An important and auspicious recipe to make during the Lantern Festival is Tang Yuan (汤圆), or Yuan Xiao (元宵). It’s a food that symbolizes harmony and reunion.
What Is the Lantern Festival?
The Lantern Festival is the 15th day of Chinese New Year, which falls on February 22nd this year. It’s also the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration. Houses and alleys are ornamented with hundreds of well-lit lanterns of all sizes, shapes, and colors.
The streets are filled with performers on stilts, dragon dancers, street entertainers, and food vendors, a celebratory pandemonium that’s an expression of hope for a healthy and prosperous New Year.
We experienced this festive atmosphere firsthand when visiting a Chengdu Temple fair while living in China for a few years. It was a memorable experience, and we were glad that we braved the infamous Chinese New Year travel migrations and overcrowded train stations to get there!
The Process of Making Tang Yuan
In the old days, making tang yuan was a huge project that required plenty of hard labor. First, you needed to locate a heavy stone grinder, usually by borrowing one from another family. Then you’d have to soak the sweet glutinous rice overnight.
The next day, you would hand-grind the sweet rice along with water, ONE SPOONFUL AT A TIME by feeding it through the small hole on top of the grinder. The watery liquid was collected, then transferred to a thick cotton cloth sack.
The sack was hung or weighed down by the stone grinder overnight to strain all the water out. What was left in the morning was the dough. Two days in…only halfway done.
So it’s on to the tang yuan filling: roast the sesame seeds, crush them using a rolling pin, and add in sugar and fat. Yep. pork suet was used in traditional sweet black sesame balls.
With cold temperatures this time of year and no indoor heating, kneading solid fat into a paste takes a long time, plus some strong muscles.
I don’t want to scare you out of making these tang yuan, but I do want to point out that with a food processor and store-bought sweet rice flour, this recipe is easy-peasy compared to the way it was made in the past!
Additional Recipe Notes:
In order to make this the traditional way, I ran around looking for pork suet, but, alas, we live in a different time. Our local supermarket sells beef suet, and I tried it out.
Like a good recipe developer, I’ve made three different kinds of fillings: one with beef suet, one with butter, and one with coconut oil. The beef suet lost the competition, because it’s too messy to work with.
Interestingly, though, the beef suet did not make the filling taste meaty at all. Coconut oil is a good option for vegans, but it does have a strong coconut flavor. So, butter was the winner. Bonus: it’s widely available.
Some important tips:
- You must use caster sugar to achieve the right filling texture!
- If you use decide to use coconut oil, the filling will harden when stored in the refrigerator, but it will soften back up at room temperature.
- Use roasted black sesame seeds. To roast your own sesame seeds, place a clean, dry wok over medium low heat, add the sesame seeds, and stir continuously for 7-8 minutes, until fragrant. Allow to cool completely.
- The tang yuan dough recipe makes about one dozen sesame balls (four servings). The filling recipe makes about four dozen. You can store leftover filling in the refrigerator––it will be good for a month or two, and you can make more dough whenever you want to enjoy them fresh.
Tang Yuan Recipe Instructions
In a food processor or blender, finely grind the roasted black sesame seeds. Add the caster sugar (AKA superfine sugar) and use a spatula to mix together in the food processor a bit. Then add the butter and pulse for 10 seconds at a time until the mixture is well combined.
Scoop everything out into a bowl and put in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. The purpose of this cooling process is to harden the mixture slightly for easy handling later.
While the filling is cooling, make the dough. Put the sweet rice flour into a mixing bowl. Slowly add in the warm water, while stirring to form a dough. The dough can’t be too wet, or it will not hold its shape. Cover with a damp towel.
Now boil some water in a small pot, take out a small piece of the dough, about 1” in diameter. Add it to the boiling water and cook the piece of dough until it floats. Scoop it out and add it to the rest of the dough. Mix the two parts together until the dough is soft and smooth.
Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces (about 18 grams each, if you want to be really exacting), and roll them into balls. Keep the dough and dough balls covered with a damp paper towel while assembling.
Take out the filling after it’s cooled for 30 minutes. It should be slightly hard, but still workable. Roll the tang yuan filling into small marble-sized balls, about 4 to 5 grams each.
Then take each dough ball and flatten into a circle about 2 inches in diameter. Add the filling to the center, and close the dough over the filling.
Roll the ball around in your hands until it’s smooth and round. Repeat until all the sesame balls are made. Cover the remaining filling and return to the refrigerator for later!
While you are assembling, bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the sesame balls and stir immediately to prevent them from sticking. Adding the sesame balls will cool down the water temperature significantly, so once the water comes back up to a boil, add a 1/2 cup of water to the pot.
