An* cookies – *sweet red azuki bean

February 27th, 2008 by justJENN

I an NO fan of shortening, but honestly when it comes to a flaky crust/cookie – there’s no substitute. Harder than manju, these sweet bean filled cookies are a throw back to those old skool Hawaiian church cookbooks.

ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 TB shortening
1 can azuki – sweetened red bean
1 egg beaten (for egg wash)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep baking sheets with silpats.

In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add the flour slowly, and mix. Add in the egg, and the vanilla. Then add the shortening. Mix well.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Flatten them out, and add a dollop of azuki bean in the middle.

Pinch to close up, and place the nice little balls on a cookie sheet. Add a little bit of water to the beaten egg, and brush onto the tops of the cookies.

Bake for 30 minutes until a lovely toasty brown. Let cool on wire racks.