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Sweet rice flour dumplings or Tang Yuan (汤圆) in Chinese feature an extra soft and smoother water-milled sweet rice flour wrapper. They are one of Huai Yang Cuisine‘s classics. I’m going to show you all the tips & tricks on how to wrap sweet rice flour dumplings at home like a pro!
Tang Yuan {汤圆} is also called Yuan Xiao {元宵} in Chinese. Yuan Xiao Jie {元宵节}, or Lantern Festival, occurs on the fifteen of the Lunar calendar January. It is a tradition to eat Yuan Xiao {元宵} in celebrating Yuan Xiao Jie {元宵节}.
Born and growing up in Suzhou, Tang Yuan is one of my hometown food favorites. I like both the savory version featuring pork filling and the sweet Tang Yuan featuring red bean paste or sesame filling.
How to Wrap Tang Yuan {汤圆} Like a Pro?
Tip No.1 is to prepare optimal sweet rice flour wrapper
Because sweet rice flour doesn’t contain gluten, the dough is not as easy to handle as the one made of all-purpose flour. Make a sweet rice flour dough soft enough to shape, but also stiff enough to stay in shape like pottery.
Read here to learn more about how to make the perfect wrappers for Tang Yuan {sweet rice dumplings}.
Tip No.2 is to shape and wrap one sweet rice flour dumpling at a time
Sweet Rice flour is trickier to handle compared to all-purpose or wheat flour since it does not contain any gluten. Therefore, we make sweet rice flour wrappers and wrap sweet rice flour dumplings in completely different ways.
For example, we typically can make a small batch of all-purpose flour dumpling wrappers, and then wrap dumplings. But for sweet rice flour dumplings, we shape one wrapper and immediately wrap it into a dumpling.
Tip No.3 is to be gentle and patient when squeezing the sweet rice flour wrapper
The gentleness goes a long way when it comes to handling sweet rice flour dough. The force is so gentle that you barely feel you are squeezing, but surely & slowly the soft sweet rice flour dough is being shaped up during the process, little by little.
Your patience will pay off too. Take the time to squeeze the wrapper gently & slowly. The sweet rice flour wrapper will get shaped up beautifully. If you rush, the sweet rice flour wrapper turns into a mess.
Last but not least, keep your hands damp
When dealing with sweet rice flour or rice flour, the secret is using wet hands so that rice flour dough stays in good shape.
Do you like dumplings and buns? Make sure you also check out:
How to Wrap Sweet Rice Dumplings Tang Yuan {汤圆}
Sweet Rice Dumplings, or Tang Yuan {汤圆} or Yuan Xiao {元宵} in Chinese, are one of the Huai Yang Cuisine classics, featuring water-milled sweet rice flour wrapper which is extra soft and smooth, just the right amount of chewiness, and naturally delicious. Learn how to wrap delicious sweet rice flour dumplings using homemade wrappers via the easy-to-follow tutorial.
Ingredients
For Sweet Rice Flour Wrappers:
- 454 g {1 lb} water-milled sweet rice flour, Shui Mo Nuo Mi Fen {水磨糯米粉}
- 410 g water, room temperature, filtered or previously boiled, plus additional few tablespoons if needed
For Pork Filling:
- 1 lb ground pork, home ground preferred
- 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
- 1 tbsp natural soy sauce, or dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp Zhenjiang vinegar
- 1 tbsp Da Jiang {大酱}, fermented bean paste
- 1 tbsp arrowroot flour
- 1 1/2 tsp cane sugar, organic unrefined preferred
- 1/4 tsp star anise powder
- 1/2 tsp coriander seeds powder, freshly ground preferred
- 1/2 tsp ginger powder
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 stalk of green onions, finely chopped
For Red Bean Paste Filling:
- 1 cup of dried adzuki beans, also known as Chi Xiao Dou {赤小豆}
- 70 g organic coconut oil, see notes
- 25 g cane sugar, organic preferred
- 25 g Turbinado sugar, also known as "sugar in the raw"
For Sesame Filling:
- 1 1/4 cup roasted black sesame seeds, about 150 g
- 5 tbsp avocado oil
- 5 tbsp cane sugar, organic unrefined
Instructions
- While your left hand holds the sweet rice flour wrapper, use your right hand to place about 1 tbsp filling in the center of the wrapper. See notes.
- Your right-hand fingers bend and hover over 1/3 to the top of the dumpling area, gently squeeze using your right-hand angle area connecting your index finger and thumb.
- In the meantime, your left hand rotates the dumpling. Use your left-hand thumb to help push down the filling and help them contained inside the wrapper if needed
- Continue to rotate and gently squeeze, and gradually move your right hand upward to seal the dumpling.
- When you reach the top, continue to gently squeeze while rotating until it forms a needle shape and you completely seal the dumpling
- Hooray! You just wrapped a sweet rice flour dumpling!
- See Pork Tang Yuan{Rou Tang Yuan 肉汤圆} or Sesame Tang Yuan {红豆汤圆}.
Notes
- Check out how to make sweet rice flour dumpling wrappers here.
- When you are new, start with a smaller amount of filling. You may gradually add more fillings as you get more familiar with the process.
- The tip is going extremely gentle when squeezing the wrapper, you may not feel you are squeezing at all, but rest assured, slowly and surely the wrapper is closing up.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 10 Serving Size 4 Tang YuanAmount Per Serving Calories 319Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 3.9gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7.2gCholesterol 70mgSodium 457mgCarbohydrates 39gFiber 1.4gSugar 2.5gProtein 13g
Nutrition calculation is provided by"NutritionValue.org" to the best of my knowledge. Nevertheless, I use lots of homemade, all natural, unprocessed, unrefined raw & wholesome ingredients which are not always readily available in the referenced source. Therefore the calculation may not always be accurate.
