Black Sesame Tang Yuan is nutty, sweet, soft and chewy. These Chinese glutinous rice balls are served in a comforting sweet ginger soup to warm up your soul.
What is tang yuan?
Tang yuan is a Chinese dessert of glutinous rice balls, which usually contain a filling. The common tang yuan flavours you’ll find are peanut, black sesame or red bean. Tang yuan can also be savoury, or contain no filling at all. It’s usually served in boiled water or in a sweet soup.
This dessert is usually eaten during the Lantern Festival (the last day of Lunar New Year), the Winter Solstice Festival as well as family reunions or special social gatherings.
The black sesame filling
Many black sesame tang yuan recipes call for actual black sesame seeds that need to be toasted and ground up into a fine powder. This really brings out the nuttiness and aroma of the seeds.
But not everyone has the time, or a good food processor/blender to go through that process (a.k.a me) so I used black sesame powder! It’s much quicker, but still really delicious.
The sweet ginger soup
I’ve actually never had tang yuan in plain boiled water. My grandma always makes this sweet ginger soup to go with tang yuan. It’s really comforting to bite into a soft and chewy ball of tang yuan, and then sip on the gingery broth!
I also added pandan leaves to the soup for a little extra something 🙂
If you liked this recipe, here are a few more Malaysian desserts you’ll enjoy:
- Fried Nian Gao Sweet Potato Yam Sandwiches | v + gf
- Steamed Nian Gao W/ Shredded Coconut | v + gf + of
- Gulab Jamun | v + gf
- Snow Skin Mooncake With Purple Sweet Potato Filling/紫薯冰皮月饼
- Chinese Pumpkin Cakes/南瓜饼 | v + gf
If you made this recipe, do leave a comment and rating below because I love hearing your feedback. Make sure to tag me on Instagram @eatwkriss so that I can see your recreations!
Black Sesame Tang Yuan | v + gf
Ingredients
Sweet ginger soup
- 4 cups water
- 3 stalks pandan
- 40 g young ginger
- 45 g granulated sugar more or less to taste
Black sesame paste
- 40 g black sesame powder
- 10 g granulated sugar
- 30 ml coconut oil
Tang yuan
- 120 g glutinous rice flour
- 120 ml warm water
Instructions
Cook sweet ginger soup
- Knot each pandan leaf to get three knots. In a small pot, add in all the ingredients for the soup. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20-30 minutes.
Make tang yuan
- In a small bowl, mix together black sesame powder, sugar and coconut oil until you get a thick paste. Freeze for 10 minutes.
- Divide the black sesame paste into 1 tsp balls and refrigerate until ready to assemble.
- In a small bowl, mix together glutinous rice flour and water until a soft malleable dough forms. Divide the dough into 20g each. Cover with a damp cloth to prevent the dough from drying out.
- Using your thumb, create a hole in the middle and place a ball of black sesame paste in. Pinch the dough around the sides to seal.
Cook tang yuan
- Bring a small pot of water to a rolling boil. Place the black sesame tang yuan in and cook for 5 minutes or until the ball starts to float.
- Place the tang yuan in a small serving bowl and immediately pour the sweet ginger soup over to prevent them from sticking to one another. Serve warm.
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