Tang yuans are probably my favorite Chinese dessert ever! I always grew up buying them in the freezer section of the Asian grocery store, but now I can make them at home and so much better!
The filling is made up of all kinds of nuts. The traditional ones you buy at the store are just black sesame, but I like adding more to the filling! That is the beauty of making these at home, you can add whatever ingredients you like! The two flavors I choose were black sesame and peanut sesame!
If you are unfamiliar with tang yuans, they have a mochi like texture! In fact, the dough is made with the exact same ingredients as mochi dough. All that is different is that the mochi dough is cooked before wrapping the filling, and the tang yuan dough cooks in boiling water after wrapping the filling.
Spice Grinder
You will most definitely needs a spice grinder or coffee bean grinder because it makes all your nuts and seeds into a super fine powder. I got mine off amazon, and I use it to make oat flour, strawberry puree, and a bunch of other things!
Key ingredients for these tang yuans
- Sesame seeds
- I used both black sesame and white sesame seeds. Make sure to toast them over medium heat before blending!
- Nuts
- For the black sesame filing I used toasted pecans and pine nuts. For the white sesame filling I added roasted peanuts!
- Brown sugar
- I blended the brown sugar in my spice grinder to make powdered sugar! You can sub for coconut sugar or maple sugar to keep this recipe refined sugar free!
- Butter
- I used butter to make the filling flow more when you bite into it! I’ve made this recipe many different ways and adding a little bit of butter makes the filling extra luscious!
- Glutinous rice flour
- This ingredient is super important for the texture of the dough! You have to get the glutinous rice flour and not regular rice flour.
- Warm water
- It is super important to use warm water while mixing the dough. If not, the dough will be crumbly and it will be very hard to wrap around the filling.
Tang Yuans 2 Ways
Equipment
- Spice grinder
Ingredients
Dough
- 3 cups glutinous rice flour
- 1½ cup warm water
Black Sesame
- ½ cup toasted black sesame seeds
- ½ cup toasted pecans
- ⅓ cup toasted pine nuts
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- ⅓ cup powdered brown sugar can blend brown sugar
Peanut Sesame
- ½ cup toasted white sesame
- ¾ cup roasted peanuts
- ⅓ cup powdered brown sugar can blend brown sugar
- 2 tbsp melted butter
Instructions
- Start by toasting all the nuts and sesame seeds. Make sure you use medium to low heat so that they do not burn.
- For the black sesame filling, add the black sesame to the spice grinder and blend into a fine powder. Do the same for the pecans, pine nuts, and brown sugar.
- Add the black sesame, pecan, pine nuts, and brown sugar to a large mixing bowl. Mix everything together with the melted butter.
- For the peanut sesame filling add the white sesame to the spice grinder and blend into a fine powder. Do the same for the peanuts and brown sugar.
- Add the sesame, peanuts, and brown sugar to a large mixing bowl. Mix everything together with the melted butter.
- Place each of the fillings into a ziplock bag. Squeeze of all the air. Then flatten out the filing in the bag. Place in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
- When the filling is close to done chilling, make the dough. MIx together the glutinous rice flour and warm water with a wooden spoon or chopsticks. Once a dough has formed, kneed with your hands for 10-12 turns. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
- In the mean time, remove the filling from the freezer. Cut the ziplock bag off the filling. The filling should be one solid block. Cut each filling block into 49 equal pieces. Take each cube and roll into a sphere. Keep these in the freezer for as long as possible so they hold their shape.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and split it into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a long log shape, and cup the log into individual wrappers (about 18g each).
- Make a well into the wrapper with your thumb, and place a filing ball in the center. Wrap and seal the dough inside the wrapper.
- Repeat until all the wrappers are used.
- Boil a pot of water. Then cook the tang yuans for 5-8 minutes (cook for an additional minutes once they start floating).
- Enjoy!
