Osmanthus Tang Yuan 桂花汤圆

Tang Yuan or Glutinous rice dumplings is a traditional must have dessert in our Chinese family. This is served during the Chinese Winter Solstice Festival or called 'Dongzhi' (冬至）which symbolises reunion and you're a year older by eating the tang yuan. The main ingredient is glutinous rice flour and in olden days, the rice flour is made into colourful plain rice balls. But nowadays you can find that there are many different types of sweet filling in the rice balls and these are readily available in the supermarkets the whole year through.

Not to waste the leftover black sesame tau sar (black sesame paste) from the Mooncake festival, I used it as filling in the Tang Yuan. I also boiled the sweet soup with dried osmanthus flower to give a sweet nice flavour. If you're too lazy to boil the sweet soup, you can just drizzle some osmanthus sugar syrup over it and serve them like mochi.

Osmanthus Tang Yuan

桂花汤圆

Ingredients:

     250g Glutinous rice flour
     1/2 cup Water for dough
     few drops of rose pink colouring
     150g Black sesame tau sar , form into small round balls

     Osmanthus Sweet Soup
     2 slices Ginger  (thin slices)
     1 litre Water
     80g Rock sugar
     1 heapful tbsp Dried osmanthus flower

     Method:

• To cook the osmanthus sweet soup, add ginger, sugar and dried osmanthus flowers to boil and reduce heat to simmer for 5-8 minutes. Cover with lid and set aside. Boil osmanthus sweet soup again before serving.
• Add flour into a large bowl. Gradually add water and knead the dough until soft, smooth, kneadable and the dough does not stick to the hands.
• Divide dough into two portions. Add 2-3 drops rose pink colouring into one portion and knead until colour is well distributed.
• Pinched off pieces of both dough (pink and white) together and form well. Flatten the dough a little with your thumb and wrap the black sesame tau sar into it,  then roll between palms of both hands to form round balls.
• Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the tang yuan into the boiling water and cook until they float to the surface. Transfer them immediately to a bowl of room temperature water until cooled or ready to serve.
• To serve, add tang yuan to a serving bowl and ladle the sweet soup over or place tang yuan on a serving plate and drizzle some osmanthus sugar syrup over it.

**Recipe adapted from NoobCook Recipe with slight adjustments。Thanks Wiffy for sharing this recipe.

• 先煮桂花糖水：将姜片，糖和桂花干放在水中煮开，滚后转小火焖5-8分钟。上盖备用。（食时糖水须煮开）
• 将糯米粉放在大碗中，慢慢加入水分，先混合，只要把糯米粉团揉软，光滑和不粘手即可。
• 把糯米粉团分成两份，将红色素加入一粉团中（2-3滴即可）搓均匀。
• 捏出一小块白和红糯米面团混合在一起，在掌心揉成球状，用拇指在球顶压一小窝，放入黑芝麻豆沙，用手指将窝口逐渐捏拢，再放在掌心中轻轻搓圆。
• 烧开水，将包好的汤圆下锅煮至浮起，捞起汤圆转入另一碗备好的（煮过）冷水中以免汤圆粘在一起。
• 食用时将汤圆放入碗中，加上桂花糖水或淋上一点桂花糖浆。