My Whistleberry Biscuits

Hey there! Thanks for clicking by today. I trust you are faring well. Coffee's hot and so are the virtual treats so dig in. Try one of my new Whistleberry Biscuits.  Never heard of Whistleberries? Well, shame on you! 

This week, Nong had an urge for a Thai dessert...Tua Keow Tom Nam Tan (boiled mung beans with palm or coconut sugar) so she made some. One cup turns into several when boiled so when she made the dessert, we ended up with several cups left over. 

I decided that I would adapt my usual tea biscuit recipe to make use of some of the left over mung bean dessert...which I did and here is the recipe:

First the dessert: Tua Keow Tom Nam Tan

Nong could not tell me the proper proportions because Thais generally use their eye to measure ingredients. but I would say two cups of water to 1 cup of beans. 

Mung beans come in green and yellow (split and washed). Don't use the green ones because they still have the skin on them! Look for a package of yellow split-beans. If your normal supermarket doesn't have them, try an Asian/East Indian store. In some stores, they may be called MOONG DAL WASHED and they look sort of like yellow Sesame seeds but a little bigger.

If you don't have or can't find Palm or Coconut sugar, brown sugar will do though it is not as sweet.

Put a cup of beans in a saucepan of water. Bring it to a boil and add sugar to taste. The mixture will thicken as it boils. Taste it periodically to see if it is sweet enough for you and if the beans are softening. When you are satisfied with taste and consistency, take it off the heat and let it cool down.

Whistleberry Biscuits

3 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1Cup Mung Bean Dessert (Tua Keow Tom Nam Tan)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat your oven to 375
2. I put parchment paper on a cookie sheet
3. Mix everything together in a large mixing bowl (None of that separate dry from wet, etc.)
4. The dough should not be very sticky. If it is, add more flour until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl easily and is not too stick to the touch.
5. Dump the dough onto a floured surface. I knead it a little
6, Roll it out to about 1 inch high.
7. I use the top of a glass to cut out good-sized biscuits.
8. Place biscuits on the parchment paper at least an inch apart.
9. Put the biscuits in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. 
10. Test with a toothpick which should come out dry.
11. Let them cook on a rack and enjoy!

You may be wondering why I call these Whistleberry Biscuits. Hey...they are made with beans and beans give you the whistleberries.

Now you know. See ya, eh, and don't forget to let me know how they turn out...the biscuits, I mean!

Baker Bob
Uncle Bob's Bakery

PS: If you do have a package of green mung beans, these are great for making bean sprouts. I used to use these with kindergarten classes. Each kiddie would plant a few beans in a cup on Friday, water it, and theey would be amazed when they came back to school on Monday to see that their beans had already sprouted. Science in action!