Rose & Milk Glutinous Rice Ball

Yuan Xiao 元宵, the last day of the lunar or Chinese New Year, is also known as oriental Valentine's Day. To celebrate this special occasion, I prepared tangyuan 汤圆 in heart shape 🧡💜💛instead of the usual spherical shape. To give these plain glutinous rice balls a more interesting flavour, the purple ones were added with rose flavour, while the white ones were added with milk powder.

The tangyuan were served in pandan and cane sugar flavour syrup 😋😋

The chewy glutinous rice balls are not easy to digest especially for elderly. So, I prefer to serve this dessert in very small portion 😊

Video of the dessert

Ingredients

Milk Glutinous Rice Ball (56g)

31g glutinous rice flour

2g caster sugar

3g milk powder

5g hot water

18 to 20 g water

Rose Glutinous Rice Ball (59g)

30g glutinous rice flour

1 tsp purple sweet potato powder

2g caster sugar

A little rose flavouring

5g hot water

18 to 20g water

Pandan Cane Sugar Syrup

25 to 30g raw sugar

180g pandan water

Directions

1. Mix the dry ingredients under the Milk Glutinous Rice Ball, followed by hot water. Gradually add in the 18 to 20g of water. Knead the dough to get a smooth, pliable, and not-sticky texture. Adjust the texture by adding more glutinous rice flour or water.

Cover and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.

2. Mix the dry ingredients and rose flavoring under the Milk Glutinous Rice Ball, followed by hot water. Gradually add about 18g of water. 

Knead the dough to get a smooth, pliable, and not-sticky texture. Adjust the texture by adding more glutinous rice flour or water.

Cover and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.

3. Divide the two dough into smaller portions of about 6 g each, and roll them into balls.

4. Use a tapered edge plastic blade to push down from the top of a dough ball to create a cleave. At the same time, gently push in the base to create a sharper end. Shape the dough to replicate heart shape 💜🤍 using the tips of your fingers.

You may have to try a few times to get to the right shape. Just shape the failed dough into a ball again to repeat the trying 😉

5. Boil some water in a pot with a blade of pandan leaf.

When the pandan water boils, add about 180 to 200g of the pandan water to the 25 to 30g raw sugar in a beaker. Stir to dissolve the raw sugar. Set aside.

Add the shaped dough to the remaining slow boiling pandan water. Stir regularly to prevent the dough from sticking to the base of the pot.

The glutinous rice balls will float when cooked. 

Transfer the cooked glutinous rice balls to a bowl of icy water.

6. Scoop the glutinous rice balls to the serving cups.

Add the pandan syrup water from Step 5 to the serving cups. Serve and enjoy 😋

If you're not serving the dessert immediately, you can keep the glutinous rice balls and pandan syrup in separate containers. Combine the two when you are about to serve them. This will prevent the glutinous rice balls from becoming soggy over time 😉