Make this soft and slightly chewy Hakka-style steamed hee pan infused with mashed purple sweet potatoes. Simply amazing!
After making the pandan hee pan, I continued on the hee pan journey by making a purple sweet potato version since I had quite a bit of mashed purple sweet potato stash in my freezer. I love the deep natural purple color it contributed to the steamed buns
I won’t elaborate on what hee pan is, etc as I already did in my pandan hee pan post. I need to tweak the amount of flours in this recipe since mashed potatoes are added to make sure I would still have a soft fluffy yet slightly chewy hee pan and my daughter approves this. So hopefully you guys feel the same way 🙂
HOW TO MAKE SWEET POTATO HEE PAN
1. STEAM THE PURPLE SWEET POTATO
Peel and cut the sweet potato into small chunks. Steam over high heat for 5 minutes or until you can easily mash with a fork. Mash the potatoes with sugar while they are hot. You can use an immersion blender to make it smooth too.Mash with sugar.
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. Cut sweet potatoes into small chunks and steam over medium-high heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Puree until smooth. Mash with sugar. When it is no longer hot and lukewarm, add the yeast mixture, and oil. Add glutinous rice flour, all-purpose flour, salt. Knead and gradually add a bit of water until you can form a rough dough. Cover and rest for 15 minutes. Then go back and knead into a soft and smooth dough
3. SHAPE INTO HEE PAN
Oil the cut banana leaves with some cooking oil. Set aside. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions. Keep them covered and work with one dough at a time
Oil both of your palms lightly (don’t make it too greasy) and roll the dough into a smooth round ball and place it on the banana leaves and flatten it with your palm to form a disc. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls
4. PROOF AND STEAM
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 their original size and feels really light. If you gently press with your finger, it will bounce back slowly
5. COOL AND SERVE
Remove the hee pan to let them cool on the cooling rack so the bottom won’t get all wet and soggy.
What is the correct texture for hee pan ?
Hee pan should be soft and fluffy like regular steamed buns BUT also has that slightly chewy texture thanks to the glutinous rice flour.
Why hee pan is dense and more like mochi?
If the texture of your hee pan is dense and heavy after steaming and chewy and stretchy like mochi instead of steamed buns, there could be a couple of reasons:
1. Please make sure you weigh the ingredients correctly. Use digital kitchen scale is the most accurate
2. Most likely the hee pan is not proofed sufficiently. Many recipes call for proofing for only 30 minutes. I have consistently found that this is not sufficient and I had been doing the same thing. Finally, once I proofed them for at least 1 hour and with evidence showing the buns are lighter, 50% puffier than its original size, the hee pan come out fluffy with a pleasantly chewy texture every time.
3. You steam the hee pan over high heat and the hee pan will collapse when you take them out from the steamer and the texture turns really dense
POSSIBLE VARIATIONS
You can replace the mashed purple sweet potatoes with: regular mashed sweet potatoes/yam, mashed pumpkin, mashed taro, or other mashed tubers you prefer. Please note that the amount of water will change if you use different type of potatoes or other mashed tubers.
DID YOU MAKE THIS PURPLE SWEET POTATO HEE PAN 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!
Purple Sweet Potato Hakka Hee Pan (Xi Ban)
Ingredients
Activate the yeast (whether you use instant or active dry yeast):
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- 1 Tbsp water
- ¼ tsp sugar
For the dough:
- 100 gr mashed purple sweet potato
- 60 gr sugar
- 40 ml water plus more as needed
- 10 gr cooking oil plus more for brushing the banana leaves
- 100 gr all-purpose flour
- 50 gr glutinous rice flour
Optional:
- 1 large banana leaf cut into 8 pieces of 10 x 10 cm or use parchment paper
Instructions
Steam the purple sweet potato (can be prepared the day before):
- Peel and cut the sweet potato into small chunks. Steam over high heat for 5 minutes or until you can easily mash with a fork. Mash the potatoes with sugar while they are hot. You can use an immersion blender to make it smooth too. Mine wasn't mashed all that smooth and that's why you can see some purple dots. Let it cool down while you prepare other things
- Oil the cut banana leaves with some cooking oil. You can use parchment paper too and you don't need to oil the parchment paper. Set aside.
