Hopia

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Hopia is a popular Filipino bean filled pastry originally introduced by Fujianese immigrants in urban centres of the Philippines around the start of the American civil occupation. It is a widely-available inexpensive treat and a favoured gift for friends and relatives. There are two types, the 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 newtons.

The most popular flaky hopia is Hopiang Mungo and as its name implies, is filled with sweet split mung bean paste. Hopiang Baboy is filled with a bread crumb paste studded with candied winter melon, flavoured with green onions and enriched with candied pork backfat which originally gave it its name. Due to the popularity of Ube, the purple yam paste that was traditionally served mainly at Christmas time which has a unique colour and great flavour that lends itself to pastry making, Hopiang Ube has in recent years also become a clear favourite among Filipinos necessitating its availability the whole year round.

The second type of hopia, the cake dough type also called Hopiang Hapon, 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 in a griddle one side at a time instead of being baked in an oven. Hopiang Hapon also bears a close resemblance to the more recently introduced Japanese kuri manju both in its filling and its wrapper dough which probably supplied this hopia’s "hapon" (Tagalog for Japanese) designation.