Sesame “Laughing” Balls 笑口棗 (xiaò kǒu zaǒ) or 開口笑 (kāi kǒu xiaò) is a very popular Chinese New Year snack food. It is a tradition for the whole family to get together and make deep fried foods for New Years. Deep frying is a very practical way to preserve foods that are to be kept at room temperature for days. Chinese New Year is a very busy time. People are busy visiting and hosting friends and family. There may be very little time for actual cooking. So, these snacks are very handy to have on hand. These foods can also be gifts so it's likely that everyone will have a good variety of deep-fried foods.
Practicality aside, hot oil also symbolizes “red fired” 紅火 (hóng huǒ) which represents motivation and drive. Boiling and steaming all symbolize energy and liveliness. Since New Year is the beginning, everyone wants to recharge, reset and re-energize to welcome new hope for the new year. It’s about family coming together and affirming the bond and the drive to work harder, make more money so that they can all have a more comfortable life.
When I was young, growing up in Canada, I thought all this was so corny and I often thought that these traditions were a waste of time. But I didn’t mind all the tasty food or the red envelopes! I can see now, now that I’m old and not as immature, it’s about family, friendships, joy, love and hope. This year, more than any other year, everyone needs more love and hope.
I remember when my mom made Sesame “Laughing” Balls 笑口棗, she made them every year. She would get a bit sad when hers didn’t crack open very much. She didn’t say, but she would worry that it would mean we’d have a bad year. What she didn’t know was that she could’ve just added some baking soda! Temperature of the oil is also a factor.
Sesame “Laughing” Balls 笑口棗 are super fun snacks. Yummy too! Everyone should definitely welcome the New Year with these super happy laughing balls! They’re easy to make and I’ll show you how to make them laugh!
Check out my Chinese New Year 101 page to see more recipes and read more about the traditions.
If you like to deep-fry once in a while, consider getting a digital thermometer. I can now accurately determine the temperature of the oil before putting my food into it. Now, it’s so easy to get perfect results each time. No more guessing when the oil is ready. If you’re interested, check out the one I got from Amazon.
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Sesame “Laughing” Balls 笑口棗
Ingredients
- 300 g All-purpose flour
- 120 g Sugar
- 2 g Baking powder (1/2 tsp)
- 1 g Baking soda (1/4 tsp)
- 1 Egg
- 45 ml Oil
- 90 ml Water
- 60 g White sesame seeds
- 600 ml Oil for deep frying
Note: there are recipes that call for more baking soda and/or baking powder to almost guarantee that the sesame balls will crack open a lot. I purposely used smaller amounts so that you don’t get the baking soda residual taste. I offset the amount of baking soda with the lowering and the raising of the oil temperature to get the sesame balls to crack open
Instructions
- Combine 300g of all-purpose flour, 1 g baking powder and 2 g baking soda in a mixing bowl and mix well
- Add 120 g sugar, 1 egg and 45 ml oil into the mixing bowl. Mix until clumpy
- Add 90 ml water and mix with your hands and knead only until you can form a ball with the dough. If the dough is too wet, add some more flour
It should look like it has cracks in it. You don’t want to overwork the dough since we want the balls to turn out more crumbly than chewy. The kneading should take about 5 minutes - Put the dough ball into the mixing bowl, cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 15 minutes
- After 15 minutes, sprinkle a flat surface with some four and cut the dough ball in half.
- Put one half back into the mixing bowl and cover
- Make a ball with the other half, flatten the ball slightly, and make a hole in the middle of the ball
- Stretch the dough to make a ring.
- Make a horizontal cut on the ring and roll it on a flat surface until the dough has an even diameter. Approx. 3 cm diameter
- Cut into 10 g pieces
- Roll each piece into a ball with the palms of your hands
- Put 60 g of sesame seeds into a bowl
- Prepare a bowl with some water. Enough to cover the balls
- Put a few balls into the water. Quickly remove them and put them into the sesame seed bowl
- Cover each ball completely with sesame seeds. Use a spoon to help
- Roll each ball again using your palms to press the sesame seeds into the dough and put onto a plate
- Repeat steps 13 to 15 until all the dough is used
- Pour 600 ml oil into a pot (or you can use a deep fryer)
You can use a bigger pot and more oil to reduce the number of batches to fry - Heat the oil to approx. 150˚C or 300˚F. Turn off the heat
This will prevent the ball from hardening too quickly on the outside. Once it hardens, it’ll be difficult for the air inside the balls to crack open the dough - Add the sesame balls to the pot. The balls will expand, so try not to overcrowd the pot
- Turn the heat back on to medium after 3 minutes. The balls should have floated up to the surface of the oil and started to crack open
- Keep frying at around 120˚C or 250˚F for around 5 minutes
frying at a low temperature will help them crack open more - Then turn the heat to medium high for approx. 1-2 minutes to get the perfect golden colour
- Remove the balls from the oil and put them on a cooling rack
- Repeat until all the sesame balls have been fried
- After frying, let them cool for 15 minutes before serving
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