rachel_loaf

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Kitchen Essentials

Tangyuan are typically eaten in the winter for Winter Solstice or around the new year. Though tangyuan can be sweet or savory, I grew up with the sweet kind. They're sticky, chewy rice balls (similar to mochi) stuffed with a sweet and served in a sweet dessert broth. Most traditionally this is a hot, amber-hued ginger and brown sugar concoction.

If you want to dye your tangyuan, see the notes section for details on the natural dyes that I use.


A note on servings: 
Each recipe in this guide makes enough for 20 tangyuan balls. If making a "half and half" batch of black sesame and peanut, I recommend making the full recipe for each and finishing up to scooping & rolling the filling. This way you can freeze any leftover filling balls to use later. If you decrease the filling recipe too much, the food processor may have trouble grinding the smaller quantity of ingredients. 20 balls should feed anywhere from 5-7 people.

Complete Tangyuan Guide — Black Sesame and Peanut Coconut Fillings (Naturally Vegan + GF)

Place the glutinous rice flour in a medium sized bowl and drizzle in the boiling water, distributing it evenly around the bowl. Mix by hand with a fork or dough whisk** until shaggy but homogenous (it'll still be very dry).

Drizzle the room temperature water over the rice flour mixture and continue mixing with a fork or dough whisk until the dough uniformly clumps up into the size of small pebbles.

Using your hand, continue to mix and knead the dough until it forms a very smooth dough that feels similar to Play-Doh — it shouldn't be sticky or dry. If it's too sticky, add additional glutinous rice flour 1/2 tsp at a time, mixing well after each addition, until you achieve the right texture. If it's too dry and cracks when rolling or pressing it into a flat shape, gently wet your fingertips with some room temperature water and continue kneading. Repeat until you achieve the correct texture.

Wrap completed dough in plastic wrap or in a Zip-Loc bag until ready to use. Dough will dry out very easily/quickly if not sealed properly. If you're not going to make your tangyuan within a couple of hours, refrigerate sealed dough for up to 2 days.

If you want to dye your dough for colorful tangyuan, you can experiment with natural dyes: turmeric (yellow), matcha powder (green), beet root powder (red/pink), charcoal powder (black), butterfly pea powder (blue).

Pour the sesame seeds into a heavy pan and toast on the stovetop on medium heat until fragrant, about 5-7 minutes. Be careful to keep an eye (or nose) on these because they can burn quickly, and their dark color makes it hard to see visually. When in doubt, toast these less versus more — a burnt flavor will overpower the tangyuan. Immediately pour toasted sesame seeds onto a plate so they don't continue cooking in the pan, and set aside to cool.

Diamond kosher salt (half as much if using a different brand) 

Add cooled sesame seeds, granulated sugar, and salt to a food processor and grind until the seeds are uniformly broken down to a powder the size of coarse sand.

Add the coconut oil and continue pulsing until you reach a paste consistency. You can experiment with blending a bit longer or shorter to achieve more or less texture in your final tangyuan, but be careful to stop before the mixture turns too liquidy as the sesame seeds release more oil.

Transfer filling to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Once the filling has firmed up, scoop 7g balls (about the size of the circumference of a penny) with a small cookie scooper or 2 spoons. Roll balls quickly between your hands (do not overwork, as they will start to melt if handled too much) and put them on a parchment lined plate. If the filling is too sticky or starts to melt, refrigerate for another 15 minutes or until you reach a firm, but workable state.

Cover and freeze until ready to use. They may also be refrigerated, but freezing will give you some extra wiggle room during the assembly process.

If you don't have time to scoop and roll your filling until later, you can refrigerate the filling in a covered bowl up to several days until you're ready to use it. It will just be a bit harder to scoop, so you may need to let it warm up a little bit on the counter first.

In a heavy pan, toast the peanuts over medium heat until fragrant but not very browned, about 5-7 minutes. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don't burn. As soon as they reach the desired level of toastiness, transfer immediately to a plate to ensure they don't continue cooking. Set aside to cool.

Diamond kosher salt (half as much if using a different brand)

Add cooled peanuts, sugar, salt, and shredded coconut to the bowl of a food processor. Blitz until the peanuts uniformly reach the texture of coarse sand.

Add the coconut oil and pulse until the mixture reaches a thick paste consistency. Be careful to not over-process this mixture — the peanuts will become very oily very quickly if over-processed, and you want to maintain a thicker filling. You can experiment with just how coarse/"crunchy" you want your peanut filling to be, but do not try to achieve a "smooth" peanut butter texture as this will not work for tangyuan.

Add the water to a medium sized pot and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, peel the ginger with a spoon, knife, or peeler, and cut into 1/4" thick slices.

Add the ginger to the boiling water and simmer for 30 minutes up to an hour. The ginger flavor will intensify and become more "spicy" as you cook.

Add the brown sugar (more or less can be added, to taste), along with the salt.

Just before serving, remove the ginger slices and strain the broth if you'd like for it to be extra clear (there shouldn't be too much debris from the ginger though).

Working with the dough still covered in plastic, tear off a 10-12 gram piece of dough (about the size of the diameter of a quarter). I prefer to wear latex or nitrile gloves during this process, but you can definitely do this bare-handed as well. Work the dough in your hands a little bit, especially if it's been chilling, and roll into a smooth ball with no creases. If it's creasing or cracking, refer back to the instructions on the dough recipe to see how to remedy this. Note that a larger dough ball will be easier to work with but will result in a thicker tangyuan, so you can experiment with size preference.

Flatten the dough ball into a small pancake shape, about 1/4" thick. The goal here is *not* to get the dough as thin as possible.

Take a chilled or frozen filling ball and place it at the center of the dough pancake. Working quickly but carefully, gently wrap the filling ball up with the dough, pushing the dough up to the top of the ball until you can see no more filling. It's very important that the filling is *completely* enclosed or the tangyuan will break open during cooking (they'll still be edible but significantly less pretty). Be careful to not over-handle the filling, as it will melt from your body heat if over-handled and become a sticky mess. If this happens, it's best to abandon that tangyuan and try again, as it will be difficult to save.

Roll the ball between your palms until it's completely smooth with no seams or creases. Set aside under plastic, not touching any other tangyuan (they'll stick to one another) until ready to use.

To cook: bring a medium sized pot of water to a boil. Gently add 3-4 tangyuan at a time (you can probably do more than this at once but I prefer to make tangyuan to order so it doesn't get too chaotic). They will sink to the bottom of the pot. You can very gently stir the water to make sure they don't stick to the pot, but you only need to do this once. Tangyuan will float once they're ready to eat. Carefully scoop them out of the water and serve them in about 1/2 cup of ginger broth. Enjoy hot.