One year later and with 148 posts published, these Flaky, Fresh Taro Pastries are still one of my most memorable and favorite creations on Pancake Yancake. And although I’ve since made a kabocha black sesame version that’s appropriately decked out with step-by-step photos, I felt the original taro version deserved a revisit. The recipe itself only has a few minor changes (more straightforward filling ingredients and only all-purpose flour in pastry dough A), but now it finally has all the photos it deserves too!

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Flaky, Fresh Taro Pastries (Revisited)

Makes 10 pastries

Ingredients:

For the filling:

• 450 g peeled taro, cut into chunks
• 70 g honey
• 30 g whole milk

For pastry dough A:

• 90 g all-purpose flour
• 10 g powder sugar
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened, diced
• Pinch of salt
• 40 g water, room temperature

For pastry dough B:

• 100 g all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened, diced
• 1 tsp oil
• Pinch of salt
• Purple food coloring

Directions: 

To make the filling:

1. Steam taro for 20 minutes or until a fork can be easily inserted.
2. In a medium bowl, mash the taro cubes with a fork and stir in the honey and milk until smooth. (Warning: do mash and do not food process the taro; we found that food processing steamed taro does not yield an expected puree but rather a gummy, sticky paste.)
3. Let cool in the fridge until ready to assemble pastries.

To make pastry dough A:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, butter, and salt with your hands to achieve a coarse crumb.
2. Gradually add the water, mixing initially with chopsticks. Once all the water is mixed in, switch to your hands and start kneading the dough. The dough may be sticky in the beginning, but keep kneading until the dough is smooth and no longer sticks to your hand.
3. Cover the dough and let rest at room temperature Meanwhile, make pastry dough B.
   

To make pastry dough B:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, butter, oil, and salt with your hands. The dough will not seem to stick together at first, but keep pushing the dough together until a coherent ball forms. Knead in the liquid food color (4 drops should be a good starting point; adjust according to preference).
2. Separate dough B into 5 balls (~25 g each).
3. Separate dough A into 5 balls (~30 g each).

To assemble the pastries:

1. Wrap a piece of dough A (white) completely around a ball of dough B (purple).
2. On a lightly floured surface, use the palm of your hand to flatten the AB hybrid dough ball.
3. Using a rolling pin, roll the flattened ball out lengthwise (the longer the sheet, the more layers your pastries will have). Roll the sheet up into a log starting from the short side. Repeat this step once more (flatten the log, roll out lengthwise, roll up from the short side).
4. Prepare the remaining 4 balls of dough A and B in the same way.
5. Cover the dough rolls with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for ~20 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, remove the taro filling from the fridge and allocate it into ten 50 g balls.

Pre-heat oven to 325 F

1. Working with one dough roll at a time, cut one in half (you should be able to see the multitude of layers rolled within from the cut end). With the cut end face down, press down to flatten the half.
2. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a larger circle. Place a ball of taro filling in its center and completely encase the filling with the dough.
3. Place the filled pastry on a baking sheet with the closed end face down. Repeat until all 10 pastries are done.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving and enjoy warm or at room temperature. (Note: for ultimate flakiness best consumed day of)