 10 doughs that you Swiss rolled earlier. Take one dough and roll it out into a round about 4 inches in diameter (mine looks more like a square lol). Take one of the wrapped filling and apply the flour paste on the seam side and put this seam side down on the dough. Wrap the dough around it and apply some flour paste on the edge and then pinch to seal tight again. Repeat with the rest of the dough and wrapped filling
Arrange the shaped pastry on the baking sheet
Baking:
Traditionally, the pastry is brushed with maltose wash, by combining maltose with hot water. I use an eggwash
Prepare egg wash by whisking the egg with water. Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Lightly press on them to make sure they stick to the dough
Put on the middle rack and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Then lower temperature to 330 F (165 C) for conventional oven, 300 F (150 C) for convection oven, and bake for another 15 minutes
Cool down:
Remove from the oven and let them cool down for 5 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a cooling rack to let them cool down to warm
To serve:
The filling will be oozy and gooey when it's first out from the oven, almost lava-like. So be careful because hot sugar can burn. Once it has cooled down to warm, it will be less oozy, but still gooey. It solidified, but still somewhat pliable, once it has cooled down completely
Simply reheat in microwave for few seconds until it's warm through and the filling will be soft and gooey again