Pandan Hee Pan (Xi Ban) – Hakka Steamed Rice Cake

Learn how to make this auspicious Hakka hee pan that is soft and slightly chewy with this easy and delicious recipe. Variations to make other flavors and colors using natural ingredients too.

JOYFUL RICE CAKE (喜粄)

Xi Ban or Hee Pan literally translated into joyful rice cake. In Hokkien dialect, it is known as Ki Ka Ku. Hee pan is a traditional Hakka steamed rice cake that is made to celebrate joyful events like Chinese New Year, weddings, baby’s full-month birthday, etc. Traditional hee pan is made pink/red in color. The Chinese like to use red to celebrate joyful events.
Traditional hee pan back in the super old days also made with wheat flour, but over the years, to make a long history short, due to wheat shortage, the recipe has been adapted to use a combination of rice and glutinous rice flour.
The modern-day hee pan, like this recipe, is made with wheat flour like all-purpose flour and glutinous rice flour.

TASTE AND TEXTURE OF HEE PAN

If you asked me, hee pan is almost like a hybrid of steamed buns and steamed cake. It’s soft and slightly chewy and cake-like in texture. I made mine not too sweet, but you can adjust the level of sweetness to your preference.

HOW TO MAKE SOFT AND CHEWY HEE PAN

1. PREPARE THE SYRUP
Pour pandan juice into a saucepan. Add sugar and bring to a boil and then lower heat to cook until sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat and let it cool down completely. You can prepare this one day before too
2. MAKE THE DOUGH
Put the yeast, water and sugar in a small bowl. Stir to combine and then let it sit for 10 minutes. The mixture will turn foamy and bloom. This shows that the yeast is active. Mix all-purpose flour, glutinous rice flour, wheat starch, and salt in a mixing bowl.

Add all-purpose flour, wheat starch/cornstarch, glutinous rice flour, and yeast mixture in a mixing bowl. Add 1/2 of the pandan juice you prepared earlier and oil and stir to combine and switch to your hand to knead the dough. Gradually add the pandan juice as needed. You may not need all or you may need a bit more liquid if the dough is dry. Knead into a rough dough. Cover and let it rest for 15 minutes. Then go back and knead into a smooth dough. You may use stand mixer like KitchenAid or knead by hand

3. SHAPE THE DOUGH
Roll the dough into a long log. Try not to work the dough too much.

Divide the dough into 12 equal portions (roughly about 60 gr each). Keep them covered and work with one dough at a time.

Lightly oil your palm with a bit of oil. Roll the dough into a smooth ball.

Place on top of the banana leaf

Gently press it down with your palm to flatten slightly into a disc. Repeat with the rest of the dough and banana leaves.

4. PROOF THE DOUGH
Cover with a clean tea towel and put at a warm place to let them proof for at least 1 hour (no less). It may take longer than 1 hour in a colder climate. I found that if the dough is properly proofed, the hee pan will have fluffy with a slightly chewy texture. They will puff up to about 50% of its original size and feels really light. If you gently press with your finger, it will bounce back slowly

5. STEAM THE CAKE
Arrange the proofed buns inside the steamer. Start with a cold steamer that you have filled up with some water. Wrap the lid with towel to prevent condensation from dripping on the buns. If you use bamboo basket, you don’t need to do this. Turn the stove on and adjust the heat to medium. When the water comes to simmer, crack the lid open to allow some gap a bit to let steam escape. Start the timer and set it to 15 minutes and let them steam over medium heat with the lid slightly opened and DO NOT crank up the heat. When 15 minutes are up, allow 5 minutes before opening the lid

You can trim the banana leaves into round shape for presentation. Let the cake cool down before serving. If you wish to “stamp” the cake with cute image or Chinese characters, you may do so now by dipping the stamp in red food coloring. Dab off extra food coloring before stamp on the hee pan. My mom got me some nice stamp with Chinese characters and I was overjoyed to be able to stamp these hee pan LOL!

HOW TO STORE HEE PAN

REFRIGERATOR: You may store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week
FREEZER: For longer storage, I suggest placing the hee pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and then put hee pan on top without touching each other. Pop into the freezer for about 1 hour, they won’t be fully frozen yet. Transfer them to a freezer bag and they can be kept for 3 months there
REHEATING: Simply reheat in the steamer until heated through. If frozen, you don’t need to thaw, you can steam over high heat for 10 minutes or until heated through. Please keep in mind if you stamp the hee pan, the red will bleed when you steam the hee pan again.

