#200 Hopia

The flaky hopiang munggo

Hopia(pronounced as ‘Ho-PYA,’ literally ‘good biscuit’) is a popular Filipino bean-filled pastry originally introduced by Fujianese immigrants to the Philippines during the early years of the American colonial period in the country.

Hopia comes in two variants, a flaky type which uses Chinese puff pastry and the cake dough type which uses a soft cookie dough similar in texture and taste to the wrapper dough for fig cakes.

In the Philippines the most popular is the flaky hopiang mungo and as its name implies, is filled with sweet split mung bean paste. Hopiang baboy (pork) is filled with a bread crumb paste studded with candied winter melon, flavoured with green onions and enriched with candied pork fat which originally gave it its name.

Hopiang ube (purple yam) has also become a favourite among Filipinos due to the popularity of ube, the purple yam paste that is traditionally served for the main Christmas dinner. The ube paste which has great flavour is also used for classic Pinoy desserts such as halo-halo and other sweet pastries.

The cake dough type also called hopiang Hapon (or Japanese hopia) is usually filled with sweet adzuki bean paste and when formed into round cakes look similar to small moon cakes served for the Chinese Autumn Festival. They are sometimes formed into cubes and cooked on a griddle one side at a time instead of being baked in an oven. (From Wikipedia)

Bon appétit!