Tang Yuan with Black Sesame Filling

This tang yuan recipe consists of a delightfully springy glutinous rice ball, filled with a sweet and nutty black sesame paste that also provides textural contrast. All of this is eaten in a lightly sweet soup. In just a few simple steps, I'll show you how to make the best tasting tang yuan that's much better than the frozen ones from your Asian grocery store!

Tang yuan (湯圓) is a type of traditional treat enjoyed by Chinese people during the Winter Solstice Festival (冬至) and Lantern Festival (元宵節). It's made using sticky rice and may or may not contain filling.

In Taiwan, we have many different kinds of tang yuan flavors. Apart from the classic black sesame and peanut flavors, there are now many novel flavors like matcha, red bean, caramel candy, chocolate, strawberry, and even boba tea! There's also savory versions with meat filling, just like dumplings.

I remember when I was a kid, my mom would often make sweet tang yuan soup with Jiu Niang (sweet fermented rice) for breakfast on cold winter days. After finishing a bowl of warm tang yuan soup, I was warmed up and energized to start my day in school!

Why You Should Try This Recipe

• Homemade tang yuan taste a lot better than store bought ones.
• It's pretty easy to make at home, and it can be a fun activity with family and friends, especially during the holidays.
• You won't get lost with my easy to follow photos and instructions.
• Extra tang yuan will freeze well with my instructions.

Ingredients You'll need

Notes

• Glutinous rice flour - This flour needs to be very fine. Look for the green package or ones with a picture of Tang Yuan.
• Butter - You can replaced this with coconut oil or lard, which is what is traditionally used.
• Black sesame - Use roasted black sesame seeds. If you get the raw ones, simply toast them first in a skillet with medium heat until the shape of black sesame seeds become puffier and start popping up.
• Brown sugar - I use Taiwanese style brown sugar, which has a bit of a smoky flavor with darker color. You can also replace this with regular dark brown sugar or coconut sugar.

How to Make These Tang Yuans

1. Make the black sesame filling.

Grind black sesame seeds and sugar in a food processer until they achieve a sandy texture before adding butter and mixing until the mixture becomes a paste. Store the paste in the freezer while working on the dough.

2. Make the glutinous rice dough.

In a small sauce pan , bring two cups of water to a boil.

while the water is heating, pour water into a bowl with glutinous rice flour, stir until the water is absorbed by the flour. Squeeze and form a small piece of dough ball (around 1.5" diameter), press it flat and cook it in the boiling water until the dough floats.

Add the cooked dough back to the flour mixture along with vegetable oil and let it cool down a bit before kneading it into the mixture. Continue to knead until the dough is soft and smooth. Cover with a damp towel to prevent it from drying out.

3. Prepare the filling and dough

Separate the filling into 20 portions and roll them into small balls. Cover and store in the freezer while working on the dough.

Cut the glutinous rice dough into 20 little pieces and roll into balls.

4. Assemble the tang yuan.

Now comes the fun part! To assemble the tang yuan, flatten a dough ball to form a round wrap with the edges thinner than the center. Place a piece of black sesame filling in the middle and wrap the dough around the filling. Finally, roll the tang yuan with your hand to form a ball, and that's it!

Now you can decide if you want to cook your tang yuan right away or freeze them to enjoy later.

To freeze the tang yuan, I like to coat them with some glutinous rice flour before putting them in a zip lock bag. Line the bag on a tray and make some space between the tang yuan (so they won't stick together when freezing) and then store in the freezer. Once the tang yuan becomes harder, you can remove the tray as they won't stick together anymore now that they've hardened.

5. Cooking instruction.

To cook the tang yuan, simply bring a pot of water to a boil, place the Tang Yuan in the water carefully, maintain a gentle boil and cook until the tang yuans float.

Meanwhile, make the brown sugar ginger soup by boiling water, brown sugar and ginger together.

When the tang yuan is done cooking, serve a couple in bowl with the soup and enjoy!

Tips and Tricks

• Precooking a small amount of the dough not only helps the dough to be easier to work with but also improves the texture. The tang yuan will still taste yummy and chewy even when it's cold.
• If you prefer very smooth and oozy filling, blend the black sesame seeds as fine as you can and replace the sugar with powdered sugar. You can also try using sesame paste for an ultra smooth texture, although wrapping this as filling would be more difficult.
• If you don't have a food processor, replace the black sesame seeds with black sesame powder (about ½ cup + 1 tbsp), and replace the sugar with powdered sugar. Soften the butter before mixing it with all other filling ingredients. 
• Cover any glutinous rice dough that you are not working on to keep them from drying out. If the dough became dry and starts cracking, simply apply a bit of water with your hand.
• If working in a warmer area, take only part of the black sesame filling out first to assemble and more out once you are finish, to prevent the filling from becoming too soft and hard to wrap.  
• Cook or freeze the tang yuan right after you are done making them to maintain their freshness.
• To make a vegan version of this recipe, simply replace the butter with coconut oil.

Recipe FAQs

Wish you all have lots of fun making this recipe!

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