Look at that soft and slightly chewy texture. My kids love hee pan A LOT!

DID YOU MAKE THIS PANDAN HEE PAN (XI BAN) 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!

*UPDATE: After many rounds of testing again with different flavors, I decided to update this recipe that yields soft, yet slightly chewy (but not so chewy). When I used 50-50 ratio of all-purpose flour and glutinous rice flour, the result wasn’t as good compared to this most current version where I’ve reduced the amount of glutinous rice flour slightly and add Chinese wheat starch. The texture improves quite a bit!

Pandan Hee Pan (Xi Ban) - Hakka Steamed Rice Cake

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 23 minutes mins

Proof the dough 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 3 minutes mins

Servings 12 pieces

5 from 4 reviews

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Ingredients

  

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Activate the yeast (whether you use instant or active dry yeast):

• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 2 Tbsp warm water
• ½ tsp sugar

For the dough:

• 150 gr pandan juice see notes 2
• 120 gr sugar
• 200 gr all-purpose flour plus more for dusting. See notes 1
• 20 gr wheat starch or use cornstarch
• 120 gr glutinous rice flour
• 20 gr cooking oil neutral taste like vegetable oil, grapeseeds oil
• 1 large banana leaves cut into about 10x10 cm pieces, or just use parchment paper instead of leaves

Instructions

 

Activate the yeast:

• Put the yeast, water and sugar in a small bowl. Stir to combine and then let it sit for 10 minutes. The mixture will turn foamy and bloom. This shows that the yeast is active

Make the dough:

• Pour pandan juice into a saucepan. Add sugar and bring to a boil and then lower heat to cook until sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat and let it cool down completely. You can prepare this one day before too
• Add all-purpose flour, wheat starch/cornstarch, glutinous rice flour, and yeast mixture in a mixing bowl. Add 1/2 of the pandan juice you prepared earlier and oil and stir to combine and switch to your hand to knead the dough. Gradually add the pandan juice as needed. You may not need all or you may need a bit more liquid if the dough is dry. Knead into a rough dough. Cover and let it rest for 15 minutes. Then go back and knead into a smooth dough. You may use stand mixer like KitchenAid or knead by hand

Shape the dough:

• Oil the cut banana leaves with some cooking oil. Set aside. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions (roughly about 60 gr each). Keep them covered and work with one dough at a time
• Lightly oil your palm with a some oil. Roll the dough into a smooth ball. Place on top of the banana leaf and then gently press it down with your palm to flatten slightly into a disc. Repeat with the rest of the dough and banana leaves

Proof the dough:

• Cover with a clean tea towel and put at a warm place to let them proof for at least 1 hour (no less). It may take longer than 1 hour in a colder climate. I found that if the dough is properly proofed, the hee pan will have fluffy with a slightly chewy texture. They will puff up to about 50% of its original size and feels really light. If you gently press with your finger, it will bounce back slowly

Steam the hee pan:

• Arrange the proofed buns inside the steamer. Start with a cold steamer that you have filled up with some water. Wrap the lid with towel to prevent condensation from dripping on the buns. If you use bamboo basket, you don't need to do this.
• Turn the stove on and adjust the heat to medium. When the water comes to simmer, crack the lid open to allow some gap a bit to let steam escape. Start the timer and set it to 15 minutes and let them steam over medium heat with the lid slightly opened and DO NOT crank up the heat. When 15 minutes are up, allow 5 minutes before opening the lid

Cooling down:

• Then transfer the hee pan out onto a cooling rack to let them cool down a little bit. Use a kitchen shears to trim the extra banana leaves if you want a neat presentation. They can be served warm or at room temperature

Notes

1. You can use all 220 gr Hong Kong or Vietnamese bao flour and omit the wheat starch
2. Simply use water or other flavor if you do not want a pandan flavor. You can add other powdered flavoring like matcha powder, cocoa powder, etc.

Recommended products:

Food Steamer

Kitchen Aid Standmixer

Dough Hook Attachment

Nutrition

Serving: 1hee pan | Calories: 164kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 62mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 1mg

Did you make this recipe?Please leave me a comment below and tag @whattocooktoday and #WhatToCookToday on Instagram