Sesame Balls (Deep Fried Glutinous Rice Balls / Jian Dui)

One of the popular Dim Sum my family loves to eat is Jian Dui or commonly known as Sesame Balls. It is a deep fried glutinous rice balls coated with sesame seeds and filled with some sweet paste. The paste can be red bean paste, peanut paste or black sesame seeds paste.  

This Dim Sum has been in my "to do" list for more than two years! Eventually I laid my hands to make one, thanks to some friends who always raise the bar in their kitchen creations and inspired me to do my best. You know who you are ^^

The perfect sesame balls to me has to be with a perfect round shape while it is out from the hot oil and I like my sesame balls to have the chewy texture. I'm using China Sichuan Food's Sesame Balls recipe.

Yield: 18 pieces

Ingredients:
1.5 cups glutinous rice flour
80g sugar
100ml water (10ml more for adjusting, include water for starter dough)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup roasted white sesame seeds
60g red bean paste
water for dipping
some glutinous rice flour for dusting
oil enough to do deep frying

Method:
1. Prepare starter dough. Take 2 tbsp glutinous rice flour and mix with 10ml water, knead to smooth. (Add a few drops of water if the dough is too dry)

In a small saucepan, bring some water to boil, cook the starter dough for 2 to 3 mins. Prepare a bowl of ice water, when the starter dough is ready, transfer the dough and soak in the ice water. Set aside for later use.

2. Prepare main dough. In a large mixing bowl, mix the left over glutinous rice flour with sugar and baking powder. Break the starter dough into small pieces, add into the mixing bowl. Gradually add water, knead the dough to smooth.

Shape the dough into a long log, divide into 18 portions, shape into small balls. Shape the balls into small bowl, wrap in 1/2 tsp red bean paste, seal up.

Prepare two bowls, one with some water and the other with white sesame seeds. Dip a dough ball into the water and let it roll over the sesame seeds, use the hand to press on the dough ball several times so the sesame seeds is able to stick firmly on the dough. 

3. Prepare to deep fry. Heat up oil (at least 2 inch height) in a saucepan, when you dip a pair of bamboo chopstick into the oil, you can see small bubbles appear around the bamboo chopstick means the oil is ready for frying. Lower a few pieces of dough balls into the hot oil, keep turning and pressing the dough balls, until it expands and double its size or until the sesame balls turned lightly golden brown. Transfer the sesame balls on a kitchen paper to drain the excess oil, let it cool down a bit before consume.