Sticky Rice Balls (Tangyuan)

I grew up eating glutinous/sticky rice ball or tangyuan. My mom would usually buy them frozen in the Chinese grocery store. We usually eat tangyuan during the lantern (yuanxiao festival- 元宵节) festival. Lantern festival marks the end of the Chinese new year which is the fifteenth of the first lunar month. Traditionally Glutinous or sticky rice balls represent togetherness and reunion. That’s why it’s eaten on holidays with family at weddings, winter solstice festival etc.

What is tangyuan?

Tangyuan is essentially a glutinous or sticky rice dough and it’s filled with a sweet filling. The typical filling is usually sesame and sugar, sweet red bean paste, peanuts and sugar. Now I do want to preface in saying that while tangyuan is widely eaten all throughout China, tangyuan’s origin is from Southern China. In Northern China, we eat yuanxiao (if you remember lantern festival is called yuanxiao festival).

Yuanxiao vs. Tanyuan? Both are sticky rice balls

Yuanxiao and tang yuan are essentially the same. Both are made from glutinous rice flour but where it differs is the method of making the sticky rice balls.

For yuanxiao, a filling is shaped into a ball, dipped in water and then dipped in glutinous rice flour to coat the filling. Then it’s repeated until the whole filling is covered in glutinous rice flour. They are typically a bit bigger than tangyuan.

Tangyuan on the other hand is by mixing the glutinous rice flour with water to form a dough and then you put the filling into the dough and seal it up.

Fillings for sticky rice balls

Fillings for tangyuan is typically sweet. For Chinese and asian cooking in general, we like to keep it slightly sweet so we choose ingredients that are not typically sweet but can be sweetened. These ingredients include black sesame, red bean, peanuts, walnuts or other nuts.

For this recipe I’m going to be making red bean and black sesame filling. The red bean filling is I’m using is my red bean paste recipe featured on my previous blog post. The black sesame is just made from roasted black sesame seeds, sugar and butter (typically it’s made with lard but I don’t have any in my house).

• Red bean filling: you can either make red bean paste from scratch and I have a recipe on this blog. If you don’t want to make it, you can buy red bean paste. You may need to freeze store bought red bean paste slightly so it firms up before you divide and shape them.
• Black sesame filling: roasted black sesame seeds need to be grounded, then sugar is added with butter, this will help black sesame filling stick together.

Steps to make it

First make the filling. For the sesame filling, roast some black sesame. Then grind the black sesame. Add sugar and melted butter (typically it would be lard). Mix together and form balls about 8-10g. Freeze it.

For the red bean paste, you can use homemade or store bought. The store bought is quite soft so if you use it, you can either squeeze it into the glutinous rice flour or freeze it slightly. Then form balls and freeze again.

Make the sticky/glutinous rice dough with glutinous rice flour and hot water. You want to have hot water to slightly cook the glutinous rice flour. This way it doesn’t break and you can stretch it. Once you mix the glutinous rice flour and hot water together, set aside. Take the black sesame and/or red paste filling out of freezer.

Break the glutinous rice flour dough into about 20g and roll into balls. Then flatten the balls into disc, then place the filling into the middle of the glutinous rice flour. Wrap the glutinous rice flour around the filling.

To cook the Tang yuan:

To cook, boil some water. Once the water boils, put the tang yuan into the water, stir occasionally to prevent the tang yuan sinking and sticking to the pot. Once it floats, you can take it out. To make a soup, you can add some cornstarch water to the water you used to boil the tang yuan to make a thicker soup. You can also add some osmanthus syrup or a little bit of honey. You can also use some Chinese sweet rice wine.

Pro-tip:

• Use hot water (80C or 176F) when mixing the glutinous rice flour. It cooks the glutinous rice flour so it has elasticity and easier to work with.
• When cooking the tang yuan, stir occasionally to prevent sticking to the pot at the bottom.