Glutinous Rice Balls 糯米糍 (nuò mǐ cí) or 糍粑 (cí bā) is a very popular Chinese snack food or 點心 (diǎn xīn). Outside of mainland China, most people call it 糯米糍 (nuò mǐ cí). But the name 糍粑 (cí bā) is a more general term for glutinous rice snacks. They can be steamed, fried, sphere-shaped, flat disk-like, submersed in soup, sweet, savoury…it just depends on what region you’re in. Most places will have their own style. 糍粑 (cí bā) has over a thousand years of recorded history (probably much longer in non-recorded history). During the Tang Dynasty, 透花糍 (tòu huā cí) was very similar to the modern day 糯米糍 (nuò mǐ cí). Skin made of glutinous rice was filled with red bean and mung bean pastes. Flower patterns were stamped on which made them extra fancy catering to the imperial families.
They called them 狀元糍 (zhuàng yuán cí)during the Sung Dynasty. There’s a story about a famous poor scholar from Fujian named Zou Yinglong. He was ready to head towards the capital to take his official exam. People in his village made their traditional 糍粑 (cí bā) so that he could eat along the way and was also a gesture of good wishes. He did so well on his exam that the emperor greeted him personally. Zou had nothing of value to gift to the emperor, instead, he offered him a 糍粑 (cí bā). The emperor loved it and gave it a new name, “the top scoring scholar dumpling” or 狀元糍 (zhuàng yuán cí). The word 糍 (cí) generally refers to a dumpling-like food with mashed glutinous rice.
In ancient times, most home-style glutinous rice balls did not have filling. The ones with filling were typically for royalty or the wealthy. With or without filling, they first steamed the glutinous rice. Then they pound the rice until it became pasty. To increase elasticity, they added starches and oil. Pounding, kneading and stretching were essential to getting the perfect texture. Peanuts, sesame seeds and sugar were incorporated into the dough. They rolled them into balls and covered with cooked soy bean powder. Sometimes they made it savoury and added meat to them. It has been much easier since the invention of glutinous rice flour!
Back to today….my Glutinous Rice Balls 糯米糍 recipe is more Hong Kong style since I use coconut milk instead of regular milk. Coconut milk adds a subtle coconut aroma to the dough. It can also extend the shelf life and cater to those who are lactose intolerant. My glutinous rice ball skin is soft, chewy and elastic. They’re easy to work with and they freeze well too. I’ll show you how to make 2 different fillings. I love black sesame and nuts so I did a simple black sesame and walnut filling as well as the traditional peanut/coconut filling. A good thing with making it yourself is that you can control the sweetness. You can add as much or as little sugar as you like.
I usually make a big batch of them, seal them individually in little food-grade plastic bags and keep them in the freezer. They can keep for around a month without the skin cracking. Plastic wrap works too. Thaw at room temperature for around 2 hours before serving. These Glutinous Rice Balls 糯米糍 are so good that your family will keep asking for more!
Looking for more dessert ideas? My favourites include: Snowflake Crisps 雪花酥 and Fried Sugar Egg Puffs 炸莎翁!
Glutinous Rice Balls 糯米糍
Ingredients
Ingredients for dough (makes approx. 450 g dough; 30g/rice ball for medium size):
- 150 g Glutinous rice flour
- 20 g Wheat starch
- 10 g Corn starch
- 50 g White sugar
- 200 ml Coconut milk
- 50 ml Water
- 10 g Oil
- 50 g Cooked glutinous rice flour
Ingredients for black sesame walnut filling (makes 230g filling; 15g/rice ball):
- 80 g Walnuts , chopped
- 70 g Black sesame powder
- 80 g Condensed milk
Ingredients for coconut peanut filling (makes 65g filling; 4.3g/rice ball or 1 tsp):
- 25 g Peanuts , chopped
- 15 g Finely shredded coconut
- 5 g Black sesame seeds
- 20 g Sugar
Instructions
- If it’s cold where you are, your coconut milk is likely to be partially solidified. If so, submerse the can of coconut milk into hot water until the milk is in liquid state. Alternatively, you can heat the coconut milk in a pot.
- In a mixing bowl, add 150g glutinous rice flour, 20g wheat starch, 10g corn starch and 50g white sugar. Mix well
I specify white sugar so that the rice balls can turn out white. 
- Add 200ml coconut milk and 50 ml water. Mix until smooth
- Add 10g oil. Mix well. Mixture should be thick but thin enough to go through a sieve.
Consistency is similar to heavy cream - Pour mixture through a sieve into a steaming pan
- Steam on high for 25 minutes. Start steaming when water boils
I find that there’s no need to cover the pan because you can easily pour any water out after steaming - After 25 minutes, check to see if it’s done by sticking a wooden chopstick in the middle. It’s done when the mixture is translucent.
- Remove from heat and let cool
No need to loosen the dough. Once it cools, you should be able to lift it out without it sticking to the pan - When dough is steaming, prepare cooked glutinous rice flour. Add 50g glutinous rice flour in a pan. Cook on low heat. Move the flour around in the pan for 3 minutes. Cover with a lid for 3 minutes. Mix again and cover again for 3 minutes. Remove and place in a bowl or plastic bag
You will not need all of the 50g of cooked glutinous rice flour but it’s easier to coat each rice ball when there is more of the rice flour. You will likely only use ¼ of it - Black sesame walnut filling: toast walnuts and black sesame powder until aromatic (optional), chop in food processor until you reach desired walnut size, add condensed milk and mix well. Condensed milk will add sweetness as well as help soften the filling. Roll the filling into 15g balls or your desired size for easy wrapping
- Coconut peanut filling: toast peanuts until aromatic (optional), chop in food processor until you reach desired size. Add shredded coconut, black sesame seeds, sugar and mix well.
- When dough has cooled, remove it from the steaming pan
- Knead it for approx. 20 minutes to achieve optimal elasticity. You want to keep stretching the dough until it doesn’t easily break. I usually start by pulling the top of the dough with both hands and tucking it into the bottom for 5 minutes to start the elasticizing. Then I stretch the dough and wrap it around my hand continuously for 5 minutes. Then the rest of the time I just do a combination of the 2
- Knead until the dough can be stretched thin (when you can see through it) but doesn’t break
- Roll the dough into a log shape and slice it into 30g pieces, or your desired size
- Take one piece, flatten with your palms, and pull into a larger circle.
- Add filling and close the opening. The dough is very sticky, so it should be quite easy to make it stick together. You can also make pleats around the edge to make the opening smaller and then eventually closing the gap
- Roll in your hands to smooth out the seams
- Put into the cooked rice glutinous flour and coat it completely. Roll in your hands again to even out the coating of flour
- Put finished rice ball into a cupcake liner
- Continue until you use up your ingredients
Do u do just the Hakka peanut gluteneous rice ball. This is more with Hong Kong type with coconut milk n wheat flour n shredded coconut
Hi Adelene! Yes, mine is the Hong Kong style one as I mention in the post. I'm not sure if you're looking for an authentic Hakka style recipe or a simplified one. Authentic Hakka one requires cooking the dough on stove-top, constantly stirring until the dough mixture is thick and then pounding it with a wooden rolling pin until the texture is soft, elastic, malleable and unbreakable. I doubt I will try to do this any time soon! However, if you'd like to get similar results but less work, you can use my recipe, use 20g of corn starch and omit the wheat starch. You'll get a softer, stickier dough. Use the peanut filling recipe, omit the coconut flakes and substitute it with more black sesame seeds. You can wrap the filling inside or cover the dough with it. However, bear in mind that there are a dozen or more Hakka style glutinous rice balls. The one I'm thinking of is the flatter version. It's flat because the dough is so soft, it can't keep its shape. After wrapping, it can also be pan-fried. I hope this helps. Happy cooking!