Black Sesame Tang Yuan(湯圓) is a mochi-like rice ball, usually served hot with a sweet syrup and this recipe takes it to a new level. Black sesame oozes out as you bite into these soft, tender balls, filling your mouth with sweetness and nuttiness.
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Cook Time5 minutesmins
Total Time35 minutesmins
Course: Dessert, Rice, Snack, Soup
Cuisine: Asian, Taiwanese, Vegetarian
Servings: 16Tang Yuan
Author: Choochoo-ca-Chew
Ingredients
Tang Yuan
1-1/2CSticky Ricealso called glutinous rice or sweet rice. Both short grain or long grain works.
Corn StarchPrevent sticking
Black Sesame Filling
3/4CBlack SesameToasted and ground into powder
1/4CButterRoom Temperature
1/4CBrown Sugar
Instructions
Glutinous Rice Balls
Cover 1-1/2C Glutinous Rice with water and soak overnight
Blend the soaked rice with a blender for about 3 minutes, or until there are no big grains left. It doesn't really matter how much water you add to blend the rice since it will be drained later, as long as it is easy to blend.
After the rice is blended, use a nut milk bag to strain the rice milk.
Tie the bag up, put it on top of a rack and loaded a plate and something very heavy on top. Leave draining overnight or for 8 hours, flipping over halfway. Creating a "rice cake"
Remove the "rice cake" from the bag and break into small pieces in a mixing bowl.
While parts of the rice cake is being boiled, crumble up the rest of the raw rice cake.
Strain the cooked rice cake from the pot and add them back to the crumbled raw pieces.
Start working it all into a dough.
Separate the dough into 16 portions.
Black Sesame Filling
Combine butter at room temperature, ground black sesame, sugar and work into a dough-like mixture.
Separate the sesame filling into 16 even portions and roll them into little balls.
Flatten a piece of the rice dough and put a portion of the filling in the center, pinch the opening shut and roll into a ball. Roll in cornstarch to prevent them from sticking to each other. Repeat the process.
Cook or freeze
Cook immediately or freeze. Cooking the glutinous rice balls: Bring a pot of water to boil, add the balls and cook until they float to top, strain the balls into a bowl and add syrup or soup of your choice. I prefer it with just boiled water since the sesame filling is pretty sweet.