Chinese pumpkin cake is a traditional sweet bite. The soft and sticky pumpkin cake is stuffed with a sweet red bean filling, and slightly crispy on the outside with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. These pumpkin cakes will look and taste impressive, while using only 5 ingredients. This healthy snack is pan fried, gluten-free and vegan.
Chinese sweet dessert items are never overly sweet, and usually much healthier than western desserts. These Chinese pumpkin cakes are a perfect representation. In China, you would eat the pumpkin cakes as breakfast, snacks, or part of a meal. Called “nan gua bing” (南瓜饼) in Chinese, these pumpkin cakes resemble pancakes. There are many ways to make the Chinese pumpkin cakes – some people deep fry them, and some people make them plain without the filling. Today I am sharing the version I like, that’s both healthy and delicious. Watch the video below for how I make the Chinese pumpkin cake.
Chinese Pumpkin Cake Ingredients
- Pumpkin: I use sugar pumpkin in this recipe, but the large carving pumpkin and other varieties of pumpkin work too. However, keep in mind that different pumpkins have different moisture level, and that will affect the amount of rice flour required.
- Glutinous Rice Flour: You can find 2 kinds of rice flours in Asian grocery stores, regular rice flour and sweet glutinous rice flour. In this recipe, we are using the sweet glutinous rice flour. They are sticky and commonly used in dessert dishes to create a chewy texture. Although they are called glutinous rice flour, they are completely gluten-free.
- Red Bean Paste: You can buy fine red bean paste and coarse red bean paste at Asian grocery stores. I prefer the fine red bean paste, as they make a smooth rather than chunky filling.
- Sesame Seeds: You can use either black or white sesame seeds.
- Coconut Oil: Coconut oil is healthy and works well with desserts. However, you can use other healthy oils of your choice.
On the left is fine red bean paste; on the right is glutinous rice flour.
Chinese Pumpkin Cake Cooking Tips
- I cook my pumpkin in the Instant Pot, as you can see in the video and recipe below. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can use a regular steamer to steam the pumpkin until soft.
- Steamed pumpkins vary in wetness, depending on the variety of pumpkin you use and how much water it absorbs. The wetter they are the more rice four is required to make the dough. This is why it’s important to drain the water from the pumpkin after steaming. We should add the last bit of the rice flour gradually, and stop as soon as a soft dough is formed. This way we won’t make a dough that’s too stiff by adding too much flour at once.
- When making the dough, I like to mix rice flour with hot pumpkin. The heat from the pumpkin will partially cook the rice flour. This allows the dough to be cooked quickly later on.
- When making the dough, there is no need to add water, as the moisture in pumpkin will bind the flour together.
- If you are an inexperienced cook, I recommend shaping all the pumpkin cakes first (step 5 of Chinese pumpkin cake instructions) before frying them (step 6 of Chinese pumpkin cake instructions). If you are an experienced cook, you can place the pumpkin cakes into the frying pan as soon as you shape them. As the first pumpkin cake is cooking on the first side, I would be shaping the second pumpkin cake. When I place the second pumpkin cake into the pan, I flip the first pumpkin cake, and continue to shape the third pumpkin cake. When I place the third pumpkin cake in the pan, I remove the first pumpkin cake and flip the second one.
Mixing hot steamed pumpkin and glutinous rice flour together.
Reheating and Storage
The pumpkin cakes taste the best when they are right off the stove and still hot. As the pumpkin cake cools down, it becomes more chewy.
If you won’t be able to eat the pumpkin cakes right away, place a piece of parchment paper in between every two pumpkin cakes, to prevent them from sticking together.
Store leftover pumpkin cakes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, and in the freezer for up to 3 months. After the pumpkin cakes have been refrigerated or frozen, they will be quite hard. You will have to reheat them before you can eat them again. You can reheat the pumpkin cakes on the frying pan over medium heat, or in a toaster oven, or in the microwave. Once reheated, they will return to the original softness.
Related: More Healthy and Tasty Dessert Recipes You Will Love
- Gluten-Free Sorghum Almond Cookies
- Mung Bean Cakes (Gluten-Free, Vegan, 3 Ingredients)
- Gluten Free Orange Cranberry Coconut Scones
- Sesame Candy
- Cardamom, Saffron & Vanilla Poached Pear
- No-Cook Golden Milk Coconut Mango Pudding (Paleo, AIP, GAPS)
- Spelt Blueberry Muffins
- 3 Ingredient Strawberry Kefir Popsicles (GAPS, Gluten-Free)
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Chinese Pumpkin Cake (南瓜饼)
Ingredients
- 1 cup steamed pumpkin additional instructions below for cooking pumpkin
- 1 1/2 cups glutinous rice flour more or less depending on the moisture content of your pumpkin
- 6 tablespoons red bean paste
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Instructions
Chinese Pumpkin Cake
- In a large bowl, mix 1 cup glutinous rice flour with steamed pumpkin while the pumpkin is still hot. The heat from the pumpkin will partially cook the rice flour.
- Add the rest of the glutinous rice flour gradually, stir in the flour until the mixture can form a very soft dough.
- Knead the dough a few times to make a smooth ball. Let the dough rest for a few minutes. When the dough is cooled, it will be a little more stiff and easier to work with.
- Dust the cutting board with rice flour, and roll the dough into a log. Cut the log into 6 equal size pieces.
- Flatten each piece by hand to make a bowl shape, place 1 tablespoon of red bean paste in the middle. Draw the edge together to close the wrapper around the red bean filling to make a ball. Press the ball to flatten into the size of a pancake, about 1/2 inch thick and 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Spread the sesame seeds on a plate. Dip both sides of the pumpkin cake in sesame seeds.
- Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. When the pan is hot, place the pumpkin cakes in the pan. Fry each side for 1 to 2 minutes, until just golden and crispy.
- Serve immediately.
Cooking Pumpkin in Instant Pot (my favourite method)
- Cut the pumpkin in half, then scoop out and discard the seeds. If the pumpkin half is too large to fit into the inner pot of the Instant Pot, cut the pumpkin into smaller pieces.
- Place a trivet inside the Instant Pot, fill 2 cups of water for steaming.
- Place the pumpkin skin side down on the trivet. Fit what you can into the Instant Pot on a single layer, but don't stack the pumpkin. Close the lid and the float valve.
- Program the Instant Pot for steam setting at "high pressure" for 12 minutes.
- When cooking is completed, manually release pressure of the Instant Pot. Open the lid, and remove the pumpkin.
- Completely drain any water collected inside the pumpkin, because we don't want extra wet pumpkin.
- Gently scoop out the pumpkin flesh. The flesh should separate easily from the skin. Discard the pumpkin skin.
- Set aside the amount of pumpkin flesh needed for the pumpkin cake, and use it while still hot. Store the rest of the pumpkin flesh in the fridge or freezer for other use.
Video
Notes
- If you don't have an Instant Pot, you can steam the pumpkin in a regular steamer, until the flesh is soft and you can mash it easily with a folk.
Nutrition
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