Bakpia

Bakpia

Origin
Alternative name(s)	Hopia
Place of origin	China
Region or state	Maritime Southeast Asia
Type	Pastry, sweet roll

Bakpia (Chinese: 肉餅; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bah-piáⁿ; literally: "meat pastry") or hopia (Chinese: 好餅; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: hó-piáⁿ; literally: "good pastry") is a popular Indonesian and Philippine bean-filled pastry originally introduced by Fujianese immigrants in urban centres of both countries around the turn of the twentieth century. It is a widely available inexpensive treat and a favoured gift for friends and relatives.

In Indonesia, it is also widely known as Bakpia Pathok, named after a suburb of Yogyakarta which specialises in the pastry. These sweet rolls are similar to bigger Indonesian pia, the only difference being the size.

Types of dough

Flaky type

The flaky type of bakpia uses Chinese puff pastry. Clear examples of this can be seen in China (especially Macau), Taiwan, and countries with established Chinese diaspora communities such as Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana making this type the authentic Chinese hopia. In addition, there is more skill involved in making this type of hopia crust.

Cake-dough type

The cake-dough type uses a soft cookie-dough similar in texture & taste to the wrapper-dough for fig newtons. This type is very similar to Japanese bean cakes, which grants it the name hopyang Hapon (Japanese bean cake).

Fillings

Below are the four traditional and most popular bakpia fillings, though recently other fillings have been created such as pineapple, screwpine, chocolate, durian, cheese, cappuccino and custard.

Mung bean

A pair of mung-bean hopias in a saucer

The most popular flaky bakpia both in Indonesia and the Philippines is mung bean bakpia (Indonesian: bakpia kacang hijau; Cebuan and Tagalog: hopyang munggo), sometimes referred to as hopyang matamís ("sweet hopia" in Tagalog). As its name implies, it is filled with sweet split mung bean paste.

Pork

Hopyang baboy (Cebuano and Tagalog for "pork hopia") is filled with a savoury bread-crumb paste studded with candied wintermelon, flavoured with scallion, and enriched with candied pork back fat, hence its name. This type of hopia is also sometimes referred to as hopyang maalat (Tagalog for "salty hopia").

Purple yam

Ube custard hopia, Binondo, City of Manila.

Though purple yam (Dioscorea alata; Malay: uwi; Bisayan and Tagalog: ube) delicacies were traditionally served mainly at Christmastime, its unique colour and flavour has caused hopyang ube (Bisayan and Tagalog for purple-yam hopis) to become a clear favourite all year-round. The hopia variant is also reminiscent of halayáng ube (ube jam), which is a staple in Philippine celebrations.

While included among the traditional hopia variants, purple-yam hopis was created in the 1980s by Gerry Chua of Eng Bee Tin Chinese Deli in the Binondo district of Manila.

Azuki bean

Azuki-bean hopia are small, round cake-dough type hopia usually filled with sweet azuki bean paste, similar in appearance to small mooncakes served during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. These are also often formed into cubes and cooked on a griddle one side at a time instead of being baked in an oven. Due to its similarities in filling, crust texture, and style to the Japanese kuri manjū, it earned the popular moniker hopyang Hapón (Tagalog for "Japanese hopia").