Glutinous Rice Balls with Black Sesame
These chewy-mochi-like rice balls are filled with lava-like nutty black sesame filling and are a delightful treat for many Chinese festivals. Tang yuan or glutinous rice balls are traditionally eaten during special Chinese festivals and enjoyed with a plain or sweetened soup or syrup.
Equipment
Ingredients
Tang Yuan Dough
- 1 cup glutinous rice flour aka sweet rice flour
- ½ cup warm water
- ½ tsp ube extract for half the dough
Black Sesame Filling
- ⅓ cup black sesame seeds
- ½ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened (57 grams)
Sweet Ginger Pandan Soup
- 4 cup water
- 1 slice of ginger
- 2 pandan leaves or pandan syrup
- ½ cup sugar Adjust to your preference
Instructions
Prepare Filling
- Grind and Mix Filling. Add the black sesame seeds to your food processor and blend until the black sesame seeds are almost a coarse powder. Roughly 3-5 minutes depending on your food processor. Add the sugar and blend for 2 minutes on high. Once it is well blended add the softened unsalted butter and blend until well incorporated. Refrigerate the black sesame filling for 25-30 minutes.
- Refrigerate filling. When the filling is hard take it out and divide it in to 20 equal portions. The black sesame filling weighed 220 grams (I divided them into 11-12 grams each). Roll them into balls and put them back in the fridge.
Prepare Dough
- Combined flour and water. Add the glutinous rice flour into a medium size bowl. Pour half the warm water and stir until all the water is absorbed. Add the second half and stir until all the water is absorbed into the flour.
- Knead dough. Using your hands knead the dough until it’s well incorporated. The dough should be soft and smooth. Add more water if the dough is cracking and if the dough is too wet and sticky add more flour.
- Divide in half and mix ube extract. The total weight of my dough was 210 grams so I weighed half (Approximately 105 grams) and added the ube extract and knead the dough until the purple color was well mixed into the dough.
- Portion out 20 rice balls. Take the white dough and divide it into 10 equal portions and roll them into balls. If using a scale weigh 10-11 grams for each rice ball. Repeat for the purple dough. You should have a total of 20 rice balls.
Assemble Tang Yuan
- Take out filling in batches. Work in batches with the black sesame fillings. Take out of the fridge 5 at a time while you assemble. This is to prevent the filling from melting.
- Assemble. Flatten the rice ball in your hands by pressing your palms down. Using your thumb and make a slight dent in the centre so the sesame filling will sit snug use both sets of hands or use your fingers to gently wrap the edge up and around the top until it’s completely sealed. Alternatively, make a circle with your thumb and index finger and place the tang yuan in the middle and gently wrap it up. Both methods will work. Repeat until all of them have been assembled.
Make the Sweet Broth
- Boil ginger and pandan leaves. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the sliced ginger and pandan leaves and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the sugar and let it simmer until the sugar has dissolved.
Cook
- Cook tang yuan in sweet soup. Add the tang yuan to the water and gently stir so it does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Once the tang yuan floats to the top it is ready. This will take about 4-5 minutes.
- Serve. Serve with sweet ginger pandan soup.
Notes
Make the filling first. The filling requires 30 minutes in the fridge before wrapping to firm up the butter. This will make it easier to wrap and ensure there are no holes cracks or openings.
The dough consistency. What's great about the dough is you can freely adjust it to get the necessary consistency to wrap the filling easily. You can add more water or glutinous flour when needed.
Freeze extra tang yuan immediately. If you have some leftovers freeze them immediately to prevent the tang yuan from cracking. Once you freeze it places them in a freezer-proof bag.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!