Chocolate Coated Butter Biscuits for the Neighbours

My daughters wanted to distribute biscuits to the neighbours for Christmas, so I baked some heart shape butter biscuits for that purpose.

Since I have some cooking chocolate at home, I dipped half of the biscuit in melted chocolate as decoration and also stuck ice cream sticks in to a couple of them (it was difficult to stick sticks into the biscuits as they were going soft very quickly even though I'd refrigerated the dough to harden it) which the girls then called them lollipop biscuits.

♥Butter Biscuit ♥
adapted from Baking by James Peterson

You'll need :

2 3/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
268g butter
1 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk

Method :

1) Mix the flour, baking powder & salt in a bowl.
2) Cream the butter with sugar and vanilla until fluffy.
3) Beat in the egg and egg yolk.
4) Sift the flour mixture over the butter mixture. Combine with a wooden spoon until it's well combined and there's no loose flour.
5) Roll the dough between baking paper into a rectangle about 1/8 or 1/4 inch thick. Refrigerate until cold.
6) When dough is cold, cut it into desired shapes. Put the biscuit on baking paper in a tray and refrigerate.
7) Preheat oven to 325F (160C).
8) Bake biscuit for 15 to 20mins until very pale brown.
9) Let cool until set then transfer to wire rack.

To coat the biscuit with chocolate:

1) Heat a pot of water on low heat.
2) Cut desired amount of chocolate into pieces and place in a bowl.
3) Put the bowl of chocolate into the pot of simmering water, and melt the chocolate
. 4) Dip the cool biscuit (whole or partially) into the melted chocolate and leave the biscuit on wire rack or baking paper to allow the chocolate to harden before storing.
The girls help to distribute the chocolate biscuits to the kids around the neighbourhood, and kept the 'lollipop biscuits for themselves.

A Stack of Pancakes

I have always made my pancakes using estimated measurement and ingredients. I.e. some flour, some milk, some sugar, an egg or two, some water. When I cooked them, I used a little bit of oil or butter. The results? Sometimes they turned out ok, sometimes they turned out not bad, i.e. not consistent.

Then I came across this recipe from Annie Bell Gorgeous Cakes. I tried it once, and boy, now, I use it all the time.

These pancakes are my daughters' favourite breakfast (for now), but I could only make them when there's no morning rush, i.e. where I could spend time in the kitchen cooking them.

♥Pancakes♥
adapted from Annie Bell Gorgeous Cakes
(makes 16~18 pancakes)

You'll need :

250g plain flour
castor sugar
pinch of sea salt
3 eggs and 2 egg yolks
600ml full cream milk
40g unsalted butter, melted

Method : (I use the blender since it's easier, but you can also do the same by hand)

1) Place all ingredients except for the butter in a blender and whizz until smooth (make sure no flour is clining on the side of bottom of the blender)
2) Leave the batter to stand for 30mins (I'd not actually have time to let it stand, since 2 hungry faces are always peeping into the kitchen to check when the pancakes are ready), then stir in the melted butter.
3) Heat a non stick frying pan the size you want the pancakes to be (mine is about 18cm).
4) Ladle in just enough batter to coat the base (no need to oil the pan), tipping it to allow it to run evenly over the surface.
5) Cook for 30seconds on 1 side, then flip over and cook another 30seconds on the other side or until both sides are cooked, then slip it onto a plate.
6) Cook the remainder likewise.
(When I have cooked enough pancakes for the whole family, I'll put the rest of the batter into an airtight container and refrigerate it. Then the following morning, we can have pancakes again.)

My eldest likes hers with grated parmessan, and my younger one likes to dip hers into a plate of sugar. Yums! That's what they say.

My Best Bread Recipe

Life has been crazy for me. To think that I'll be less busy after the girls' school exams; not knowing there'll be the school talent time, the various events the girls' will be performing in, their involvement in all the different examinations I have signed them up for.

Anyway, despite the busy schedule, I'd been baking bread rather frequently, and this is the recipe I like using as it yields beautiful European style bread with crispy crust (when it's just out of the oven). It's my best recipe for this kind of bread.



♥Recipe adapted from Richard Bertinet♥

Ingredients:
For the ferment：
350g flour
180g water
1/2 tsp yeast

For the dough:
450g strong white flour
10g yeast
340g water
50g olive oil (I sometimes use avocado oil)
15g salt

Method :
For the ferment :
1) Mix ingredients for the ferment together (I use hand) for a bout 5mins until you have a rough dough.
2) Place in bowl, cover and leave it to rest 8hrs or overnight.

