Full Cooking Video:
Traditionally, Chinese people eat this dessert on the 15th day of Chinese New Year, which is called the "Chinese Lantern Festival". This is the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration, which means, the last food event to wrap up Chinese New Year. Symbolically, we want to end the celebration on a sweet note, ergo, these delicious mochi-like treats! There are two kinds of Sweet Rice Sesame Balls. One kind, you make a dough, then wrap the filling to make a ball( aka TangYuan / 湯圓). The other kind, which happens to be my favorite, you make the filling, then "roll" the sesame ball in Sweet Rice (Glutinous Rice) Powder, to get mochi layers( aka YuanXiao / 元宵). Because of the way it's made, the texture of the mochi is very light, but still bouncy and chewy! When you bite into it, the sesame filling just oozes out!!! Ahhhh.....YUM!!! And guess what? Kids love making it as well!! Great dessert to eat on Chinese Lantern Festival, or....like me, eat it whenever you feel like it!
Ingredients:
(Makes 15-20 balls)
- Roasted Sesame : 120g
- Coconut oil or Pork Fat : 45g
- Sugar : 75 g
- Peanut Butter : 40g
- Glutinous Rice Flour to coat the sesame filling : 250 oz
- Cold Water : Big Bowl
Recipe:
1. Blend Sesame and Sugar until finely ground, and can see some of the sesame oil being released.
2. Blend in Peanut butter (optional), and oil until smooth and creamy.
3. Put the mixture (the flilling) into the fridge for at least 2 hours, so the mixture becomes more solid and are easy to form a ball.
4. Scoop 1/2 - 1 tbsp (depends on how big do you want your rice ball to be) filling and form a ball. Place on a plate with parchment paper.
5. Freeze all the sesame balls for at least 4 hour. ( Freeze over night for best results.)
** You can make the fillings to this point ahead of time, and just keep them in the freezer till whenever (well...up to 1 month) you want to finish making them.**
6. In a big wide bowl, put in the Rice Flour. In another big bowl, put in lots of cold water. (Water needs to be deep enough to submerge all the sesame balls on a strainer)
7. Take the sesame balls out of the freezer, roll 1-5 at a time (depends on how wide the bowl is, and also how skillful you are) in the Rice Flour. Once all the Sesame Balls are evenly coated with Rice Flour, put them on a strainer.
8. Dip the strainer with the Sesame Balls in the water, make sure all the Sesame Balls are completely submerged for 3 seconds. Take out and shake off the excess water.
9. Put the Sesame Balls back in the Rice Flour Bowl and roll till evenly coated.
10. Repeat Step 8 and Step 9 for 8-10 times, depends on how thick you'd like the skin to be.
**You can also freeze them at this point up to 1 month, till you want to eat them.**
11. Boil a big pot of water, put your Sesame Balls in once the water is boiled. Don't crowd the pot! The Sesame Balls will float to the top and looks fluffy when ready!
This is the Glutinous Rice Flour that I use:
