Glutinous rice dumplings, or tang yuan (汤圆), are traditionally snacked on during the Chinese Winter Solstice Festival and on the 15th (final) day of Chinese New Year. It is said that the little balls nestled together in a bowl symbolises family closeness and togetherness – very fitting for reunions and festive gatherings!
Made using soft glutinous rice flour for that delightful chewy factor, the balls are often filled with a sweet paste before being cooked in a sweet ginger soup. Popular dumpling fillings include ground black sesame, red bean paste and peanut sugar. While this sweet dessert is common, savoury versions also exist and are popular among families from the Southern regions of China.
These bouncy white pillows of chewy goodness provide a tasty textural sensation of gritty peanut and melt-in-the-mouth sugar when you bite into them. Some like to dye the white dough various colours (usually red, green and yellow) to make the dumplings stand out, but I think they look more attractive without gaudy food colouring and make for an elegant after-feast dessert.
This recipe has been moved to our gorgeous new website at milkanddust.com!
Click here to view the full recipe for these delicious Homemade Tang Yuan Glutinous Rice Dumplings!
ANGIE & JAMES DO STUFF 
Yummy! Love tang yuans! Those pictures are making me hungry! 👍
I tried making black sesame ones but failed as the filling was not hardened enough and thus was very challenging to wrap them with the glutinous rice dough.
Ahhh, did you try chilling the black sesame filling in the fridge for a few hours? That may have helped it to harden! Maybe even freezing would have helped! :)
Yeah should’ve froze them, will try when I make them again, cheers! 😉
What a nice recipe! Very interesting ingredients and love the final result!
Those look great! http://www.bygracecakes.com
These look amazing!! I really want to try making them, thanks for the recipe.
How I loved these in China!
Hi Angela – the peanut filling looks delicious! Thanks for linking my recipe :)
No problem, Katina! I found the recipe very easy to work with! Thank you for the inspiration! :) xx
how many tang yuan does this recipe makes