For the dough:
1) Put the flour in a mixing bowl and add in the yeast. Scoop the ferment into the bowl, then add the water, oil and salt, mixing well until all combined; knead for 4-5mins (I use the Thermomix and knead for 4mins; but you can use hand or a mixer with dough hoook).
2) Remove the dough, and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, forming it to a ball, cover
3) Leave it to rest for 1.5hrs
4) Flour your work surface generously with flour and turn the dough out in one piece. Divide the dough equally into 2 portion. Shape the 2 pieces of dough lightly and gently (it's very soft but supple) into a ball or loaf.
5)　I use proofing baskets, one longish and another round, so I shape one into round, and another into a loaf. Dust my proofing basket generously with flour, and gently place the dough into the baskets. (If you are not using a proofing baskets, you can place the formed dough onto your baking tray generously dusted with flour). Cover with tea towel and let the dough proof for 45mins to 1hr until double in size.
6) Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 240C. When the dough is ready, spray the inside of the oven with a water spray and then pour out the dough from the proofing basket onto the baking tray (heated). Turn down the heat to 220C and bake for 18~20mins.

And there, a nice airy loaf of bread with a crust.


Here are some photos on the ferment and the dough before it went into the oven.
The ferment at the initial stage.


The ferment after 12hours or more.


The ferment when pulled, lots of bubbles and elasticity.


Mixed dough with ferment.


Mixed dough after resting, which has doubled in bulk. (Photo taken with phone under low light, not so nicely taken)


Dough proofing in baskets.


Bread before entering the oven.

Absolutely Delicious Almond Cookies

I bought a pack of wholemeal almond flour from iHerb, and it was about to expire. Remember a recipe a friend shared with us a while back, I made some almond cookies with the flour.

A delicious, crumbly cookies, it's tough to stop munching on them once started.


♥Recipe For Almond Cookies (from Melyssa)♥

Ingredients
120g almond meal
180 flour
45g castor sugar
45g icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
120ml peanut oil (I used rice bran oil)

Method
Preheat oven to 180C.
Combined all the dry ingredients, then add in the oil to form a dough.
Shape them into small balls and bake for 15mins.

Simple and easy recipe and you'll get a lovely melt in the mouth cookies with nice almond taste.

Homemade Salted Vegetable / Hum Choy / Kiam Chai / 自腌咸菜

Nothing beats homemade.

After seeing some videos/posts on how salted/preserved vegetables were made commercially, I'd actually try to limit purchasing of salted or preserved vegetables.

So I decided to make my own using a simple recipe I got from Best-ever Cooking Of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia & The Philippines. This is the 2nd time I'm making it, the end result is a crunchy salted vegetable with no chemical after taste like those you get from store bought ones.

♥Recipe for Homemade Salted Vegetable♥

Ingredients
1/2 cup of rice (actually this can be any amount, just make the amount you will be eating as porridge for that day)
5 cups of water (adjust the quantity according to how much rice you'll be cooking, 'rice water' is what we'll need to preserve the mustard green, and it has to be enough to submerge the vegetable)
500g mustard greens
35g salt

Method
1. Wash the rice, bring to boil in a large pan with the water. Cover and simmer for 12 minutes. Drain the rice, saving the liquid and letting it cool. The rice itself is not used in this recipe, so you can have the porridge like rice as a meal served with another dishes).

2. Wash the mustard green in lots of water and dry thoroughly. Using a kitchen towel to pat each leave and stalk. It's important that they are fully dried.

3. Cut the mustard green into smaller stalks and mix with the salt in a non metallic bowl. Leave it for 30 minutes, then squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Salt will cling to the leaves.

4. Place mustard green into a jar, and pour over the completely cooled rice water, make sure the rice water submerge the leaves. Place the jar in a cool place for 4 to 7 days.

5. Drain the salted vegetable. Use immediately or store it in a container and refrigerate for later use. It can be stored up to a week in the fridge, but will taste better if used immediately. These homemade ones are not so salty, so you do not need to wash them before cooking or serving it straight as a dish.





Not too difficult right? The most tedious part of making this is the cleaning of the mustard green (they have lots of sand) and patting them completely dry.

Here are some photographs to document the steps.

