The Unforgettable Tang Yuan Dessert

Posted on 24 Apr 2010 - by Katkat In: food

The Unforgettable Tang Yuan Dessert

The Chinese tang yuan is a mochi ball dessert with or without filling served in hot soup. I love this dessert. I can only remember a handful of times when I’ve eaten this in the past but still the memory was a bit blurred. I needed to satisfy this tang yuan craving.

At first I didn’t know what it’s called and I tried in vain to search it in the internet. All I got was the Japanese mochi ball dessert without the soup. I wanted the one with the soup. Eventually I asked my sister who lives in Beijing for the name. I remembered she was telling us that every winter solstice/new year (not Chinese new year) she would be bombarded by this dessert because friends will come bringing in frozen pre-made tang yuan during dinner parties. Lucky for her this dessert is readily available. But here in the US, I needed to scour for them.

Actually I already saw that frozen kind in an oriental grocery store. That’s where the idea of tang yuan rooted in the first place. I bought one at 1.99USD and though it was yummy, the serving was so small and unfulfilling. As my mom had put it, “It didn’t even got past the throat” (and that was already eating 8 mochi balls!). So I decided to make it myself.

Successfully finding the recipe online, I went on the hunt for its ingredients. I wanted my mochi ball to have sesame seed paste and another one with red bean paste. Making this kind of paste from raw red beans or sesame seed is complicated and I decided to buy the ready-paste already. All I saw was the Red Bean paste. I was forced to buy the black sesame seed in raw form. My mom wanted peanut in hers but I still have yet to find that recipe.

A history of Tang Yuan: Tang Yuan (汤圆) or Kuih Ee signifies the arrival of winter (winter solstice) and by eating this we will be a year older. In Chinese custom, this round shaped rice ball symbolizes togetherness and completeness of the family. Tang Yuan is also known as glutinous rice balls. This little rices balls are then served with syrup but these days people are getting more creative and Tang Yuan comes with different types of filling like peanut, black sesame, red bean etc.

Tang Yuan with Black Sesame Seed Filling

(This recipe is a collaboration of 2 recipes and a youtube video recipe.)

Black Sesame Seed Paste:

1/4 cup black sesame seeds
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 stick unsalted butter (1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons)

Glutinous Rice Flour Ball:

1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cup sticky rice flour

Lightly toast the black sesame seeds over medium fire until you smell the aroma of the black sesame seeds. Please take note that the sesame seeds will start popping when they are heated, so use your lid to cover. Don’t burn the black sesame seeds; transfer them out and let cool as soon as they smell aromatic.

Use a mini food processor to grind the black sesame seeds until they become fine. Transfer the ground black sesame into a wok, add sugar and butter and stir well to form a thick paste. If they are too dry, add more butter. Dish out and let cool in the fridge. (This will make the filling easier.)

In a deep wide bowl, pour the boiling water and dissolved the sugar in it. Add the sticky rice flour a few at a time stirring until it forms a smooth paste and no longer sticks to your hands. Divide it equally into 16-20 balls (depends how you like the size, the bigger the size, the easier it is to do the filling). Flatten each ball in your palm, and then use a pair of chopsticks to pick up some black sesame paste and lay it in the middle of the flatten ball. Fold the edge to seal the dumpling. Lightly roll it into a ball shape using both palms, very gently and delicately. Set aside on a wax paper dusted with flour. This will prevent the balls from sticking onto the paper.

Heat up another pot of boiling water. Drop the dumplings into the hot boiling water. As soon as they float to the top, transfer them out and into another hot water soup. Serve immediately.

Cook’s Notes:

1. It is imperative to use unsalted butter. I haven’t tried just plain oil though My butter was kind of salted so the paste I had was not sweet.

2. Add more sugar like 1/2 cup to the sticky rice ball mixture. Mine turned out a little bit on the bland side.

3. You can serve the mochi ball in ginger soup or sweet rice soup. But I opted for plain hot water.

4. Divide the rice flour in big parts to be able to put more filling. My mochi balls were small and so the filling was kind of thin. To find out more about how to prepare the mochi balls, click here.

This dessert turned out disappointing for me because first, my filling was salty, then it was also thin. The mochi balls were also bland and with a salty, thin sesame seed filling, it’s not the tang yuan dessert I envisioned. I know that I needed a lot of practice before I get to perfect this but I’m still discouraged to redo it. Anyway I’ll post my next try of the tang yuan in the future when I get over my disappointment.

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