Beijing Wandouhuang
豌豆黄
English: Yellow pea cake/pudding
Chinese: 豌豆黄
Pinyin: wandouhuang
Literal: Chickpea/yellow split pea [dessert]
A dessert made from chickpeas, you say? Many might quietly sidestep this one and retreat to the safety of brownies and sponge. I certainly did, at first. When I arrived in China, the idea of what constituted a “treat” felt utterly foreign—rice flour pastries, red bean doughnuts, jujube cake, corn juice and even fungi soup. Meanwhile, my Chinese friends recoiled at the sugar-laden Western coffee snacks I adored, complaining that chocolate, cake and cookies were far too sweet.
My relationship with sugar has been rocky - from complete addiction to abstinence. Now, after ten years in China, I’ve come around to the Chinese approach: use naturally sweet ingredients and add just a sprinkle of sugar to enhance the flavour.
豌豆黄 (wandouhuang), sometimes translated as Pea Flour Cake or Sweet Pea Pudding, is one such example. This ancient imperial dessert was once a favourite of Empress Dowager Cixi, who preferred delicate flavours that wouldn’t overpower her palate. As with many dishes from the imperial court, it eventually found its way from the palace kitchens to the street stalls and bakeries of Beijing.
At its most elemental, this is a dish of just three ingredients—split yellow peas or chickpeas, water, and sugar—but it requires a certain care. The peas must be softened, puréed until silken, and simmered with rock sugar until thick enough to set into gentle, pale-gold slabs that remind me of a Caramac candy bar from my childhood.
The end result of this dessert is the texture of crumbly soft fudge, but without the teeth-aching sweetness. It’s the sort of quiet, cooling sweet best enjoyed slowly, with a few cups of green tea in the courtyard of a Beijing teahouse.
Makes enough for 6 - 8
Time: 3-4 hours (including chilling time)
Ingredients
150g dried chickpeas or yellow split peas (豌豆)
30g rock sugar (or 80g granulated sugar)
500 - 600ml water
1 teaspoon honey
2 tsp osmanthus syrup
Method
Note: If you use yellow peas, the final cake will be a much more vivid butter-yellow, whereas chickpeas result in a gentle tan the colour of a burlap sack.
Rinse the chickpeas and then soak them in water for at least 4 hours, but it’s better overnight. This will speed up the cooking time.
Drain the peas and transfer to a saucepan. Add 500ml of water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the peas are very soft and break apart easily.
Once cooked, blend the peas in a food processor with the sugar, the honey and 1 teaspoon of osmanthus syrup until you have a purée. If it’s looking too thick, add a touch more water. You want it the thickness of a blitzed soup.
Return the purée to the saucepan and heat over a low heat, stirring constantly for about 10-15 minutes, until it thickens. It’s ready when you stir and the purée takes a few seconds to return back to its shape.
Pour the mixture into a lightly greased (or parchment-lined) container around 6 x 6 inches. Smooth the surface with a spatula, getting it as flat as you can. Leave it to cool for 30 minutes, and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until fully set.
Once firm, tip the pudding out onto a chopping board and cut into small cubes or rectangles.
Drizzle the remaining teaspoon of osmanthus syrup over and serve chilled.
