Black Sesame Rice Balls 芝麻湯圓 (zhī má tāng yuán) and Peanut Yuan Xiao 花生元宵 (huā shēng yuán xiaō) are a definite must have during Chinese New Year. We can eat them anytime, but especially on Lantern Festival 元宵節 (yuán xiaō jié), Mid-Autumn Festival and Winter Solstice Festival.
My mom always told me that tang yuan and yuan xiao were the same thing. After researching, she’s not completely wrong but there is a difference. Tang yuan is eaten in southern China and yuan xiao is eaten in northern China. Tang yuan is made using dough and wrapped around a filling. Yuan xiao uses a filling that is repeatedly dipped into water and then covered with sweet glutinous rice flour for around 10 times. This creates an outer shell for the filling. They taste similar except the texture of the yuan xiao is coarser. There is a coarser type of sweet glutinous rice flour available in China that is for the purpose of making yuan xiao. Here in Canada, we only have it in fine type but still usable.
Both these rice balls symbolize the moon, family and happiness. It has been a long tradition for family members to make rice balls together during Chinese New Year. It represents the 團圓 tuán yuán which means (family) reunion. The rolling of the yuan xiao gives it another auspicious aspect. The word 滾 (gǔn) means to roll. (It also means to “get out” in a scolding way, but we’ll just focus on the positive meaning). There’s a saying 財源滾滾 (cái yuán gún gǔn) which means to have an endless source of money rolling in. And so, yuan xiao made during the New Year symbolizes prosperity and happiness for all family members.
My Black Sesame Rice Balls 芝麻湯圓 and Peanut Yuan Xiao 花生元宵 recipes will show you how to make this essential Chinese New Year dish. You can mix and match the filling, or make them all for greater variety. If you have no time to make the filling, consider using my Chocolate Rice Balls recipe. For this Chinese New Year, get the whole family together and make rice balls for dessert. You know what they say…those who make a mess together, clean together! Maybe that’s just what I say! I’ve simplified all the steps in my recipe to keep the mess at a minimal…so have fun with it!
I just want to share one more thing. I remember a few years ago, my son’s teacher invited me to her class to talk to the kids about Chinese New Year. One boy asked, “if doing all this stuff worked, why would we have to do it every year?” And I replied, “for hope and appreciation”. If you don’t have it yet, you can hope for it and if you have it, you should be thankful for it. The world has changed so much in the last few years that we now have good reason to be hopeful and thankful that we can still hope! Happy Chinese New Year!
For more recipes to make on special occasions, check out my Chinese New Year recipe section or to learn more about Chinese New Year traditions, sayings and etiquettes, check out my Chinese New Year 101.
Black Sesame Rice Balls 芝麻湯圓
Ingredients
Ingredients for filling:
- 50 g Lard
- 50 g Black sesame powder
- 40 g Sugar
- 1 tbsp Water
Ingredients for dough:
- 150 g Glutinous rice flour
- 82 g Boiling hot water
- 40 g Warm water
- 10 g Glutinous rice flour for dusting your hands
Ingredients for red date soup:
- 10 g Sliced ginger
- 2 c Water
- 15 g Pitted red dates
- 25 g Brown sugar slab aka pian tang (brown sugar will be fine too)
- 10 Sugared lotus seeds 糖蓮子 (optional)
- 2 Sugared lotus root 糖蓮藕 (optional)
Instructions
I added sugared lotus seeds and lotus root to the soup for additional flavour and texture. You can buy them usually during Chinese New Year at Chinese grocery stores.
These rice balls may be stored in the freezer prior to cooking. Do not thaw. Cook from frozen state.
Instructions for filling: this step may be done the day before
- On low heat, toast 50g black sesame powder until aromatic. If using whole black sesame seeds, toast the seeds first and then grind into powder
- Add 50g lard and 40g sugar. Cook until lard liquifies
- Add 1 tbsp water and cook until sugar dissolves. Mix well.
You can also leave the sugar undissolved and in the finished product, the sugar will still be in granulated form - Pour into a wide container to cool
- Wrap with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes to solidify further
- Remove from container
- Form into 11g balls
The picture shows 16 balls that are 9g each but I found them a bit smaller than I would like. However, you can make them any size you like. - Place balls onto a freezer-safe container, cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 60 minutes or until solid. Keep them in the freezer until ready to wrap. Do not thaw.
Instructions:
- Prepare soup for rice balls by adding 2c water, 10g of sliced ginger, 15g pitted red dates (approx. 6) , 25g brown sugar slab (approx. ¼ of a slab), sugared lotus seeds (optional) and sugared lotus root (optional) in a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until ready to use
- Measure 150g glutinous rice flour in a mixing bowl. Prepare a plate with 10g of glutinous rice flour to dust your hands with
- Boil 82g of water. It’s quite important to measure by weight and not by volume to ensure accuracy. I allow for approx. 2-4g of water to evaporate. Remove the water from the heat immediately when it boils and pour slowly into the glutinous rice flour.
If you leave the water boiling, too much water may have been lost to evaporation and you will need to redo this step. The boiling water will give the dough elasticity - Mix until the water is fairly even. There should be little clumps of flour.
I mix with chopsticks for around 1 minute - Add 40g of warm water in 2 intervals. Continue mixing with chopsticks
- Dust your hands lightly with glutinous rice flour and begin to knead the dough to form a ball.
The dough can be very sticky so you may need to dust your hands often - Knead until you have a fairly smooth ball and cover with a towel or plastic wrap for 5 minutes.
Kneading should take approx. 5 minutes - Prepare a plate to put the completed rice balls and a piece of plastic wrap to cover them to prevent the skin from drying
- Take the black sesame filling balls out of the freezer
- Pull off or slice off approx. 20g of dough
I don’t precut each piece to prevent drying. This dough dries and hardens quickly so try to keep it covered at all times - Roll the piece of dough into a ball and flatten slightly with the palms of your hands
Remember to dust your hands with glutinous rice flour if the dough is still sticky - Make a well in the centre of the dough and form a bowl with your fingers
- Put the black sesame frozen ball filling into the dough and gently press the dough onto the surface of the filling
- Push the dough towards the opening to cover the whole filling
- Close the opening and roll between palms until dough is smooth
- Place onto plate, under plastic wrap and continue until the dough is finished
- When you’re half way done, start boiling a pot of water (approx. 1 - 1 ½ L) to cook the rice balls
I don’t cook the balls in the soup because you end up making too much soup and is wasted - When water boils, use a spoon to place the balls into the water. Keep stirring for around 1 minute to prevent balls from sticking to the bottom of the pot. You can put the lid on when the balls are no longer sinking to the bottom
- When the water boils again, add 1 ½ c of water into the pot and cover with a lid
- When the water boils again, turn heat down to medium, cover with lid and let it cook for 2-3 minutes until the balls have evidently increased in size.
- Remove the balls and serve with the red date soup
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