Step 2 (Most tedious step) - Wash and pat them dry




Step 3 - Cut them, sprinkle with salt and let it sit for 30mins.

Cut the mustard greens

Mix with salt and leave for 30mins

After 30mins, the liquid in the mustard green will be drawn out

Step 4 - Place them in a jar with the rice water for 4 to 7 days.

Day 1

Day 7

Ready to eat

So how did we eat ours?

Cut a few stalks up and add into a bowl of noodle as condiment.


Stir friend them with chili, minced chicken with some salt and sugar, and drizzle a bit of soy sauce at the end.


(photos without watermark were taken from the phone, hence the bad quality)

Making Zong Zi (粽子) or Glutinous Rice Dumpling

I love to eat zong, probably because I love glutinous rice.

My early memory of zong was my Ah Ma's (maternal grandma for Hokkien), with black eyed peas and fatty pork, which is out of this world. I remember she made them all by herself during the Duan Wu (端午节）or the Dragon Boat Festival or as and when someone was visiting my uncles in Taiwan, and she wanted to bring them some.

I remember she would prepare the ingredient, put them in small little bowls, then she would sit on a stool, meticulously filling each one up and wrapping them into pyramid perfection.

As I spent my first 3 years of primary education living with my Ah Ma, my early childhood memory of food was her cooking. Her simple but delicious kon-loh-mee (干捞面）ladened with deep fried lard cubes and a sprinkle of ajinomoto; and her dried vege pork soup (菜干汤) were some of the best food I'd tasted. Her bak zhang (Hokkien for pork zong zi) was also a legacy, no other zong zi I'd tasted later are up to par.

My Ah Ma has passed away many years now due to her grief for the loss of my mum (who lost her fight with cancer). I didn't learn up her bak zhang's recipe, as I wasn't interested in cooking back then, when both the family's greatest chefs were still around. My loss really.

Due to a vow I'd made I'd not been eating pork for almost 20 years now, finding a good tasting pork free zong zi is very difficult, most of them were expensive with not much fillings except for glutinous rice.

So 4 years ago, I decided to make myself, using good ingredients, replacing pork with scallop following a pork zong zi recipe, and I used split mung beans instead of black eyed peas like my Ah Ma's.

The difficult part in making zong zi is not in preparing the ingredients, but in the wrapping. The 1st year I made them, it took me so long just to wrap them properly and secure them with strings (yes, most of them have to be tied with 2 strings or more!); and about 1/4 of them burst open during boiling. 2nd year was better, but still took me a long time, and a couple still burst opened.

Last year, I watched this recording from Wendy Kong, and that's when I really learnt how to wrap them properly. With right technique, I spent less time wrapping them, they are better secured and fewer zong zi unwrapped itself during boiling.

Last Sunday, while the whole world is celebrating Father's Day, I decided to use that free day to make some.

This is the recipe I used, adapted to our taste over the years.

(Estimate to make about 30 zong zi, but can be more or less depending on the size the zong zi, so usually I'll prepare more ingredient except for rice and split mung beans, mission is accomplished when the rice is all used up)

Ingredients:
1kg glutinous rice (rinse and soak in water for ~4hrs）
500g split mung beans (rinse and soak in water for 3hrs, then drain thoroughly)
30 chestnuts (soak overnight, pick out the skin and boil until soft about 1hr)
hand full of dried shrimp (rinse and soak in water for 10mins then drain, then fry till fragrant)
30 dried small scallop (rinse and soak in water for 20mins then drain, then lightly fry till fragrant)
30 salted egg yolks
30 mushrooms (I soak overnight, then stew them in some sugar, salt and oyster sauce)
60 bamboo leaves (soak overnight, wiped and clean each leave and I usually prepare more just in case any of them are torn)
30 strings

Spices for the rice
9 tbs oil
12 cloves garlic (remove skin and chop)
15 shallots (remove skin and slice them thinly)
3 star anise (rinse)
6 tsp oyster sauce
1 1/2 tsp five-spice powder
6tsp light soy sauce
6 tsp sugar
4 1/2 tsp salt

For the rice
1. Heat up oil in wok, stir-fry garlic, shallot and star anise until fragrant. Add in oyster sauce and stir until fragrant. Add in drained glutinous rice and stir well.
2. Add five spice powder, stir fry until fragrant. Lastly add in soy sauce, sugar and salt, stir evenly. Set aside.

