NOMS: Gluten-Free Egg Bbang (계란 빵)

빵 stand in Insadong, 2009

These sweet little steamed bbang were one of the first street foods I encountered in Korea. These sweet little muffins were filled with bits of nuts and dried fruit and were absolutely delicious. I remember they came freshly cooked, about seven to a little paper bag. They had a sweet, spongy texture and a delicious smell. When I saw this recipe for Egg Bbang on Aeri's Kitchen, I had to make them.

Our first attempt failed because we tried to use a regular muffin tin. A silicone muffin tin is a necessity for this recipe - I'm not sure if it is the gluten-free flour or the recipe itself, but our first batch was impossible to get out of the pan cleanly. Some of our friends scored us a silicone muffin pan off of Freecycle, so we gave it another go.

I'm diabetic, so we always reduce sugar by half in baked goods. I am also gluten-intolerant, so we subbed in our gluten-free flour mix for the all purpose flour. With the gluten-free flour, the batter ended up being really thick, so we added some extra milk to thin it out a bit. We didn't have any regular milk on hand so we used Korean black soybean milk, which gave the finished buns a darker color. 

Despite modifications these buns were sweet, delicious and really brought me back. We made six with eggs and four without - either way they do not keep and should be eaten immediately.

Here is our modified ingredient list:

• 3/4 C Gluten-Free Flour Mix (see below)
• 2 eggs for batter and more eggs for inside the buns
• 1/2 C melted salted butter
• scant 1/4 C sugar
• 1/3 C soy milk
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• sea salt
• melted butter for brushing

Gluten-Free Flour Mix (adapted from artofglutenfreebaking.com)

• 1 1/4 C brown rice flour
• 1 1/4 C millet flour
• 1 C tapioca flour
• 1 C glutinous rice flour (we use the Thai brand Erawan)
• 2 tsp xanthan gum