Sesame “Laughing” Balls 笑口棗

Auntie Emilys Kitchen-Sesame Laughing Balls2

I made 50 of these yummy sesame balls with this recipe. Each ball was around 10-12 grams.

You can make them bigger or smaller, just adjust the cooking time.

They can last for around 3 days in a container. Any longer than that, I find the texture loses its crispiness. But you can always put them in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes and they will crisp up again.

Approximate cost (CAD) $5

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Add to Collection

Prep Time 50

Cook Time 30

Total Time 1 20

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine Chinese

Servings Servings

Calories 942 kcal

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

Nutrition

Calories: 942kcalCarbohydrates: 45gProtein: 6gFat: 83gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 57mgPotassium: 83mgFiber: 2gSugar: 15gVitamin A: 30IUCalcium: 90mgIron: 3mg

Keyword Chinese New Year, CNY, Deep Fried, Dessert, Sesame

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!