Wrapping and cooking zong zi
1. Wrap and tie Zong Zi following this recording, fill the cone with a layer of glutinous rice. Add other filings, top with split mung beans and cover with another layer of glutinous rice.
2. Base a big pot few bamboo leaves (I used the torn ones), add in 2 tsp of sea salt and water (3 cm from the dumpling surface after they're placed in), bring to boil over high heat. Add zong zi, bring to boil again. Switch to medium heat, continue boiling for 2hrs.
3. Remove one to check if the rice has been thoroughly cooked at the end of 2hrs, if not cooked, continue boiling for another 15, 30mins (adjust your time accordingly based on your observation of the 1st zong zi).
4. Hang the zong zi in a well ventilated place in order to allow the water to evaporate.

In photograph, these are what we used.
















Wrapping them take some skills and will improve with practice.




Boiling them take some time.


Hang to let the water to evaporate.


Viola, home made zong zi adjusted to our taste.


Duan Wu is almost 2 weeks ago, this recipe came a little late for this year, but who said you can only eat zong zi during Duan Wu? As long as you can find the leaves, this can be made any time of the year and adjusted to your own preference.

I'd made some according to the girls' liking as well. Zara didn't want the salted egg yolk, so I made a few without yolk for her, and double the amount of mushroom. Zaria didn't want anything except a slice of mushroom.

Zaria asked as well, "Why do you make the dumpling using the same ingredients every year? Why can't you change? Like putting sausages or bacon (what she likes), and instead of green beans, why not put baked beans?" Maybe I'll accommodate her next time (but not baked beans zong zi though, that's just too YUCKS).

Soy Sauce Chicken 卤鸡

I bought a free range chicken on the weekend, and planned to cook the chicken whole. Hubs and the girls aren't a great fan of steam chicken, so I thought I'll try to make soy sauce chicken (卤鸡) instead.

I adapted the recipe from Rasa Malaysia, changing it based on what I have in the kitchen, and what I think would suit our taste more.

♥Recipe for Soy Sauce Chicken 卤鸡♥
Adapted from Rasa Malaysia.

You'll need :

For the ginger dipping sauce
2 inch ginger
2 cloves of garlic
sugar and salt to taste
1tsb oil

For the chicken
1 whole chicken 600g ~ 800g (my chicken was 600g, but I think I have enough sauce to cook a bigger chicken)
2-inch ginger (skin peeled and lightly pounded)
3 whole garlic (wash and lightly pounded)
1 stalk spring onion
2 cinnamon stick
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1 tbs Chinese wine
3 dashes white pepper powder
1/4 tsp of five spice powder
120g rock sugar
4 cups water

Method:

For the dipping sauce
1) Skin ginger and garlic
2) Blend or pound ginger and half of the garlic until fine, place in a heat prove bowl
3) Finely chop the other half of garlic
4) Heat oil in small pan and fry the finely chop garlic until fragrant
5) Pour heated garlic oil over blended ginger and garlic, add salt (~ 1/2 tsp) and sugar (~ 2tsp) according to taste, stir mixture until well combined

For the chicken
1) Clean the chicken and pat dry
2) Add all ingredients (except the chicken) into a deep pot and bring it to boil on high heat for 15 minutes.
3) Add the chicken into the pot
4) and boil over high heat for about 10 minutes.
5) Lower the heat to simmer for about 30 minutes.
6) Turn off the heat and let the chicken steeped in the soy sauce mixture for an hour to soak in the flavor
7) Unless your pot is deep enough for the sauce to cover the chicken entirely, turn the chicken during 4), 5) & 6) a couple of times so that the soy sauce will coat the chicken evenly.
8 ) Dish out the chicken and chop into pieces and serve with the dipping sauce as well as the thick soy gravy separately.

The chicken has a nice brown sheen and was tasty and fragrant.

Note : For the left over sauce, you can keep it and make soy sauce egg (滷蛋) or soy sauce tofu (滷豆腐). i.e. Simmer the shelled hard boiled egg and tofu (choose the hard tofu) in the sauce for 15mins, and serve. The sauce becomes thicker and saltier with each simmering, so use just take enough to make whatever you wanted, and (do not simmer and) keep the rest for future use.

Salt & Sesame Biscuits

*sweep away the cobwebs on this site*

Gosh, I’d been neglecting my blogs. Being busy is one, feeling sluggish is another one. Every night, when I get the kids ready for bed, I too feel like hitting the sack together with them. I'm still trying to get used to the school routine, and all the homework coaching.

