Let's make delicious Sweet Peanut Butter Glutinous Rice Balls with this super easy stuffed Tang Yuan recipe. This sweet chinese dessert is served with a sweet soy bean soup, just the perfect pairing of flavors and texture. Best part is no artificial colourings are used in this recipe, all natural and wholesome. Enjoy!
Have ready all ingredients needed to make peanut butter filling.
Roast the peanuts and then remove the skin. Next, put in grinder to blend till almost turn into powder.
Put the powdered peanut into a bowl. Add in peanut butter, sugar and melted butter. Stir and mix into a sticky paste.
Transfer the sticky paste onto plastic wrap, spread it out into a flat rectangular layer about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap it up neatly to keep the filling from drying out, and freeze for 30 minutes. Then cut and divide into smaller pieces. Roll into balls and return to chill in the refrigerator until needed.
Making Soy Bean Soup:
Put soaked soybeans into a blender or grinder. Add water and blend the soybean until almost smooth.
Pour the blended soy bean liquid into a cloth coffee filter to sieve out the soybean residue. Squeeze the coffee filter to release more of the soy milk from the residue.
Pour the soy milk into a large pot. Add in the pandan leaves. Using medium heat, bring the soy milk to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil the soy milk for 10 minutes. Then remove pandan leaves and add in sugar. Continue to boil for another 5 minutes and the soy milk is done. Set aside while we make the glutinous rice balls.
Make Glutinous Rice Dough (White Colour):
Add glutinous rice flour to a mixing bowl. Pour in boiling water while stirring with a spatula or a pair of chopsticks. Combine and knead by hand until a soft, smooth dough is formed.
Make Glutinous Rice Dough (Red Colour):
Have ready beetroot and water to make beetroot juice.
First make beetroot juice for the red colour. Cut beetroot into small pieces. Put into blender, add water and blend until smooth. Strain to extract the beetroot juice.
Add glutinous rice flour to a mixing bowl. Pour in boiling beetroot juice while stirring with a spatula or a pair of chopsticks. Combine and knead by hand until a soft, smooth red dough is formed.
Make Glutinous Rice Dough (Green Colour):
Have ready pandan leaves and water.
First make pandan juice for the green colour. Cut pandan leaves into small pieces and put into blender. Add water and blend until smooth. Strain to extract the green pandan juice.
Add glutinous rice flour to a mixing bowl. Pour in boiling pandan juice while stirring with a spatula or a pair of chopsticks. Combine and knead by hand until a soft, smooth green dough is formed.
Place the white dough, red colour dough and green colour dough on a plate.
Roll them into round logs. From the round logs, cut the dough into small pieces, about 1 inch long for all the white, red and green colour dough.
Make Glutinous Rice Balls:
Remove the peanut butter filling from refrigerator.
Take a piece of the cut dough, roll it into a ball and then shape it into a little bowl by pressing into the center. Put a piece of filling into the well and pinch the dough over the opening to seal the filling in. Roll it around in your palms a bit to smooth out the seam, and the tong jyun is complete! Repeat with the rest of the dough and peanut butter filling.
Repeat the same with the rest of the dough and peanut butter filling.
Place the glutinous rice balls on a floured plate. And we are ready to cook the glutinous rice balls.
Cook Glutinous Rice Balls:
To cook glutinous rice balls, first boil a large pot of water. There needs to be enough water to completely cover all of the tong jyun. When the water has come to a rolling boil, carefully place the glutinous rice balls into the pot.(In batches)
The glutinous rice balls are cooked when they float to the surface, which should take about 3-5 minutes. When the glutinous rice balls start to float, pour in a little water into the ball. Allow the glutinous rice balls to continue cooking till they start to float again, another 1 minute. Then scoop up the cooked glutinous rice balls.
Prepare a bowl of ice water. Transfer the cooked glutinous rice balls into the ice water bath with slotted spoon. Leave for a minute before scooping out the tang yuan.
Portion out the cooked glutinous rice balls into serving bowl and ladle the sweet soup over it and serve.
The thinness of the filling will help it cool down faster, and the rectangular shape will make it easy to divide and cut.
Use hot water to mix with glutinous rice floor to form a dough. Hot water makes the dough more pliable and easier to knead. This will ensure the filling will not leaked out during cooking. Glutinous rice flour is responsible for the soft and chewiness of the tang yuan.
When transferring the sticky peanut paste filling onto plastic wrap, be sure to spread it out into a flat rectangular layer about 1/2 inch thick. The thinness of the filling will help it cool down faster, and the rectangular shape will make it easy to divide and cut.
Be sure to freeze the filling for easier handling when wrapping the glutinous rice balls.
Use a large pot to boil water. There needs to be enough water to completely cover all the tang yuan. Only add the tang yuan when the water has come to a rolling boil. Stir occasionally to ensure the glutinous rice balls do not stick together.
Transfer the cooked tang yuan into ice water bath. This will stop the cooking process and make the glutinous rice balls to shrink just a bit, and keep them from sticking together in the sweet soup.