Tang Yuan, Chinese Glutinous Rice Balls with peanut and black sesame filling 汤圆

🧂 Ingredients

• 100 g black sesame
• 1.5 tbsp honey
• 100 g whole peanut
• 1.5 tbsp peanut butter
• Monk fruit sweetener

  optional if peanut butter is mildly sweet
• 0.5 tsp osmanthus tea leaves

  and more for garnishing
• 1 tbsp goji berries
• 50 g honey rock sugar

  or brown sugar
• 1.5 litre water
• 250 g glutinous rice flour
• 200 ml hot boiling water
• 0.25 tsp gardenia extract food colouring powder or agar agar powder

  various colours
• 3 tbsp cold water

  to add to boiling pot of tang yuan

Instructions

• 1 Toast peanuts over medium heat for 1-2 minutes in a non-stick pan until it turns
  aromatic.
  
  Remove peanuts and let cool. Then transfer into a food processor and grind into
  coarse bits. Add 1.5 tbsp peanut butter and blitz to mix well into paste
  texture.
  
  Cover and chill in the fridge until ready to use.
  
  Note: Take note not to overgrind the peanuts, if not it turns into peanut
  butter.
• 2 Toast black sesame over medium heat for 1-2 minutes in a non-stick pan until it
  turns aromatic.
  
  Remove black sesame from pan and let it cool completely. Then transfer into a
  food processor and grind into fine paste texture. The black sesame will release
  some oil and become moist. Add 1.5 tbsp honey and blitz to mix well.
  
  Cover and chill in the fridge until ready to use.
• 3 Remove the peanut and black sesame fillings from the fridge and use a small
  spoon or melon baller to scoop out small portions. Roll the fillings into 6g
  balls.
  
  Create 3 fillings: 1) peanut, 2) black sesame, 3) half peanut half black sesame.
  
  Place all the filling balls on a plate and cover with cling wrap. Chill in
  fridge until ready to use.
• 4 Boil water over high heat. Once boiled, add honey rock sugar
  [https://amzn.to/3Y56DCc], goji berries [https://amzn.to/3y4rT0u] and osmanthus
  tea leaves [https://amzn.to/3xZMWRR].
  
  Simmer for 1 minutes, then remove from heat.
• 5 Make a well in the middle of the glutinous rice flour [https://amzn.to/3ZxBoRc]
  in a large mixing bowl.
  
  Add hot boiling water progressively, while using a spatula to mix the water and
  flour together, gradually a rough dough will be formed.
  
  Note: the dough might look disintegrated at this stage.
• 6 Once the mixture cools down, mix and knead the dough by hand, until the dough
  turns uniformed, smooth and stretchy.
  
  Note: add some water if the dough is too dry.
• 7 This step is optional.
  
  Divide the dough into equal parts. Add food colouring to each dough portion and
  mix by hand into a uniformly coloured dough.
  
  Note: I used gardenia extract food colouring powder for yellow and green. For
  the pink, I used red agar agar powder [https://amzn.to/41ypeJP] which turns out
  a nice pink.
• 8 Dust the dough with glutinous rice flour to prevent from sticking to each other.
  Cover and rest the dough for 30 minutes at room temperature.
• 9 After resting, roll the dough into balls, each weighing about 12g.
  
  Cover with cling wrap to prevent from drying.
• 10 Press the dough in the middle with your thumb to form a ‘bowl’. Place
  the filling in the middle of the ‘bowl’.
• 11 Press the edge of the dough to close. Make sure it’s sealed properly to avoid
  leakage. Then roll into a smooth ball again. 
  
  Dust each tang yuan with glutinous rice flour to prevent from sticking to each
  other.
  
  Cover the tang yuan with cling wrap to prevent from drying.
• 12 Boil water in a pot on high heat.
  
  Once boiled, add the tang yuan gently into the pot of boiling water and reduce
  heat to medium. Stir regularly to prevent sticking to the pot.
  
  Once the tang yuan floats to the top, add 3 tbsp of cold water. Boil for another
  2 minutes.
• 13 Transfer the tang yuan into an ice bath and leave it for 1 minute.
• 14 Serve the tang yuan in the osmanthus goji tea (warm or chilled) and sprinkle
  with more osmanthus tea leaves for garnish.

Nutrition Info