I really have to buck up. Back to a recipe I wanted to share, another savoury biscuit.

When I saw this recipe, I thought I had to try it. Sesame + savoury, should be good. I have this thing about sesame, especially black sesame. So far I’d already posted 2 recipes using black sesame as the main ingredient, and then this one, it shows you how much I like black sesame.

♥Recipe for Salt & Sesame Biscuits♥
Adapted from 在家亲手烤饼干by中村佳瑞子
Make 20 pieces

You'll need : 
50g unsalted butter (leave butter out until it gets to room temparature, i.e. soft to the touch)
1/2 tsp salt (recipe calls for 3/4 tsp but it was a bit on the salty side, so I think 1/2 should be better)
2 tbs milk
20g black sesame
100g low protein or cake flour

Method : 

1. Preheat oven to 180C

2. Mix butter with soft and beat until soft and fluffy. (I used a hand whisk)

3. Whisk in the milk a little at a time until well corporated.

4. Add in black sesame, and mix well with a spatula

5. Stir in the sifted flour

6. Roll the dough out to about 6cm x 2cm block. Wrap it in cling wrap, and leave in the fridge for 30minutes.

7. Cut the dough to about 5mm pieces. Place them on a baking sheet. 

8. Bake for 15 to 18mins.

Unfortunately, sesame is not my daughters' cup of tea, so it was only the hubs and I who ate them. Less man more share, I don't mind actually.

Cheese Sticks

I made these for Chinese New Year, and my eldest absolutely loved it. She told me these are like home made Cheezles, very healthy. Ha.

We all know using best ingredients is key to baking, but sometimes, we just thought.. what if??

That's what I did this round. The first batch I baked, I used parmessan cheese in a block. It cost about RM30 for a 200g block, very expensive. Then the 2nd time, I thought, what if I used powdered parmessan, which is RM20 for 500g. More than half the savings!

Anyway, here is the recipe. If you could, use the good parmessan, that way, you can really taste the fragrant of the cheese.

♥Recipe for Cheese Sticks♥
Adapted from 在家亲手烤饼干by中村佳瑞子
Make 30 pieces
You'll Need 100g unsalted butter(soft to the touch)
20g castor sugar
1 egg (room temparature)
60g parmessan cheese (use the ones in a block and grate yourself if you can)
160g low protein flour sifted


Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Beat butter until soft and fluffy (I used a hand whisk).
3. Add it sugar and further beat until well mixed and mixture becomes pale.
4. Add in the egg, and beat until well corporated
5. Using a spatula, mix in the parmessan cheese, and then stir in the flour.
6. Wrap the dough in cling wrap, and leave in the fridge for 30minutes.
7. Cut or roll the out the dough into desired strips. Place strips on a baking sheet.
8. Bake for 15 to 18mins.

Black Sesame Sauce For Pasta

If we eat in on Sundays, dinner is always something simple.
I'd always liked the Pasta that is served in Pasta Zanmai, which has strong Japanese flavour, so I was very happy when I saw this recipe of black sesame sauce for pasta, which was written by a Japanese author.

Here is something which you can try making at home, and it's rather easy too.

♥Recipe for Black Sesame Sauce For Pasta♥

Adapted from Black Vegetable (幸福黑蔬菜 by 館野鏡子)
Make sauce enough for 2 portion of pasta


You'll need

2 tbs of ground black sesame

1 pack of Maitake Mushroom (舞菇) - I couldn't find this, so I just used Shitake instead

1 clove of garlic finely chopped

4 tbs of cream - For health reason, I used only 2 tbs

3 tbs of milk

2 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method

1) Slice the mushroom (if you are using Maitake, cut off the roots, and cut them into bite size)

2) Prepare the pasta (here I'd used spagetti) according to the instructions on the package

3) Heat the olive oil in a small sauce pan, fry garlic until fragrant. Add in the mushroom and stir fry until mushroom is cooked. Add in milk, cream, sesame powder, stir for a while, and then add in salt and pepper to taste.

4) Stir sauce into cooked pasta, and served



Although it's on the dry side (probably because I used less cream and the mushroom is not juicy), I love it. I'll try to use Maitake mushroom the next time.

