Bánh Rán is a deep-fried dessert from northern Vietnamese cuisine. Bánh Rán, also known as Bánh Cam, is perfect for dessert, snack or breakfast. It has a crunchy outer layer with chewy and sweet fillings. It is made using dough of glutinous rice flour, rolled in sesame seeds and then deep-fried. The fillings are usually sweet mung beans with shredded coconut.
Bánh Rán differs from Bánh Cam in several areas. Its sweet mung bean filling uses jasmine flower extract while the latter uses vanilla extract. The fillings in Bánh Rán should be separated from the shell that you can feel it rattle against the inside of the shell. Bánh Cam uses sesame seed for the outer layer and is served with sugar syrup poured over the pastry.
Ingredients (20 pieces):
(Mung Bean Fillings)
- 70g mung beans (skinless and soaked in water)
- 25g sugar
- 2tbsp cooking oil
- 40g grated fresh coconut
- ½ tsp jasmine flower extract
Directions:
- After soaking the mung beans overnight, wash and boil in the water until it is soft.
- Drain the water and mash the boiled mung beans.
- Using frying pan under medium heat, mix mashed mung beans, sugar, and cooking oil together. Stir the mixture about 5 to 10 minutes until it becomes a thick paste.
- Then, add grated fresh coconut and jasmine extract. Keep stirring until the paste getting a bit dry.
- Turn off the heat and let the paste cool down. Form the mixture into 20 even-sized balls.
This mung beans filling can be stored for a long time when refrigerated. Now the fillings are done, move on to the crunchy outer layer and assemble the dish.
Ingredients:
Dough (Outer Layer)
- 100g glutinous rice flour
- 15g rice flour
- 35g potato (cooked and mashes)
- 25g sugar
- 50 to 100ml warm water
Glazed Syrup
- 80g palm sugar
- 50g sliced ginger
- 120ml Water
Directions:
- Combine the glutinous rice flour, rice flour, mashed potato and sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix them thoroughly.
- Add warm water slowly while kneading the dough. Make sure the dough is well mixed.
- Cover the dough and set aside for about 30 to 60 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 20 portions and flatten it using rolling pin. Make sure it is large enough for the mung beans filling.
- Put in the mung beans filling, fold the dough and roll it into a ball, Make sure it is sealed properly and no gap is seen.
- Deep fry the balls for about 6 to 8 minutes until brown.
- For the sugar syrup, put the palm sugar, ginger and water in the saucepan. Cook until the syrup forms a glaze, then poured it on top of the balls.