Repeat this step two more times. This cooking process will allow enough time for the sugar and butter to melt nicely into a smooth filling. Serve the sesame balls in a bit of the hot cooking water in nice porcelain bowls and soup spoons!
Tang Yuan (Sweet Rice Balls with Black Sesame Filling)
Ingredients
- 2 oz. roasted black sesame seeds (57g)
- 3 oz. caster sugar (85g, about 1/3 cup)
- 6 tablespoons softened butter (not melted!)
- 1 cup sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour, plus more for dusting)
- 1/2 cup warm water
Instructions
- In a food processor or blender, finely grind the sesame seeds. Add the caster sugar and use a spatula to mix together in the food processor a bit. Then add the butter and pulse for 10 seconds at a time until the mixture is well combined. Scoop everything out into a bowl and put in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. The purpose of this cooling process is to harden the mixture slightly for easy handling later.
- While the filling is cooling, make the dough. Put the sweet rice flour into a mixing bowl. Slowly add in the warm water, while stirring to form a dough. The dough can’t be too wet, or it will not hold its shape. Cover with a damp towel.
- Now boil some water in a small pot, take out a small piece of the dough, about 1” in diameter. Add it to the boiling water and cook the piece of dough until it floats. Scoop it out and add it to the rest of the dough. Mix the two parts together until the dough is soft and smooth. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces (about 18 grams each, if you want to be really exacting), and roll them into balls. Keep the dough and dough balls covered with a damp paper towel while assembling.
- Take out the filling after it’s cooled for 30 minutes. It should be slightly hard, but still workable. Roll the filling into small marble-sized balls, about 4 to 5 grams each. Then take each dough ball and flatten into a circle about 2 inches in diameter. Add the filling to the center, and close the dough over the filling. Roll the ball around in your hands until it's smooth and round. Repeat until all the sesame balls are made. Cover the remaining filling and return to the refrigerator for later!
- While you are assembling, bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the sesame balls and stir immediately to prevent them from sticking. Adding the sesame balls will cool down the water temperature significantly, so once the water comes back up to a boil, add a 1/2 cup of water to the pot. Repeat this step two more times. This cooking process will allow enough time for the sugar and butter to melt nicely into a smooth filling. Serve the sesame balls in a bit of the hot cooking water!
Tips & Notes:
nutrition facts
Can you use the black sesame filling for your red bean paste bread? Or will this filling ooze out of the bread during baking?
Hi Candice, you are right, but you can use it for a closed bun like this one: Chinese BBQ Pork Buns (Baked Cha Siu Bao Recipe).
amazing!! best tang yuan I have ever tried
Lovely!
Could these be frozen and then boiled?
Hi Liana, you can freeze them, then boil. Just make sure they are well covered and sealed to prevent them from drying out in the freezer.
What is the purpose of putting the cooked dough in? It made my dough very sticky and hard to handle
Hi ATC, this little technique is to prevent the rice balls from breaking open during cooking.
Hi Maggie! I do not have caster sugar – Can I use regular white sugar? And if I already have black sesame powder to start with, should I just add 2 ounces of the powder in the blender with the sugar? Thanks!
I’ve used regular granulated white sugar before and it worked out fine! It just results in a grainier texture; it’s up to you if you’re okay with that.
I know you posted months ago so this may be a moot point for you but for anyone else wondering about caster sugar which can be hard to find in North America, you can blitz your regular granulated sugar in a food processor for a few pulses and that will give you the consistency of caster sugar. Don’t let it go too long or you’ll end up with powdered sugar.
Thank you for sharing, Elyne.
Hi! Going to give this a try :) Just wanted to ask for the butter, is it unsalted or salted butter?
Hi Beth, either one is fine, but the salted butter might be better, just like we put salt in sweet baked goods.
my dough was hard to work with – having said that it was my first time ever cooking with glutinous flour!
the flour kept crumbling (but it helped when i floured my hand to roll the ball it kind of helped).
i found the sesame filling too buttery – if i make it again, i will add less butter.
Hi Teresa, a crumbly dough means it was not hydrated enough – add more water until the dough is soft and pliable.
Hi, thank you for sharing your recipe. I used glutinous rice flour but the texture of the dough turns out thick, abit hard and chewy instead of soft to bite. Tried my best to roll out the skin as thin as possible before i wrapped the fillings.
Do I need to knead the dough for very long? will cooking time affect the texture of the skin? I wonder where I could have gone wrong.
Hi Serene, kneading the dough is not required, but resting is essential. It’s possible that your dough did not have enough water. Glutinous rice flour can get very dry, so add a little more water next time.
Can I use Mochiko rice flour for this recipe?
Hi Eve, I believe so.
Thank you for the great recipe! I enjoyed making Tang Yuan while under the lockdown in the US. It made my day. :)
How great is that––I am glad you enjoyed it.