Tangyuan are a warm, indulgent dessert that our mom would cook us as a treat after dinner. They’re traditionally enjoyed as part of Lantern Festival festivities, near the end of Chinese New Year. Others will typically have either sesame-filled tangyuan on their own, or unfilled tangyuan with sweet rice wine, but we love the decadence of both the filling and rice wine together.

Ingredients
  • 45g black sesame powder
  • 30g sugar
  • 50g melted butter (sub vegetable oil
    for dairy-free option)
  • 100g glutinous rice flour
  • 75ml water
Sesame filling:
  1. In a bowl, combine sesame powder, sugar, and melted butter until it becomes a paste.
  2. Refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes to harden it.
  3. Take the mixture out of the fridge. Make small balls out of the mixture, about 10g each. Arrange on a tray and place into freezer until frozen.
Wrapper:
  1. Combine glutinous rice flour with water to make a dough.
  2. Make small balls out of the dough. For each, flatten into a disc and wrap around a ball of sesame filling.
Cooking:
  1. In a pot, bring water to a boil. Turn down the heat and add tangyuan to the pot. Once water comes to a boil again, add some cold water and let it cook for a few more minutes. When the water comes to a boil again, the tangyuan are done.
  2. Serve in bowls of warm water, with optional additions of sweet rice wine, ginger powder, and osmanthus sugar.