Dried Shrimp Sambal / Sambal Hae Bee

I remember my maternal grandma used to make really good Sambal Hae Bee or Sambal dried shrimp. It's a sambal that goes well with almost anything, fish, chicken, vegetables either as a condiment or used it as an ingredient for cooking the dish. Served with plain rice or sprinkled on a bowl of instant noodle, it immediately adds a kick.
My maternal grandma passed away before I could learn how to make the dish from her. My mother in law makes this as well, but she being Cantonese, it tastes a little different from my maternal grandma's, her version is wetter, and less spicy.
I learn from my mother-in-law the main ingredients, and the process, and came out with my own version which is closer to my maternal grandma's.

♥Recipe for Dried Prawn Sambal / Sambal Hae Bee♥
Serves 8 for a meal, or produce enough to fill up two (jam) bottles
You'll need

250g shallot pounded or minced (I actually bought the pounded fresh shallots from the spice shop)
250g chilli pounded or minced (again, I got the pounded fresh chilli from the spice shop)
150g dried prawns
1 pc belacan or prawn paste (optional)
2 tbs sugar (or more depending on your taste)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (if you are health concious, you can reduce the oil, but the frying may get a little more difficult)


Method

1) Rinse dried shrimp under running water to clean, then soak for 30mins. After that, pound them using mortal and pestle. The sambal taste better when the shrimp is pounded. You can still use a blender, but mincing them in a blender, the shrimps are slice to small pieces so the texture is a little different.

2) Toast the piece of belacan/shrimp paste over the stove or pan until fragrant, then crush them into powder.

3) Heat oil in wok. Pour in minced shallot and chilli and fry (stirring frequently) until fragrant. Add in belacan/shrimp paste and the dried shrimp and fry some more.

4) If you are like me, who prefers the sambal to be dryer, hence keeps better, you'll need to stir and fry the mixture for about 30minutes (you can stop earlier, but the sambal will be on the wetter side). This is the toughest part. After 10 mintutes, I find my right arm began to shake, and by 20 minutes, it feels as though my arm is no longer mine. :( I normally take turns with my helper to do this bit.

5) Add in sugar and stir fry until well mixed. Add in salt or more sugar if you want.

6) Scoop out sambal to a plate. If you are bottling them (which I did with mine), wait till it's fully cooled before puting them in the sterilised bottle. It will keep for a month refrigerated.

Serves as condiment, a main dish, or as 'spice' to add into any cooking.

Happy Winter Solstice - Black Sesame Tang Yuan (芝麻湯圓)

Today is Donzhi (冬至) Festival or Winter Solstice.

Scientifically From Wikipedia it means : The winter solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the winter solstice lasts only a moment in time, the term is also a turning point to midwinter or the first day of winter to refer to the day on which it occurs. More evident to those in high latitudes, this occurs on the shortest day and longest night, when the sun's daily maximum position in the sky is the lowest.

For Chinese, this is the day we grow older and get wiser. And as a reunion dish, in most housewhole, we would either make our own tangyuan(湯圓) or glutinous rice balls; or buy the ready made ones.

I have mine made at home, so the girls can take the opportunity to participate in making the little balls as well.

I mixed some ground black saseme, small amount of black sesame seeds (to give it some crunch), sugar and some vegetable oil to make the filling.

I just mix it according to my taste. It'll become a very crumbly paste.

Then I roll about 1 tsp of the filling into balls, put them into the freezer for about an hour to harden and make them easier to wrap with the dough later.



♥Recipe and Method to Make Tang Yuan or Glutinous Rice Balls dough♥
(Make 20 small balls and 35 big balls with fillings)

1) Add 2 cups of glutinous rice ball with 1 cup of water and 2 tbs of sugar

2) Mix until the it becomes a soft dough.

3) Pinch half of the dough and drop it in boiling water to cook. The dough will rise when it's cooked. When the dough is still hot, mix it with the rest of the dough and knead until a smooth dough is formed.

To make the balls, take enough dough and roll into a ball, press it down with your palm, put a ball of sesame paste into the centre, gather the sides and pinch away access dough. Roll it to a ball.

You can either immediately drop the tang yuan into a pot of boiling water to cook soon after you made them, or place them on a floured plate and cook them in a batch later.

To make the soup, boil a pot of water with brown sugar and a smashed piece of ginger, we added screw pine or pandan leave just to get the extra flavour.

Happy Winter Sostice to everyone!
冬至快乐!