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:
- Cut sweet potatoes into small chunks and steam over medium-high heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Puree until smooth. Mash with sugar. When it is no longer hot and lukewarm, add the yeast mixture, and oil. Add glutinous rice flour, all-purpose flour, salt. Knead and gradually add a bit of water until you can form a rough dough. Cover and rest for 15 minutes. Then go back and knead into a soft and smooth dough
Shape the dough:
- Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Oil both of your palms lightly (don't make it too greasy) and roll the dough into a smooth round ball and place it on the banana leaves and flatten it with your palm to form a disc. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls
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:
- 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 dropping 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
- Remove the hee pan to let them cool on the cooling rack so the bottom won't get all wet and soggy. Serve them warm
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You will like these variations of hee pan using different flavors and colors too.
Gula Melaka, Purple Sweet Potato, and Red Hee Pan
10 comments
Tried making this recipe several times. Twice with purple potato and once with taro. The only thing I changed was the sugar. I found 50g was not sweet enough for me. I increased the sugar to 85 grams. Dough texture came out a little sticky each time, but with oily palms it was easier to handle. They all came out a little flatter and more a mochi-like texture. It tastes good, but could not make it fluffy and have a smooth dome like your pictures. I even went to mykitchen1010 and had the same results. What am I doing wrong? Each time the dough came out fine.
THe texture will be a bit like mochi because of the glutinous rice flour, but still, have that slight fluffiness and is not as dense as mochi would be. The only thing I can think of is probably the dough wasn’t proofed enough? and so it came out much denser. They won’t necessarily doubled in size, but will sure puff up some and feel really light after being proofed.
Marv, you were right! I tried the recipe again with taro. I changed a few things. Instead of instant yeast, I used 2 1/4 tsp of active yeast with 1/4 water & 1 tbs sugar. Let it set for about 15 minutes before adding to the rest of ingredients. I kneaded the dough for 10 minutes on my KA. I transferred the dough to a greased bowl and let it set to proof for 4 hours. Divided my dough into equal portions and then let it rest again for about 20 minutes until you see the dough is puffy. My xi pan finally ended up fluffy and domed just like your pictures. My advice for anyone trying to make the temperamental xi pans is to not reply on the set time in the recipe. Climate and environments are not all the same. Set your time by how the dough looks. BTW, I guess I have a sweet tooth, I increased the amount of sugar to about 1/2 cup! Thanks again for your expert advice!
Hi Gina, I’m so glad you figured it out, and thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us!
Have you consider roasting your sweet potato instead of adding more sugar to it? I always roast my sweet potato when using it in steam bun recipes or any baking.
I haven’t tried it that way, but I bet it’s extra delicious when you roasted it, no doubt!
Mine turned out a lot like a ball of mochi rather than fluffy how the pictures look. Any idea what I could have done wrong?
Hi Sara, how did the dough feel like? purple sweet potato tends to be drier and the amount of water needed may be more than what it calls for in the recipe (it depends on the potatoes too), but you want a dough that is just slightly sticky, not too sticky and comes together nicely and smooth.
I have 2 clarifying questions under “Make the Dough #1”. What do you mean by “Add 1/2 of the water by cooking oil”? Is that 1/2 the water and 1/2 cooking oil? You also mention adding pandan juice but it’s not listed in your ingredient list. Thank you for your clarification.
Hi Joan, so sorry for the confusion. Apparently I left the word “followed” out. So it should be “Add 1/2 of the water followed by cooking oil” So you add 1/2 of the water first and then all of the cooking oil. Then you gradually add more water as needed. I made this purple sweet potato version and pandan version (separate post) and the recipe was written at the same time, so that’s what causes the confusion. So sorry. It should be just “water” in this recipe, unless you make the pandan version. Hope this helps to clarify. I have updated the recipe accordingly.