Black Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls (Tang Yuan) 黑芝麻汤圆

Pin Recipe Print Recipe

Tap or Hover to Adjust Servings

Instructions

 

Boiling Ginger Syrup:

• 
  Start by boiling ginger syrup. First, peel the skin off the old ginger.
• 
  Then, cut the ginger into thick pieces and lightly bruised them to release their aromatic flavour.
• 
  Bring a pot of water to a boil.
• 
  Add the crushed ginger and knotted screw pine leaves. Bring the water to a boil again.
• 
  Cover and reduce heat to a simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes to allow the aroma of ginger and screw pine leaves to infuse into the water.
• 
  Then add in sugar and sweet osmanthus. Boil for another 5 minutes over medium heat.
• 
  Then lower heat to a simmer and boil till the liquid has reduced a little, another 10 minutes. And we're done!
• 
  Remove the crushed ginger and screw pine leaves from the ginger infused syrup and set aside while we prepare the black sesame filling.

Black Sesame Filling:

• 
  While waiting for the ginger soup to simmer, prepare the glutinous rice ball filling. Lightly toast black sesame seeds over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes till aromatic.
• 
  Then coarsely grind the toasted black sesame seeds.
• 
  Transfer the ground sesame to a bowl. Add in sugar and coconut oil.
• 
  Stir to mix well and form into a paste. Set aside to chill in refrigerator while we prepare the glutinous rice dough.

Glutinous Rice Balls:

• 
  In a mixing bowl, add hot boiling water into glutinous rice flour to half cook it.
• 
  Using a spoon or spatula, stir to mix well. Adding hot water makes the rice balls chewy.
• 
  Then, add some cold water into the dough. Water should be added a little at a time, depending on the consistency of the dough.
• 
  Knead until you begin to see a nice looking dough and the dough should not stick to your hand or mixing bowl.
• 
  When the dough is ready, we can now make rice balls. First, divide the dough into two halves for easier to work with.
• 
  Take one half and roll into a log and cut into pieces, 20g each.
• 
  Using our palms, roll each piece of dough into a ball. Repeat the same with the other half of the dough.
• 
  Cover the glutinous rice balls with a tea towel to prevent them from drying.
• 
  Take a piece of the dough ball and flatten. Then place 1 teaspoon of sesame paste filling in the middle.
• 
  Wrap the dough around the filling and roll into a smooth ball. Repeat the same with the rest of the dough balls. And we have made glutinous rice balls with black sesame filling!

Cooking Glutinous Rice Balls:

• 
  To cook the glutinous rice balls, first boil a pot of water. Then put in the glutinous rice balls. Be sure not to overcrowd the pot. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
• 
  Let them cook for 3 to 5 minutes. When cooked, the glutinous rice balls will float onto the surface of the water.
• 
  Sieve out all the cooked glutinous rice balls and place them into a bowl of cold water for about 1 minute. This process will make the rice balls more chewy.
• 
  Then place the glutinous rice balls into the pot of ginger syrup prepared earlier. And we're done!
• 
  These black sesame filled glutinous rice balls can be served hot or cold with the aromatic ginger syrup. So Enjoy!